Tethys (database)

Tethys (http://tethys.pnnl.gov) is an online knowledge management system that provides the marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) and offshore wind (OSW) energy communities with access to information and scientific literature on the environmental effects of MHK and OSW developments.^[1] Named after the Greek titaness of the sea, the goal of the Tethys database is to promote environmental stewardship and the advancement of the offshore renewable energy community. The website has been developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO).^[2][3] Tethys hosts information and activities associated with an international collaboration known as Annex IV, formed to examine the environmental effects of ocean energy devices and projects.

Content overview

As industry, academia, and government seek to develop new renewable energy sources from moving water and offshore wind, there exists an opportunity to gather potential environmental effects of these technologies. Tethys aims to evaluate and measure these effects to ensure that aquatic and avian animals, habitats, and ecosystem functions are not adversely affected, nor that important coastal and ocean uses are displaced. Additionally, Tethys houses information about the impacts of severe weather on ocean renewable energy devices. While these studies are presently scattered among different organizations, Tethys attempts to create a centralized hub where this information can be found.^[4] Each document is labeled with an environmental "stressor" and "receptor", which categorize the type of potential harm and the affected area of the environment. The categories and the technology types covered are listed below:

Annex IV

Annex IV is a collaborative project among member nations of the IEA Ocean Energy Systems (OES) to examine environmental effects of ocean energy projects and research. There is currently a wide range of ocean energy technologies and devices in development around the world; the few data that exist on environmental effects of these technologies are dispersed amongst different countries and developers. While the US Department of Energy was the operating agent, currently (as of June 2015) 13 out of 23 national involved in the OES initiative are involved: Canada, China, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[5] There have been two phases of this initiative:

Phase 1: 2010-2013

While encouraging collaboration, products included two international workshops, a report, and a collection of metadata forms on project sites and research studies. The first workshop was held in Dublin Ireland in September 2010, drawing 58 international experts from various backgrounds to identify key interactions between device and environment, look into data collection details, and to scope out case studies for the report. The second workshop was also held in Dublin Ireland in October 2012, drawing 55 international experts from nine countries to review Tethys for content and functionality, to provide feedback on the report, and to guide future Annex IV activities. The final report focused on three case studies:^[6]

1. The Interaction of Marine Animals with Turbine Blades
2. Effects of Acoustic Output from Tidal and Wave Devices on Marine Animals
3. The Environmental Effects of Marine Energy Development on Physical Systems

The metadata collection effort included project sites that were performing environmental baseline studies and/or monitoring studies and relevant research studies that were underway. Over 150 forms were collected, providing details on nearly every project that has been deployed to date and on the most current research being conducted. All of this metadata is hosted in Tethys along with associated reports and publications.

Phase 2: 2014-2016

Due to the success of the first phase, a second phase was suggested by all parties involved.^[7] The primary vision was to identify analysts for each country involved, who could act as representative point of contact for all the Annex IV activities. These activities include another workshop, a state of the science report in 2016, the update of existing metadata forms, the collection of new metadata forms, and the expansion of Tethys to support a community of experts intent on progressing the offshore renewable energy industry with healthy environmental stewardship.

Features

Additional functionality is regularly added to Tethys, often in response to peer reviews from field experts and general comments from users. However, there are primary functions of Tethys that allow users to experience community, search through the data, and learn more about the new and exciting field of offshore renewable energy.

Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base is primarily displayed as a table view that utilizes the alphabetical column sorting, facet box selection, and keyword search to allow users to easily sift through the information. Over 2500 media entries relevant to the environmental effects of offshore renewable energy are available, consisting of journal articles, reports, websites, conference papers, presentations, workshop articles, theses, books, book sections, videos, datasets, magazine articles, project site information, and research study information. This is a growing database, where relevant materials that are newly published or discovered will be added.^[8]

Map Viewer

The interactive Map Viewer shows the locations of geo-tagged project sites, research studies, and documents gathered from across the world. More than 650 items appear on the map, a subset of the information available in the Knowledge Base. Users may interact with the map with zooming and panning functions, facet box selection, and a keyword search. Selecting one of the icons will reveal a specific page with more in-depth information. This is a growing database, where relevant materials that are newly published or discovered will be added.^[9]

Connections

In an effort to connect members of this growing community, Tethys is meant to act as a hub, providing resources and contacts for those looking for more information. One way is by providing links to similar databases that may have different approaches to viewing data, or that may provide a different focus on the data collected. Another page lists summaries of the regulatory frameworks in many of the major countries, providing links to agencies and laws rather than going into detail. Finally, there are lists of experts and interested stakeholders from around the globe.

Broadcasts

Tethys also houses multimedia in the broadcast tab, meant to engage users in the Tethys community. Everything is publicly available and easily searchable.

• Environmental Webinars - hosts audio/video files pertaining to the environmental effects of offshore renewable energy.
• Conferences and Workshops - hosts slides and audio/video files of any presentations granting permission at major conferences and workshops.
• Expert Forums - On a quarterly basis, a small invited group of experts gather to discuss a hot topic in an informal setting, while the video/audio of these sessions are publicly available.
• Tethys Blasts - A biweekly email is sent out to the public, informing them of new publications available on Tethys and current news in the OSW and MHK fields.
• Tethys Stories - Stories to learn more about organizations, events, ideas, and news from the perspective of someone closely involved with the topic.

Technical overview

Tethys began in 2011 hosted on a Semantic MediaWiki platform,^[10] but migrated to Drupal in early 2013. Drawing on many years of experience and systems development, developers have tailored the website to allow for semantic searches and the organization of data through tagging individual files, documents, and multimedia products. Content is regularly monitored and curated, though suggestions from the user community are always welcome.

Future plans

While Tethys is already internationally recognized as a leading resource for information on environmental impacts of offshore renewable energy, upcoming goals are to build a strong community that can address environmental concerns by pooling international experience and information. This will involve activities such as regular blogging, quarterly webinars, online expert forums, and social media.^[11]

See also

• Wind power
• renewable energy
• Offshore wind power
• Marine current power
• Alternative energy
• Wave power
• Environmental effects of wind power
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• United States Department of Energy

External links

• Tethys Homepage
• IEA Ocean Energy Systems Work Programme

References