Alliance in data science will make available data on mollusc aquaculture and coastal development of Chiloé, Tongoy and Concepción

Data Observatory and the Millennium Institute for Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS), signed a scientific collaboration agreement that seeks to make available data and processed satellite images, which will strengthen coastal research in these areas. The first joint project will refer to the study of the effects of environmental variability on shellfish aquaculture in the inland sea of ​​Chiloé and the bays of Tongoy and Concepción.

With the purpose of building synergies and promoting the development of capacities in data science applied to shellfish aquaculture, artisanal fisheries and coastal development, the Data Observatory Foundation (DO) and the Millennium Institute for Coastal Socio-ecology (SECOS) recently signed a research collaboration agreement.

Rodrigo Roa, executive director (I) of Data Observatory, explained that «this agreement has as its main objective the development of an alliance of institutional collaboration, for the development of scientific activities, research and others, through the exchange of experiences and knowledge. In this way, the alliance focus will remain on the application of data science to frontier research and decision-making on projects with an impact on coastal development”.

For his part, Bernardo Broitman, coordinator of mollusk aquaculture at SECOS, added that “this agreement is mutually beneficial for both institutions, since there are more than 5 years of public historical data for Chiloé and close to 10 years for Tongoy Bay. Now, thanks to this alliance with the DO, the scientific community will have faster and more direct access to processed data and images, offering greater use of the computing capacity of the Data Observatory to analyze large volumes of data.”

Based on this agreement, DO could become a data portal for the scientific community, integrating the work of SECOS, the Catholic University of the Santísima Concepción (UCSC) and the Upwell Millennium Nucleus, the latter with the priority of systematizing large volumes. of archaeological data. The DO would also be integrated as a critical actor in the formation of human capital in FAIR, a concept that promotes the public use of accessible and interoperable data, in an easy, transparent and executive way.

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Carlos Lara, collaborating researcher at SECOS and academic at UCSC, highlighted the scope of this alliance for socioecology, which integrates the human being in the study of coastal systems and their interaction with different variables that affect the use of these natural resources and their impact on the development and quality of life of coastal communities. «Our first project refers to the environmental variability experienced by the Inland Sea of ​​Chiloé and the Tongoy and Concepción Bays respectively, analyzing the synchrony in indicators such as chlorophyll, sea surface temperature and other ocean characteristics, and how these generate breaks in marine resources for human consumption.

Álvaro Paredes, developer and data scientist at Data Observatory, highlights that “this agreement is very relevant for us, since it will allow us to extend the availability of data for the marine community, taking advantage of the experience that we have developed in other platforms with IFOP and the IDEAL center for example. Among other things, it will be interesting to explore the possibility of using DataCube Chile, to help answer the questions that the Institute is working on. It will also allow the DO to actively collaborate in training and courses on analysis and data processing aimed at the aquaculture sector”.

The interoperability of SECOS and DO data will help to better understand the past of these study areas, in order to guide new research proposals and territorial decision-making, using accurate and updated data retrieved from various repositories.

Finally, the DO-SECOS alliance will make it possible to build collaboration bridges to facilitate access to processed data, which comply with an established protocol taking into account scientific rigor. From now on, the validated data will be freely available on the Data Cube Chile platform, managed by DO together with the Australian research agency CSIRO and the Adolfo Ibáñez University (UAI).