Innovation Award for Marlan Maritime Technologies

UK-based Marlan Maritime Technologies has created a bespoke solution for port and coastal vessel traffic management using a combination of radar and video camera remote sensing techniques. They were selected as winners for the Merseyside Innovation Awards based on a product that combines science developed at the NOC, Southampton with industrial know-how to provide a radar-based solution to coastal hydrodynamic and bathymetric monitoring.

Using radar images of the sea surface and data collected by sensors recording weather conditions, tidal elevations and vessel traffic movements in coastal areas, including shipping channels, combine to provide efficient nearshore monitoring, which can be used by shipping businesses, coastal engineers and scientists.

Survey of Intertidal Zones

The NOC is currently part of a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Marlan Maritime Technologies Ltd to further develop this innovative remote sensing service for the survey of intertidal zones.

The KTP builds on the existing collaborative R&D between Marlan Maritime, the NOC and the University of Liverpool, which included a successful European Regional Development Fund collaboration as part of the University’s Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (CGE).

The NOC’s Dr Paul Bell and KTP Associate Dr Cai Bird currently work with Marlan to develop and test software that will ultimately provide improvements to the efficiency of delivering products, services and data to the coastal engineering industry. These services will enable more cost effective monitoring, design and building of coastal protection schemes.

Dr Paul Bell commented, saying that the ability to conduct intertidal beach surveys every couple of weeks using a robust and automated remote sensing system will provide an unprecedented window on the way key areas of coastline respond to storms, recover in calmer weather, and evolve following any coastal engineering works. The current KTP with Marlan is accelerating this development from the realms of a research project to a fully-fledged commercial service.

Marlan Maritime Ltd won over the panel of judges and won the interactive audience vote on the night.