Sveučilište u Splitu - Fakultet građevinarstva, arhitekture i geodezije University of Split - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy

AdSWiM - Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea

Summary and general objective

The project "Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea" - AdSWiM, began in January 2019. The overall objective of the project is to improve the quality of water bodies and the ecological status of the marine and coastal ecosystem.

Water quality in the Adriatic Sea is extremely heterogeneous. The ecological, health and hygienic characteristics of water vary from area to area in the Adriatic Sea. In some areas we measure the imbalance between nutrients (phosphorus compared to nitrogen). Moreover, the remineralization of organic matter that would normally fill any nutritional deficiencies, is highly dependent on the vitality and composition of the microbe community. Risk can occur that a condition "the abundance of species and the protection of their full reproductive capacity“ is not guaranteed overtime.

The project promotes transboundary integrated management of water resources to bring about a disrupted nutrient balance. AdSWiM project brings together research institutions, local authorities and managers of wastewater (WW) treatment plants to maintain and improve the quality of marine water.

Specific objectives

1. Improve the environmental quality condition of the Adriatic sea by managed use of treated waste water;
2. Biological parameters, analytical devices, innovative treatments to protect the bodies of water;
3. Settle and share models of DP management, present regulations efficiency assessment.

Main activities

1. Protecting and improving the quality of the bathing water through the managed use of urban treated wastewater;
2. Evaluation of the significance of new biological parameters in bathing water quality control;
3. Definition of crow-borders models to manage the wastewater treatment plants;
4. Proposal to custom check the effects of the monitoring plans to better respect the territorial features;
5. Optimization of innovative analytical tools for E.coli and Intestinal Enterococci determination;
6. Innovative processing of treated wastewater for the protection of marine and costal surface water bodies.

Expected results

The purpose of the project and cross-border cooperation is to propose new tools for acquiring better knowledge and control over the ecological state of the marine ecosystem, innovative and ecological acceptable technologies for waste water treatment and change existing regulations. Planned project results:

1. Use of innovative technologies in monitoring, treatment and management of waste water treatment processes;
2. Investigation of availability of organic and inorganic nutrients and trace microelements using new analytical techniques by testing correlation between them and hydrological variables for collecting data on bacterial vitality and their distribution of secondary research;
3. Settle and share cross-border actions to manage the depuration plants more effectively and obtain better monitored and more stable quantities nutrients, which means higher bathing water quality.
4. Improve the environmental quality condition of the Adriatic sea by managed use of treated waste water;
5. Biological parameters, analytical devices, innovative treatments to protect the bodies of water;
6. Settle and share models of DP management, present regulations efficiency assessment.

The project Lead Partner is the University of Udine. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split is one of five project partners from Croatia and a total of 6 from Italy, in charge of implementing the Work Package 5 - Technologies and strategies for managing DPs guide lines definition and crossborders strategies.

The project Lead Partner is the University of Udine. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split (UNIST-FGAG) is one of five project partners from Croatia (Zadar Public Health Institute, Izvor Ploče Ltd., Split Water and Sewerage Ltd., Metris Research Center of the Istrian County) and a total of 6 from Italy (Udine University, Municipality of Udine, CAFC Ltd., National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, Polytechnic Institute of Marche, Institute of Crystallography - National Research Council, Municipality of Peschara). UNIST-FGAG is in charge of the implementation of Work Package 5 - Technologies and strategies for defining guidelines for the management of purifiers and cross-border strategies

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The total value of the project is € 2,035,703.13 of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is until the beginning of 2021.

 

DEEP-SEA – Development of Energy Efficiency Planning and Services for the Mobility of Adriatic MARINAs

Summary and general objective

Nautical marinas (harbours for sailing and motor boats) along the Adriatic Sea are the main tourism hubs for inward and outward mobility flows. Marinas spread along the Adriatic seacoasts, generate a considerable number of different types of mobility and transport flows, both inside and outside marinas with huge negative environmental externalities, like CO2 emissions, noise pollution and traffic congestion. Road and maritime transport are the most polluting and the most used ones, while other types, even if less harmful to the environment, are less commonly present.
Public Administrations (PAs) and mobility operators made great steps forward in the mobility sector, developing, promoting and implementing different set of mobility services with low or zero negative impacts, such as electric vehicles (e-vehicles) and boats (e-boats), electric charging stations (ECS) for cars and boats, e-vehicles rental and sharing. However these services are rarely offered in nautical marinas, most of which usually offer highly polluting services, i.e. endothermic engines cars and motorbikes, and very few offer some kind of sustainable services, such as bike and car rental and sharing. Furthermore solutions provided are little integrated in a unique offer.

