Welcome to OLARIS!OLARIS is a web-based interface that provides visualization of real-time data, numerical simulation results, and sustainability indices for the lakes, estuaries and coastal waters that make up current and proposed projects at the Centre for Water Research. This site is part of a Real Time Management (RTM) system designed to focus our knowledge of these systems and provide up-to-date information to assist with management decision-making.
How does it work? The Aquatic Real-time Management System (ARMS) acquires and stores real-time data collected from installed Lake Diagnostic Systems (LDS/WCDS) and available web sites and then collates the data for input into the hydrodynamic model ELCOM, which is coupled with the ecological model CAEDYM. The models are configured to run up-to-date simulations in quasi real-time and simulate the response of the system to selected forecasting scenarios, which may be natural events, such as forecasted weather conditions, storms and floods, or may focus on anthropogenic perturbations.
Although the numerical modelling results themselves greatly improve our understanding of the key processes in each system, as a final step, the results from the models are used by the RTM to determine pre-selected sustainability indices that assist with decision-making. In this way, OLARIS uses the latest web-based technology to integrate a suite of powerful tools developed at the Centre for Water Research into a single decision support system.
