Wed, the first mapping of the Italian coasts and seabed begins:what does the marine habitat restoration and protection plan include?

Among the MER projects, the 400 million plan for marine habitats financed with the Pnrr, there are also two initiatives for the restoration of ecosystems that anticipate the EU regulation.Here's how it will work

Thirty-seven interventions, 400 million euros and a time window of just two years to complete all the works.Some of the most important projects on the Mer are starting up in recent weeks (Marine Ecosystem Restoration), the plan which contains some ambitious initiatives for the restoration and protection of marine habitats.«This is an enormous opportunity, in some ways unrepeatable», explains a Open Giordano Giorgi, coordinator of the project and head of the National Coast Center of Ispra, the body that together with the Ministry of the Environment is following the various dossiers on the table more closely.Among the activities starting in these days is the first mapping of the entire Italian coast, which will provide for the first time a detailed and updated photograph of the state of health of marine ecosystems and beyond.

The first mapping of the Italian coast

The consortium led by the Fugro company won the tender for the mapping activities, which will begin operations in the next few weeks and will conclude them, according to forecasts, in about two years.«It is an impressive operation, which is being carried out in Italy for the first time.There is no other country at European level that has mapped the coast at these levels of precision", specifies Giordano Giorgi.The process started by Ispra will be able to count on the most advanced technologies among those available on the market today and will allow, at the end of the project, to create the first digital Atlas of the Italian seas.The activities will be conducted throughout the national coastal territory through optical sensors, satellite sensors and also an autonomous underwater vehicle which will be used for the direct observation of approximately 4 thousand kilometers of coastline.

Coastal erosion and offshore wind farms

The mapping will return a detailed photograph of the morphology of the Italian coasts, allowing - for example - to precisely plan the interventions of the government or local authorities.«Coastal erosion phenomena begin in the submerged part of the beach.With the data we will have available we will be able to predict the erosion phenomena that will affect the Italian coast in the next ten years", explains the Ispra researcher.Another advantage is linked to the installation of offshore wind farms.To ensure that the electricity generated by the wind turbines reaches the mainland, it is necessary to lay long electrical cables.By mapping coastal areas, builders will be able to know precisely which docking points are where it is most convenient (and least impactful) to pass the cables.

Discovering the seabed

The ISPRA project will venture for the first time into almost completely unknown areas of the Mediterranean, which have never been monitored until now.An overall common situation, if we consider that to date just over a quarter of the Earth's sea and ocean floors have been mapped.«It's true, we know the Moon better than our seabed», explains Giordano Giorgi.Now that it can count on Pnrr funds, Italy also plans to do its part to fill this gap.In particular, with the mapping of over 70 mountains present on the Italian coasts and for which very little information is available.«Even in this case, these are numbers that we are absolutely not used to», specifies the ISPRA researcher.In the last 20 years, in fact, the Institute has mapped just three seamounts.And now, thanks to the Mer project, he is preparing to study 72 of them in just over two years.

Italy is ahead of the curve on the restoration of nature

Alongside exploration activities there are restoration activities.The first one that ISPRA is working on involves reconstructing the beds of European flat oysters - a native species of the Adriatic Sea - in five Italian regions:Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Abruzzo.According to estimates by the main international organizations, approximately 85% of the world's natural oyster reefs have been lost.The second restoration project concerns Posidonia oceanica, an aquatic plant considered fundamental for the mitigation of climate change.«Posidonia meadows are the basis of CO2 capture and oxygen production, yet the last mapping dates back decades ago.To make a comparison with the emerged land, it is as if we didn't know how many forests there are in Italy today", observes Giorgi.The topic of ecosystem restoration has also become the subject of debate in recent weeks, thanks to the approval of the Nature Restoration Law, the EU provision - approved by the European Parliament and therefore close to adoption - which envisages restoring at least 90% of degraded marine and terrestrial areas by 2050.«We were very far-sighted», says Giorgi about the two restoration projects on which ISPRA is working.«With these initiatives – he added – we are moving forward with the work that the European Union will ask us to do».

Moorings and "ghost nets"

To complete the Mer setting there are many other projects, partly already underway and partly planned.An example?The tenders for the construction of mooring fields, which will make it possible to avoid damage to the seabed caused by the anchoring of ships in some marine protected areas.Or the project for the removal of the so-called ghost nets, the "ghost nets" that are abandoned at sea by fishermen.ISPRA data shows that 86.5% of marine waste is connected in some way to fishing activities and 94% is represented by abandoned nets.