VEAT NOTICE: Accommodation and IT costs for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring team at the University of Plymouth

Concepts

• accommodation and office
• university of plymouth
• newton abbot
• south west regional coastal monitoring team
• south west regional coastal monitoring programme
• national coastal monitoring programme
• different types of coastal monitoring data
• south west coast
• national coastal monitoring programme regions
• it costs

Location

Devon:

Description

Teignbridge District Council are acting as the lead authority for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme (SWRCMP) which is 100% funded by the Environment Agency (EA). This programme is the largest of the National Coastal Monitoring Programme regions, encompassing 2450 km of coast between Portland Bill in Dorset and Beachley Point on the border with Wales. It was established in 2006 and is in its 4th phase of EA funding (2006-2011, 2011-2016, 2016-2021, 2021-2027). The funding for this phase is over £9.5m. The programme collects different types of coastal monitoring data, including topographic beach survey data, bathymetric data, LiDAR, aerial photography and habitat mapping. The Programme also has a network of 13 directional wave buoys and tide gauges around the South West coast. This data feeds into a long term dataset showing changes to the beaches and coastline of the South West. It allows us, working with Risk Management Authorities, to better understand the processes affecting our coast ensuring that coastal defence schemes are designed based on reliable information. Our data is made available via our coastal website which is the show case for our monitoring programme. Home - SWRCMP (coastalmonitoring.org) Since 2006 the coastal monitoring team (known as Plymouth Coastal Observatory, PCO) have been based at the University of Plymouth renting two rooms, one as an office and one for their surveying equipment. The Programme’s large data archives, currently around 30Tb, are stored on the University’s system. The Programme is funded in phases, with this phase from 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2023. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have not yet signed the contract for them to host PCO from 01 April 2021 so, although this waiver is including all costs for this phase, theoretically the first two years are already owed to the University. Money has been set aside in the Programme’s budget for this.

Total Quantity or Scope

VEAT NOTICE: Option 1 – Stay at the University of Plymouth The Programme has a long standing relationship with the University built over 16 years of collaborative working and have always been based at the University. The PCO team occupy an office in the Marine Building which is one of the marine research hubs of the University. They use IT leased university equipment which comes with all cyber/virus security, support (particularly useful during the decamp for remote working during C-19), backups and safe storage for their large data archive. It also includes free access to a global portfolio of scientific journals for which individual access to a portion of this would cost >£1500 per annum. PCO have access to academic and technical staff who provide time and advice willingly. The information exchange and ability for PCO to participate in discussion forums, including the highly active Coastal Process Research Group and COAST - Coastal, Ocean And Sediment Transport team, provides them access to up-to-date research and gives additional credibility to our work. The workshop/equipment store comes with access to the university’s tools and technical assistance – this was used to design and build the CoastSnap stands at cost price. The team’s survey area covers South Devon and South Cornwall so being based in Plymouth facilities that. Option 2 – Move to another site in Plymouth Cheaper rentals are available in Plymouth, however few come with the IT infrastructure, storage and IT servicing solutions and the team would lose access to the academic network they so greatly benefit from. Option 3 – Move back to Forde House, Newton Abbot This option would not only take the team away from their survey area, but it would also move their key place of work, which is stated as Plymouth in their contracts. The team would also lose the access to technical software that they need which is available on their University computers. They would not be able to access all the academic papers they need without significant costs, and it would adversely affect their ability to access and influence research.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 98340000 - Accommodation and office services

Legal Justification

SEE ABOVE

Other Information

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