The challenge to decrease the environmental impacts of mobility activities gravitating around marinas could be effectively faced with more systemic, integrated and multimodal mobility services put in place. DEEP-SEA aims to tackle the problems of predominant single-modality land transport (cars), highly polluting maritime transport (motor boats with endothermic engines) and limited integration of mobility services offered in the sector described above. The project, through the development of a model, based on a strong scientific knowledge and tested on field, wants to support marinas operators (MOs) and PAs in planning and implementing sustainable mobility. Planning will increase the offer of energy efficient mobility services, mainly e-mobility and shared mobility, and will lead marinas to tackle the increasing demand of ECS for e-boats. DEEP-SEA established a partnership with important stakeholders such as MOs, Chambers of Commerce, PAs and 3 of the best Universities in this sector in the Adriatic Area. Partners have selected 4 pilot sites for the tailor-made investment plans to test the start-up of new services and installations.

DEEP-SEA will deploy an ICT application to enable end-users to map, access, book and pay the service. The application will represent a unique web-portal for the promotion of sustainable mobility offers through which services will be spread to other Adriatic locations. DEEP-SEA will define a Guidelines for elaboration of intervention and investment plans related to mobility services and will activate a cross-border network in order to replicate the positive effects of sustainable mobility services developed within the project.

Specific objectives

1. Enhance MOs’ & PAs’ competences to plan and implement energy efficient mobility services.
2. Increase marinas’ innovative and sustainable mobility service offer for passengers.
3. Enlarge cooperation on sustainable energy efficient mobility among marinas in Adriatic Sea area.

Main activities

1. A complete picture of the best available technological and organizational solutions on energy efficiency and sustainable mobility for coastal and nautical mobility.
2. Financial and investment model with focus on the features and services to improve marinas accessibility from/to inland (land side) and from/to sea side (nautical side).
3. The updated vision of the current mobility services and passengers flows in marinas pilot sites, with analysis of energy consumption, baseline for the definition of future accessibility (cost and time) and energy consumption and emissions reduction.
4. Pilots monitoring and measurement methodology to ensure coherence with project and programme objectives.
5. Installation of e-charging stations and micro-grid systems, start-up of e-car sharing services, e-scooter sharing, e-car mobility service.
6. Model for elaboration of intervention and investment plans related to mobility services based on the pilots results and on the scientific knowledge, tested on the field.
7. Monitoring and promotion system: project activities will include the development and application of information and communication technologies (ICT) system both for the management and monitoring of services (e.g. ICT for charging infrastructures and sharing) and for their use by end-users.

Expected results

The overall project objective is to improve current marinas mobility services and turn them into low-carbon or zero emission, environmentally friendly and energy efficient systems. Planned project results:

1. Improved sustainable passengers mobility services in or connected to nautical marinas across the Adriatic Sea.
2. Increased competences of decision makers and operators involved in marina mobility management.
3. Integrated management, cooperation and networking between MOs, Universities and PAs on both sides of the Adriatic Sea.

The project Lead Partner is the ARIES Special Agency Venezia Giulia Chamber of Commerce. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split (UNIST-FGAG) is one of five project partners from Croatia (University of Rijeka, County port authority Krk, Municipality of Malinska-Dubašnica, Public institution RERA SD and H.L. Dvorac Ltd.), and a total of four from Italy (University of Trieste, Chamber of Commerce of Foggia, Municipality of Andria and Apulia Region).  UNIST-FGAG is in charge of implementing the Work Package 4 - Pilots: small technological investments, equipment installations and new services start-up.

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The total value of the project is € 2.511.567,50 of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is the end of June 2021.

 

E-CITIJENS - Civil Protection Emergency DSS based on CITIzen Journalism to ENhance Safety of Adriatic Basin

Summary and general objective

The project " Civil Protection Emergency DSS based on CITIzen Journalism to ENhance Safety of Adriatic Basin" (E-CITIJENS), began in January 2019.

E-CITIJENS aims at increasing the safety of the Croatian and Italian Adriatic basin from natural and man-made disasters by improving emergency prevention and management measures and instruments.

It pursues the above target through cross-border cooperation to: (i) reinforce the Civil Protection (including Coast Guard) chain of command in both countries with Crossborder Functional Centers equipped with an advanced and efficient decision support system to more efficiently monitor risks, manage emergencies and co-ordinate the involved forces during emergency interventions; (ii) keep open a real-time update channel on risk occurrences by collecting and using citizens information voluntarily provided via Social Media (citizen journalism) to report hazardous situations and events and signal their progress.

The above objective will be sought by promoting cross border policies that can harmonize and improve both countries’ risk management current legislations and their overall efficiency

Specific objectives

1. To endow Chain of Command of Civil Protection with a “social media based” Emergency DSS (EDSS);
2. To activate the participatory citizens’ role as "active sensor" of emergencies;
3. To harmonize Croatian and Italian risk management current legislations.

Main activities

1. Project management and coordination of activities;
2. Communication activities;
3. Modelling "social media based" Civil Protection emergency management system;
4. Development, testing and release of "social media based" Emergency Decision Support System platform;
5. Release of EDSS Platform and Transfer of Emergency Services Regulatory Framework.

