Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons learnt of Low-Cost Open-Source and DIY Initiatives in Coastal Oceanography

The need for comprehensive and sustained coastal oceanographic monitoring has grown as climate change, pollution, and human activities increasingly impact marine ecosystems. Traditional monitoring systems, while highly accurate and reliable, are often prohibitively expensive, limiting their accessibility to resource-constrained regions and organizations. Low-cost/open-source (LoCOs) and do-it-yourself (DIY) initiatives have emerged as promising alternatives, leveraging accessible materials, open-source technology, and community engagement to democratize data collection.

In this presentation, we explore the challenges, opportunities and lessons learnt associated with such initiatives through several examples in the Western Mediterranean Sea and Mozambique coastal waters. In those regions, and for the last 10 years, oceanographic field campaigns, coastal monitoring networks and citizen science initiatives have been launched using DIY and LoCos devices measuring waves, sea level, surface velocities, water temperature and bathy-topographies.

The experience gained during this decade has given us enough elements to discuss challenges involved with this type of technology. This includes ensuring data accuracy and standardization, system durability in harsh marine environments, and overcoming technical knowledge barriers among non-specialist users. Also, this technology opens new opportunities, including fostering citizen science, enabling localized and high-resolution monitoring, and promoting capacity-building in underserved regions. Finally, we will discuss up to what extent low-cost/open-source and DIY solutions have the potential to revolutionize coastal monitoring, offering scalable and sustainable pathways for managing and conserving marine environments.