Development of integrated marine monitoring network on southern coastline of Caspian sea

ABSTRACTMonitoring of water surfaces through permanent measurement of hydrodynamic and meteorological data is one of the main requirements in safe and sustainable water management. The Caspian Sea, the major surface water body in Iran, significantly affects more than 600 km of urban and industrial coastline. In the present work, an integrated marine monitoring network for the entire southern coastline of the Caspian Sea was developed. The main design concerns centered on the network measuring components and data recording, checking, filtering, gap recognition, and transferring systems. Four coastal monitoring stations were assigned, along with two regional collecting stations and one central data station for gathering, checking and delivering recorded data at different access levels. Applicable guidelines on selection of measuring devices for both shallow and deep water zones are presented herein.