Ballast water—Tool for supporting the delimitation of a "same risk area” (39348)

A project financed by the Danish Maritime Fund via the Danish Nature Agency, to develop a decision support tool for authorities and consultants involved with the ballast water convention and measures preventing the spread of marine invasive species. The tool will support decision makers in member nations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to identify and delimit marine areas with high connectivity considering hydrography and species biology.

Identification of marine areas with high connectivity can provide a basis for granting exemptions in relation to the ballast water convention and the requirement for ships to treat ballast water before being discharged into the sea. The tool development is based on existing freeware including "IBM Lib" (DTU Aqua's own individual-based modeling system for linking individual-based models to hydrographical model data), Netlogo (a widely used IBM simulation system) and R (a statistical programming and data handling package).

Partners
DTU Aqua, National Institute of Aquatic Resources (coordinator)
Danish Meteorological Institute, Denmark
Anchor-Lab, Denmark

Funding
This project is funded by the Danish Maritime Fund via the Danish Nature Agency.

Research area: Marine Living Resources
Research area: Observation TechnologyResearch area: Population GeneticsResearch area: Ecosystem based Marine Management