Objectives:
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- To generate and regularly update information on Marine Living Resources and their relationship with the physical environment in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ);
- To periodically monitor levels of sea water pollutants for health assessment of coastal waters of India, to develop shoreline change maps for assessment of coastal erosion due to natural and anthropogenic activities;
- To develop high resolution models for ocean forecast and reanalysis system;
- To develop algorithms for validation of satellite data for coastal research and to monitor changes in the coastal research etc.
Salient Features:
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- O-SMART scheme will be implemented from 2021-2026.
- Implementation of O-SMART will help in addressing issues relating to Sustainable Development Goal-14, which aims to conserve use of oceans, marine resources for sustainable development.
- This scheme also provides necessary scientific and technological background required for implementation of various aspects of Blue Economy.
- The scheme encompasses a total of 16 sub-projects addressing ocean development activities such as Services, Technology, Resources, Observations and Science.
Overview of major components of the scheme:
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- The Marine Living Resources (MLR) programme aims to develop an ecosystem model for the management of the living resources in the Indian EEZ. It envisages survey, assessment and exploitation of the MLR and studies on the response of MLR to changes in the physical environment. The Fishery Oceanographic Research Vessel (FORV) Sagar Sampada is utilized for MLR studies.
- The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai has been implementing a nationally coordinated research programme on ‘Sea Water Quality Monitoring’ erstwhile ‘Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System’ to identify the periodical changes in seawater quality.
- Ocean advisory and information services, computational infrastructure and communication systems.
- The ‘ocean-modelling data assimilation and process specific observations’ programme aims to measure water quality parameters in the coastal waters around India in a sustained manner to understand and quantify anthropogenic perturbations on the coastal waters to help researchers in differentiating human-induced changes from natural variabilities. The ocean research vehicle Sagar Manjusha was used for such cruises during monsoon and post-monsoon seasons to understand the effect of the monsoon on the coastal water quality and ecosystem.
- Harnessing ocean energy for generating freshwater.
- Manned and unmanned underwater vehicles.
- Marine sensors, ocean electronics and acoustics
