The FAST project has developed the MI-SAFE package to help with the implementation of nature-based solutions for coastal flood and erosion risk reduction. MI-SAFE is a platform supported by the FAST team of experts that delivers smart services that will allow you to include ecosystem-engineering concepts into coastal protection.
The MI-SAFE services are unique because they are:
- A combination of worldwide coastal coverage and high-resolution local analysis;
- A unique resource providing flood hazard related parameters in many areas of the world that no other source can deliver;
- Based on transparent and verifiable scientific insights;
- Using automated coupling of Earth Observation, water level, wave and vegetation modelling;
- Based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) data streams – to be used with your own system, with free access and in standard formats;
- Built with Open Source tools - adaptable to your own tool chain; Supported by the Open Earth open source and free software community;
- Versatile, with advanced functionalities for end users that cater to your specific needs.
To generate MI-SAFE, FAST has gathered, reclassified or produced open format layers of information on elevation (topography and bathymetry), vegetation, and water and wave statistics; using Earth Observation resources (e.g. Sentinel satellite images), but also data collected in situ by the FAST team of experts. These layers, together with the intensive scientific fieldwork that underpins FAST, have been used to establish relationships between elevation and vegetation properties and water level and wave dynamics. Those relationships have been used to calibrate the open software wave model XBeach and thus to estimate the effects of foreshore vegetation on wave attenuation and dike (sea wall) overtopping. For further technical and scientific details on MI-SAFE products and services see the public link ‘the Science behind MI-SAFE’.
The MI-SAFE services are made up of three key components:
- The MI-SAFE viewer: a user-friendly online viewer that shows and gives access to all MI-SAFE products and services, including an easy contact with the FAST team of experts (access to the Advanced level services).
- Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) data streams: This service is accessible via the MI-SAFE viewer and available via MI-SAFE GeoNetwork CSW catalogue (Educational and Expert level services), similar products can be generated by the FAST team of experts on request (Advanced level services).
- Elevation (bathymetry and topography)
- Vegetation (presence, leaf-area-index, types)
- Wave and water level statistics (significant wave height, tidal range)
- Open Source Modelling: This service is accessible via the MI-SAFE viewer (at Global scale for the Educational level and at high resolution in the FAST study sites for the Expert level), this service also includes calibration/validation for new sites and the modelling of new processes on request (Advanced level services).
- XBeach with vegetation for coastal, delta and riparian regions. Calibrated and validated by FAST for study cases.
- Flexible integration using OGC data streams (inputs and outputs). Built into Delft Dashboard - easy connection to Delft3D, LISFLOOD, and many other Open software models also built into Delft Dashboard.
- Open data and open source based on Open Earth conventions
These components are designed to provide different levels of services (Educational, Expert and Advanced levels), with increasing resolution and capacity to cater for end user needs. For the most specific needs, a team of experts with international reputation maintains an open source platform, allowing an on-demand extension of the products and services offered in the Educational and the Expert levels of the MI-SAFE package.
