SeaMobile: Cyprus

The SeaMobile App provides a handy and dynamic guide to the beaches and marine waters of Cyprus. It gives for each beach local information (description and features), marine forecasts (waves, currents, temperature, salinity and winds) and weather forecasts. This is provided in tables and maps, including animations.

The information aims at users in the tourism and recreational sectors, in particular public visiting beaches, swimming, surfing, sailing, fishing, and diving, and professionals such as hotels, schools for diving, surfing, sailing, fishery trips organizers, boat rentals, and others.

The marine forecasts are updated daily with a forecast horizon of 3 days and include the sea currents, sea temperature and salinity, sea level, offshore significant wave height, swell, tides, as well as winds over the sea. These are derived from the operational coastal ocean forecasting and observing system (CYCOFOS) that is operated by the Oceanography Center of the University of Cyprus (OC-UCY). This Center conducts basic and applied research in the fields of ocean physics and dynamics, remote sensing, operational oceanography, and biological and chemical oceanography. It collects marine monitoring data by in-situ instruments and by satellites, which are used in CYCOFOS, and it cooperates with existing operational ocean forecasting networks in Europe.

The SeaMobile App has been developed by OC-UCY in cooperation with MARIS (Netherlands), WabbieWorks (Cyprus), and the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO). The App allows public to appreciate the power and changeability of the sea at many scales and in many aspects. The information services can also increase safety, because users will be warned of possible high waves or heavy currents and take these into account when planning their activities such as sailing, diving, boat trips and others.

The SeaMobile App adds flavour to the services that are already offered to tourists and make Cyprus even more attractive as a holiday destination.

The SeaMobile project is co-funded by the Repubic of Cyprus and the European Regional Development Fund. The SeaMobile information service is developed for giving tourist and recreational users access to customised marine data and forecasting services, adopting smart phones and mobile touch screen devices as distribution platforms. Later this might be expanded with dedicated services for businesses and public authorities.