1. Why is Tethys so important for wind and marine renewable energy?
Tethys allows users to search for and access valuable data and information related to the environmental effects of wind and marine renewable energy. Marine renewables are a relatively new source of energy, so there is still a lack of information and understanding on how to best proceed in developing these technologies in an environmentally responsible manner. Wind energy is fairly well established, but researchers are continually improving on methods of prevention, detection, and assessment. The goal of Tethys is to gather all the relevant information and data on these renewables with the intent to expedite technological development and attempt to clarify the associated uncertainties.
2. Where do I find the Tethys content?
The best place to get started is the Tethys Knowledge Base, which shows all the content of Tethys. Another way to view content is with the Map Viewer, which shows geotagged content on a map. Finally, you can always perform a keyword search in the upper right, but the functionality of this search is not as advanced as the Knowledge Base.
3. Where does Tethys content come from?
Tethys content is constantly growing, actively collected by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Documents are collected by subscribing for journal alerts, networking with professionals, scanning other related databases, mining citations in key reports, and by receiving suggestions from the Tethys community. Instructions for contributing to Tethys can be found here.
4. How do I know the material on Tethys is accurate or complete?
Significant effort is placed on ensuring that new content is captured in the database, that documents are tagged correctly, that links function properly, and that any content that may become outdated specifies when the information was collected (regulatory information, metadata forms). However, your help in identifying errors is greatly appreciated - simply contact us.
5. How can I contribute content to Tethys?
If you have documents, data, webinars, or other information which you think belongs on Tethys, let us know! Send us an email with a description of your information and will be more than happy to work with you to get your information on Tethys.
6. Why should I register on Tethys? Can't I already access all the content?
While anyone can access the Tethys knowledge base, registration on Tethys provides access to a number of personalization and interaction features (learn how to register here). Currently, registered users can:
- Provide comments on documents and on Tethys Stories
- Access contact information to members of the community and be personally included in these contact lists
Additional personalization features are planned for the coming year, and will be announced via the Home Page and Tethys Stories as they become available.
7. If I register, what happens to my personal information?
The personal information that is collected from users at registration (name, email and a user-selected Tethys password) is stored on the Tethys server and used solely for purposes of identifying users to allow the use of personalization features. The use of this information is solely for web site administrative purposes, and our policy is to not allow any non-administrative use by Tethys or third parties.
8. How can I change personal information on my user account?
Simply visit your account page to update your registration information, typically accessed in the upper right of the screen after logging in.
9. What are Annex IV and WREN, and how are they related to Tethys?
Annex IV is an international collaboration amongst member nations of the IEA Ocean Energy Systems to gather information on environmental research related to marine renewable energy. WREN is a separate international collaboration amongst member nations of the IEA Wind to address environmental issues associated with commercial development of land-based and offshore wind energy projects. Tethys is helping both initiatives by facilitating various outreach activities and events. Tethys also helps Annex IV host collected metadata and disseminate this information to a broad international audience.
10. How frequently is Annex IV metadata updated?
Project sites and research studies are frequently changing, so we do our best to keep information up to date. One year after the most recent form submission, we try to make contact with the developer/researcher to receive updates with a goal that no metadata forms are more than 18 months old. Each Tethys page will indicate when the form was last updated, shown in the infobox on the upper right.
11. Why does the Map Viewer have less content that the Knowledge Base?
The Map Viewer only has geotagged content available while the Knowledge Base contains all content on Tethys. All Project Sites and US Permitting Sites are geotagged; some documents and Research Studies are geotagged, as long as the content was talking about a specific location.
12. Why do the Map Viewer and Knowledge Base take so long to load?
These views are designed to load information for all the results up front. This allows the user to seamlessly search through the view without waiting on loading every time an icon is clicked. Longer loading times have accumulated as more content is added to Tethys. Our team is working on ways to improve these loading speeds.
13. What is a stressor and receptor?
Stressors are characteristics of the energy device while receptors are the environmental processes or organisms that could potentially be affected. If the concept seems confusing, further explanation and some examples can be found here. If you are confused about any terminology on Tethys, please visit the glossary.
14. What is a tag cloud?
A tag cloud is used on Tethys Stories. Keywords are compiled in a cluster with larger words representing more common words. By clicking on a term, one can view all blog posts with that keyword.
15. Are there other sites similar to Tethys that you could direct me to?
When it comes to environmental effects information and data on offshore renewable energy, Tethys really is one of a kind. However, we have compiled a list of other significant databases with some relevance to ocean energy, found here.
16. I can’t find what I’m looking for and/or have questions that are not answered here. Can you help?
If you are having trouble finding what you are looking for, and have searched all possible fields, please feel free to contact us.
