The Coastal and Marine Resources Centre represents a multi-disciplinary group within University College Cork (UCC). As an integral part of the overall Coastal Zone Institute, and in collaboration with the Aquaculture Development Centre (ADC) and the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC), the CRC serves as a critical source of expertise dedicated to coastal and ocean research and resource studies. The CMRC is a leader in the application of GIS to coastal and marine issues in Ireland, and an acknowledged centre of excellence in the application of a range of specialised techniques in the assessment and management of resources (in the fields of marine biology, geography, geology, hydrography and oceanography) in the offshore and coastal zone. With a current staff of 15 the Centre has worked on 35 projects (EU, national and consultancy) since 1997.

The Centre has personal contact with most organisations and personnel who have experience in marine surveying and has already completed studies identifying all organisations that have performed surveys in Irish waters, (confidential reports) and has further assessed (in-house study) those operators who have the potential to do so in the future. The CMRC has had involvement in the development of a computer based GIS for use in defining coastal zone management needs and practices. The team has extensive experience of fisheries, coastal and environmental data collection, database design, modelling, using computer-based systems and their linkage to GIS and management information systems, knowledge based decision support systems and data analysis.

The Coastal and Marine Resources Centre holds two confidential reports detailing sample and cruise line data for Ireland deep marine territories and documenting Irelands offshore operators baseline data requirements.

Geographical Information Systems play a central role in the development of coastal zone management plans. In particular, the CMRC and the Department of Geography have developed a robust coastal zone GIS for the Cork County coastline for use by coastal managers and has published several papers The current Coastal GIS has been developed during the course of two projects investigating the impacts of climate change and relative sea level rise on the environmental resources of European coasts (EPOC-CT90-0015 and EV5V-CT93-0258) under the Third Framework Environment and Climate Programme.

In addition, the Coastal and Marine Resources Centre (CMRC) hosted an International Conference on Coastal GIS in February 1995 attended by over 100 GIS experts from around the world.