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Dr. Alan F. Blumberg and Dr. Thomas O. Herrington at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed an integrated system of oceanographic, meteorological, and vessel surveillance sensors and hydrodynamic forecasting models to allow for the real-time assessment of ocean, weather, environmental, and marine transportation conditions throughout the waters of New York and New Jersey, and the forecast of conditions in the near and long-term.

This integrated system, called The New York Harbor Observation and Prediction System (NYHOPS), will be significantly enhanced to create an operational NAvigation and Vessel SAFEty Support System (NAVSAFE) for the New York – New Jersey Harbor – defined as the region encompassing the estuarine part of the Hudson River and extending to the Sandy Hook - Rockaway Transect, and including the entire lower Harbor (Raritan Bay), Newark Bay, the Kill van Kull and Arthur Kill, and for the first time, the NJ Coastal/Back Bay Regions and NJ parts of Delaware Bay. 

The large multi-year research project funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) will increase marine transportation safety by improving our ability for risk identification and mitigation. And will be achieved by providing a real-time knowledge of currents and water properties with the proper data/model visualization graphics necessary for safe navigation and vessel operation within the NY/NJ Harbor region.

Specifically, the project will:

1. Assess liability issues associated with publically available data-/model-based navigation-support systems;
2. Create seminars and associated materials geared toward the training of vessel captains on the use of NAVSAFE;
3. Develop web-based outreach-and-education products to disseminate NY-NJ Harbor safe navigation and safety information to recreational boaters;
4. Assess risk and liability associated with missing or bad data/model forecasts to develop “graphics so useful that mariners use it regularly”;
5. Develop a path planning algorithm that provides ocean and weather conditions along a transportation route chosen by the pilots;
6. Provide in one web site real-time (nowcast) information regarding current, wave, temperature, salinity, and weather conditions in the NAVSAFE region;
7. Provide continuously-updated forecasts regarding future (out to 48-hours) conditions - current, wave, temperature, salinity, and weather;
8. Provide one new current measurement platforms mounted on Coast Guard Buoys that provide real-time observations of current vectors over depth;
9. Provide new water property information at 2 shore-based locations and from 6 mobile sensors for the purpose of supporting vessel navigation, speed and transportation route assessment;
10. Improve data assimilation and accuracy of the forecasts.