Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/R006903/1
Hydrodynamic modelling for sustainable aquaculture : Placement with Marine Scotland Science
Fellowship Award
- Fellow:
- Dr S Waldman, Heriot-Watt University, Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
- Grant held at:
- Heriot-Watt University, Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Agricultural systems
- Aquaculture
- Coastal & Waterway Engineering
- Coastal Hydrodynamics
- Ocean Circulation
- Ocean modelling
- Shelf ocean dynamics
- Abstract:
- Aquaculture is a major part of the Scottish economy, turning over #1.8bn annually and employing around 8000 people, predominantly in rural areas. Scottish salmon is exported to over 50 countries at a rate of 160,000 tonnes/year [1]. To operate and to effectively regulate aquaculture, it is important to understand the water circulation around fish farms. This is because the currents affect both the movement of the larvae of pests such as sea lice between farms, and the spread of treatment agents that are used to control such pests. Relatively simple models exist for this purpose in some locations, but they cover only limited areas and so their use for connectivity studies at a regional scale is limited. The Scottish Government funded the development of a set of new state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models of the wider Scottish continental shelf waters, known as the Scottish Shelf Model (SSM). This has a resolution of approx. 1km over most of its domain, as well as nested higher-resolution (~50-100m) nested models in selected areas. The development of these models is managed by Marine Scotland Science and is freely available to the marine science community and stakeholders. In June 2017 Marine Scotland Science held a workshop with industrial stakeholders to discuss the future direction of work on this model, and received strong guidance from members of the aquaculture industry that additional sub-models, of even higher resolution, would be beneficial for certain regions including Shetland and the Clyde estuary. By having these models nested within the larger SSM it would be possible to gain both high-resolution local information, and indications of where farms in different regions may affect one another. This proposed project is a partnership between Heriot-Watt University, Marine Scotland Science, and the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre. It will develop new fine-resolution regional hydrodynamic models, and integrate these into the SSM framework. These models will be validated by comparison with new and existing measurements of current flow. State-of-the-art computational tools will be used to simulate larval transport within and between regions, providing information that can be used by operators and regulators to improve the performance, profitability and environmental footprint of the Scottish aquaculture industry. The new models will also be of interest to academic stakeholders; by providing new information on the circulation of water at a fine scale they could inform work in fields such as marine ecology, oceanography, and renewable energy. References [1] http://scottishaquaculture.com/scottish_aquaculture_aboutus/scottish-aquaculture/ (accessed 25/06/2017)
- NERC Reference:
- NE/R006903/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Knowledge Exchange Fellowships
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Innovation Placements
This fellowship award has a total value of £48,420
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | DI - Staff | Exception - T&S |
|---|---|---|
| £484 | £44,748 | £3,188 |
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