A Sea to Save

The project fulfils the Mission Ocean & Waters and features the following:
1. environmental monitoring and the study of the incidence of human activity in the marine environment surrounding the Gulf of Gaeta and the territories ranging from Campi Flegrei to the Circeo Promontory. These are areas strongly affected by eutrophication processes due to human activities.
2. Expansion of the monitoring basin up to the Tiber and internal lake waters (especially those of coastal lakes);
3. Network monitoring actions with other educational institutes on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
4. Dissemination of data at local and national level for the purposes of sensibilising the territories to responsible management of human and productive activities.
The students will be able to study the health of our sea in an organized way through the measurement of the levels of bio-chemical and acoustic incidence of human activity. Through mobile devices, which can be used on the Institute's boats, students will be able to understand what are the sources of any pollution in the Gulf, the causes of eutrophication processes (visible through the presence of foam and wakes in the sea), their connection with the anthropic systems that pour their waste into the Gulf area, the correlation of the diffusion of the eutrophication process with the variations in the water supplies of the various basins and treatment plants.
Students will be able to familiarise themselves with a series of sensors and devices that measure various parameters such as the temperature and conductivity of the water, dissolved oxygen and pH, the processes of redox and the presence of green and blue algae, algae chlorophyll and the turbidity of the water, the identification of phytoplankton and zooplankton, the levels of suspended solid particles and conductivity, the bio-chemical pollutants (nitrogen and phosphates) discharged into the sea and the level of noise pollution. These sensors, associated with bottles for drawing water and laboratory tests with "traditional" equipment (photometers, conductivity meters, pH meters, etc.), will allow the acquisition of specific skills and knowledge of the phenomena. The sensors can also be used for prolonged measurements in periods of particular environmental exposure of the gulf.
The monitoring will be carried out in various areas, also with the periodic positioning of buoys equipped with environmental sensors that transmit data in real time with the ground laboratory of the Institute and the CNR and the comparison between these data and those detected by the satellites. All the data collected, will be disseminated among students and their families (the Institute includes 3 regions and 7 provinces), as well as with local authorities and civil society. Data will be approached within the FAIR principles.
The project has been launched in 2022 and has allocated the first budget for the acquisition, calibration, and deployment of the instrumentation. Observations and training activities have been planned for 2023 and 2024. The next steps for the development of low-cost instrumentation for the widening of the project at national level, and the development of an artificial intelligence interface for decision process and planning of interventions at sea are foreseen, accordingly to the funds that are needed and will be allocated.