Integrated Operational Modeling of the Harmful Algal Blooms(HABs) Using R

Abstract

Harmful algal blooms(HABs) are critical issues on the coastal ocean. Government agencies and ocean scientists are struggling to reduce the damage of coastal aquaculture by HABs. As a part of the effort, ocean scientists are conducting researches on how to cope with HABs and how to predict it before HABs occur. In this study, a model to predict the route and range of HABs was constructed to prevent damage caused by HABs. As with most ecological models, the major parts of the HABs model including physical, chemical, and biological factors are fundamental, but technical processes for efficient operation of the model are also important. The open source language, R, has a great advantage in performing comprehensivemodeling research because a wide range of libraries which are wellverified can be available. Whole modeling processes including data acquisition using API(Application Programming Interface) from government, localized physical model data input, rasterizing and computing spatial data and visualization of prediction results were integrated into the R and implemented with satisfaction. The integrated R code calculates the 72-hour forecast results everyday through the batch process.