StraitsForecast Service

The StraitsForecast service provides high-quality tidal height and current forecast data to the marine and offshore industry

StraitsForecast is a digital tidal atlas (DTA) covering the Singapore and Malacca Straits and was officially launched in June 2006. The service provides high-quality tidal height and current forecast data to the marine and offshore industry and is delivered to ship masters, pilots and operators of the Singapore's port via a web-based http://www.sea.com.sg/ system .

The idea for Info@SEA evolved from discussions between MPA, BMT Asia Pacific, a well-established multi-disciplinary global consultancy in the energy, transport, defence, ports and construction sectors, and DHI Water & Environment, another consultancy and research organisation specialising in all aspects related to water and environmental engineering.

The three partners jointly developed the idea into a research and development project, leveraging on each other's expertise and experience to develop a technological solution of value to the maritime community.

The one-year project, which included user-acceptance trials, was successfully completed in June 2006. All 14 participating companies found StraitsForecast (SF) to be a very useful service, and most indicated an interest in purchasing the service. In July 2006, the three partners established a joint venture Info@SEA Pte Ltd to commercialise the SF services.

By providing high-resolution forecast tidal current flow patterns and tidal data, SF offers assistance to ships navigating through complex currents and allows the establishment of safe berthing windows in strong tidal flows. SF services have also been used in the investigation of marine accidents, planning yachting regattas and various reclamation projects. Users of the information services will now be able to apply analysis, prediction and forecast modelling to many different sorts of maritime activities in order to better manage risk.

At the core of the Info@SEA System is a data hub or data warehouse that stores the principal maritime and met-ocean data from which information is derived. Data held within the warehouse provides models and predictions of the physical world, which can be accessed over the internet to generate data-driven knowledge of maritime activities in the Malacca and Singapore Straits.

Info@SEA's StraitsForecast service won the Silver award in The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) Public Service Innovation Awards 2006. The TEC Innovation Awards, which received close to 200 nominations, are awarded to innovators and public agencies that participated in trial testing under the TEC.