Why DIY Oceanography BZH?
Projects including developments of open DIY monitoring systems of the ocean have been multiplying over the last couple of years and worldwide [Butler 2021] [Marcelli 2021]. Our objective is to centralise knowledge and materials that could promote the development of these projects and to facilitate discussions between users and developers.
The ongoing effort focuses on sensors, the movitation being that they consitute the cornerstone for all instruments. We are therefore intentionnaly not adressing at the moment data logging, physical containering and mechanical design of the hosting platform. Taking one variable of interest at a time, we wish first to:
gather information related to sensing physics that is ideally quantitative and referenced.
assemble a list of either commercially available sensors or open projects.
For each sensor type, we present:
The general physical measurement principle.
Different sensor types for the same technology.
Advantages and limitations.
Associated references.
Our effort has been so far conducted from Brest (France) with members principally from the academic and public societies. The project relies on voluntary contributions. Do not hesitate to provide feedback about our approach (see related guide) !
Covered sections#
Contributions
Learn how to contribute to this project and join our community
Variables & Sensors
Explore different oceanographic variables and measurement techniques:
Tools & Resources
Access helpful tools and resources:
We are currently looking for contributions. Feel free to suggest any variable you wish to see in this list by opening a new issue on our GitHub repository.
What’s New ?#
Past Workshop - December 4th, 2025#
DIY Oceanography 1st Workshop
Click to view the workshop program
Initial deployment#
… (November 2025) Oxygen section written, By Anne Daniel and Adèle Moncuquet.
… (October 2025) Fluorescence section written, By Olivier Fauvarque, Dewi Langlet and Adèle Moncuquet.
… (September 2025) Webdesign improvements By Adèle Moncuquet and feedbacks from Sébastien Hervé.
… (July - August 2025) Temperature, metrology and turbidity section written, Library research tool added, By Louis Marié, Caroline Le Bihan, Matthias Jacquet and Adèle Moncuquet with feedback from Aurelien Ponte.
… (July 2024) First pass at providing global structure and information completed. By Aurelien Ponte.
… (May 2024) Spin up the project documentation. By Aurelien Ponte and Clothilde Haristoy.
References#
You can access publications and book references via the bibliographical tool.
Marcelli, M., Piermattei, V., Gerin, R., Brunetti, F., Pietrosemoli, E., Addo, S., Boudaya, L., Coleman, R., Nubi, O.A., Jojannes, R., Sarker, S., Sohou, Z., Zennaro, M., Whiltshire, K., Crise, A., 2021. Toward the widespread application of low-cost technologies in coastal ocean observing (Internet of Things for the Ocean). Medit. Mar. Sci. https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.25060
Butler, J., Pagniello, C., 2021. Emerging, Low-Cost Ocean Observing Technologies to Democratize Access to the Ocean. Oceanog 94–95. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-35