Project Details
The objective of this project is to develop a software-based tool that provides environmental planners, environmental compliance specialists, modelers, scientific researchers, synthetic trainers, and others, with access to scientific data and information on marine species, especially those protected by U.S. federal regulatory mandates. Ready access to pertinent information about a marine species, such as distribution, density, behavior, and essential habitats, is vital for making informed science-based decisions, including simulation of the biological component of the marine environment. Yet, there is currently no central, comprehensive database that integrates available knowledge on marine species. U.S. Navy personnel, including mission planners, environmental compliance specialists, modelers, and scientific researchers, need ready access to such information. Currently, members of these groups must search through published scientific literature, gray reports, or personal archives and databases of individual researchers–efforts that are labor-intensive, time-consuming and often expensive.
This is a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)-funded project, sponsored by the U.S. Navy Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS). We have successfully completed Phase I and Phase II tasking and are transitioning into full-scale demonstration mode in Phase III.