A BENEFIT-COST-ANALYSIS OF A REGIONAL GLOBAL OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM -SEAWATCH-EUROPE

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is a joint effort of the Inte rgovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the World Mete orological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Pro gramme (UNEP). GOOS will provide long-term ocean data based on a globa lly coordinated strategy. These data will be used for climate forecast ing. The Seawatch Europe project of the European Marine environment pr ogramme (EUROMAR) is an on-line monitoring and surveillance system of the North Sea and is a regional component of GOOS. Seawatch forecasts and environmental data are distributed to public authorities, aquacult ure/fish farming, commercial fishing, tourist industry, research insti tutes, navy and coastguards. The Seawatch system is now operative in N orway and Thailand. It is at present installed in Spain, and Indonesia Seawatch has aroused considerable interest in Sweden, The Netherlands , Greece, Italy, Mexico, China, Korea and the USA. In this paper some of the results of a benefit-cost analysis of the Seawatch System are d iscussed. So far the main revenues occur in the oil and gas exploitati on, commercial fisheriess and fish farming, tourism, meteorological fo recasting, crises management etc. It is calculated that in the North S ea, a delay of 105 minutes in startup of the productional of a well wi ll cover the costs of Seawatch. The global potential for the Seawatch System in the Exclusive Economic Zone is an estimated 50 units of ten buoys with a running cost of $100 million per year. A strong point of the Seawatch system is that it is commercially off-the-shelf technolog y. Seawatch is, however, still competing with academic and governmenta l institutions for funds when viewed as either a research venture or a n operational programme. It is important for public authorities at the national and international level to participate in Seawatch and help to steer it towards the potential it was designed to fulfil namely a b uilding stone of GOOS. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd