Systems for metocean nowcasting, forecasting and hindcasting are being developed to satisfy a growing need for information on the state of the coastal ocean. Their design follows up closely the implementation of operational oceanography for the blue ocean. Such systems incorporate monitoring networks and numerical modelling.
About the coastal environment, numerous and new questions arise: at this scale, tide and sea state contribute to the assessment of the physical state of the ocean; moreover, an operational system for the coastal zone must provide parameters assessing and forecasting the fast dynamic of the coastal marine biogeochemistry, inducing turbidity, algal blooms or microbiological contamination.
Decision support tools for impact studies or for water quality control have already been developed for these applications, but an increasing number of stakeholders and even the public is waiting for these parameters to be processed and put out in an operational mode.
