The UMass Boston Center for Coastal Environmental Sensing Networks (CESN) brings together University researchers, Massachusetts business and industry leaders, and state and federal decision-makers, to provide an integrated framework for developing environmental sensor networks, especially in coastal areas.

This research center allows partners to 1) develop and test new environmental sensors and transfer them to commercial markets, 2) develop "smart" sensor networks for observing complex interactions of coastal systems including "hotspots and hot moments", 3) develop discrete and agent-based models to rapidly analyze and visualize complex and non-continuous data streams, and 4) support environmental decision-making processes. CESN is unique in its development of integrated land-water sensor networks, thus crossing the land-water interface, in focusing on "smart" networks, networks that are not simply automated, but can also "shift attention" to objects and events of interest, and in applying networks to urban environments. A diverse set of applications range from ecological to military to recreational. Our current focus is very nearshore environments (water depths < 30 meters). We will deploy a testbed sensor network in the Neponset Estuary and Wateshed extending out to Boston Harbor in the Summer of 2009.