Creative Help is developing in partnership with Strathclyde University and Nith Inshore Rescue, a new satellite driven solution to finding safe passage through shifting sands.To this day, many of the world’s estuaries remain uncharted and unsafe to navigate. Water currents, floods and storms frequently move mud and sand, shifting the location of navigable channels. Vessels operating in these dangerous areas rely on local knowledge and manual depth readings, hoping that channels have not moved since the last safe passage. As a result, areas of prime fishing, leisure and commercial traffic remain underused. For rescue services who need to navigate at speed, knowing the course of the channel is vital to reach casualties, without becoming casualties themselves.
Safe Passage is a mapping system and alert service that will aid commercial, leisure and rescue craft navigating treacherous waterways worldwide. Using satellite data from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, Safe Passage maps dangerous estuaries and automatically detects changes in channel locations. This information is then shared with seafarers via Digital Navigation Charts.
Safe Passage is being developed in partnership with Nith Inshore Rescue, a volunteer lifeboat service based on the Solway Firth in the UK, to ensure it will immediately improve the safety of our coastal waters.
Other potential applications:
- Plotting submerged hazards to update chart locations
- Predictive arrival and suggested departure times to meet the tide
- Digital warning signage for coastal areas to inform tourists
- Automated geotargeted warning information to mobile phones – “Tide warning – Get off the beach”
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