Expected results

1. Improvement in Coordination of Civil Protection risk management measures. It is a result of reinforcement of Civil Protection and Coast Guard chain of command in both countries with Crossborder Functional Centers equipped with an Emergency DSS platform then enhancement of level of uniformity and similarity of the existing emergency regulatory systems and legislations in both countries. Both interventions are essential to support CP in: (i) monitoring the geophysical elements that influence natural risks, (ii) adopting preventive measure to reduce the impact of emergency occurrences on ecosystems and population then (iii) coordinating the emergency interventions to grant an effective and prompt crisis management through the identification of the source and severity of various kind of risk occurrences.
2. Increased involvement of citizens in natural and man-made disaster management. It is the result of participatory process activation to bring the citizen to play the role of "active sensor" of natural and man-made risks that gets him proper proactive behaviour and makes him a capillary and diversified kinds of risks source of information for the risk management coordinated measures.

Both results will contribute to the Programme result indicator since they improve the coordination of the risk management measures among Institutions, Civil Protection and Citizens, affect the whole involved territories and kind of risks and improve the existing emergency measures.

The partnership includes: Molise region; Split and Dalmatia County; Veneto Region; University Of Split - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy; EEIG Eurelations; Alma Mater Studiorum – University Of Bologna; Pescara Municipality; Adriatic Ionian Euroregion; Zadar County Rural Development Agency and Region of Istria.

UNIST-FGAG main contribution is in modelling the system (WP3) and reporting on implementation and evaluation (WP5).

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The total value of the project is € 2.846.100,00 of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is the end of June 2021.

 

MoST - Monitoring Sea-water intrusion in coastal aquifers and Testing pilot projects for its mitigation

Saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers is a worldwide problem caused, among other factors, by aquifer over exploitation related to human activities, such as water supply for human consumption and irrigation, land reclamation of low-lying farmlands, land climate changes which contribute to the reduction of groundwater natural recharge.

The need of taking into account this topic has consequently intensified, with the aim to achieve a better understanding of the physical processes driving the continental-marine water exchanges and define suitable countermeasures limiting the occurrence.

Geophysical surveys and monitoring sites, as well as, laboratory and numerical experiments and a proper managing plan of freshwater the resources are essential for this purpose.

Both Italy and Croatia are significantly affected by saltwater intrusion in their coastal regions with serious consequences on agricultural activities and tourism that may become dramatic in a relatively short time due to climate change effects. In this framework, the main objective of MoST is the monitoring of the seawater intrusion in specific regions of the in northern Adriatic coasts of Italy and Croatia to assess its relevance, and suggest/test appropriate countermeasures. In addition, the project expects to improve the capacity in transnationally tackling saltwater contamination vulnerability and the preservation of strategic fresh water resources in coastal areas.

The project develops in two main phases: firstly, a detailed data collection and geophysical survey will be carried out. This step includes the capitalization of previous experiences about the saltwater intrusion monitoring, mitigation plans and implemented countermeasures. The analysis of the collected data will help understanding the process and its evolutions. In the second phase, pilot sites will be established to verify the efficiency of possible countermeasures (e.g., underground barriers, recharge wells, recharge drains established along elevated high-permeability paleo-channels) to limit or mitigate the seawater intrusion/contamination. Moreover, laboratory physical models will be developed to serve as benchmarks for the numerical models adopted to simulate/analyze the field results. The project will be developed with the collaboration and the involvement of local populations and local authorities, which will be the main stakeholders of the project actions because of the expected benefits on agriculture and touristic activities.

LP: University of Padova, Department ICEA
PP1: CNR
PP2: Consorzio di Bonifica Adige-Euganeo
PP3: Regione Veneto – Difesa del Suolo
PP4: University of Split, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy
PP5: Croatian Waters
PP6: Regional Development Agency Dubrovnik-Neretva County (DUNEA)

Total BUDGET: € 2.598.608,51

New Technologies for Macro and Microplastic Detection and Analysis in the Adriatic Basin - NET4mPLASTIC

Summary and general objective

There are very limited data on micro-waste and microplastics in the Adriatic Sea, lacking standard operating protocols for sampling, detection and quantification of microplastics, as well as reliable data on microplastic concentrations and the composition of polymers in the marine environment. Consequently, there is a need to improve and develop methods to reduce time and effort in identifying and detecting micro plastics.

Project approach is based on cooperation between Italian and Croatian research organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises and local authorities in Italy and Croatia in addressing the common challenge of plastics and microplastics in the Adriatic Sea. The project aims to develop common solutions for monitoring plastic distribution, defining their impacts on human health and implementing an integrated platform associated with Early Warning Systems. The project will use existing systems (transport model and EWS) and innovative technologies (drons, integrated platform) that will be explored and developed to achieve the main project objectives.

New Technologies for Macro and Microplastic Detection and Analysis in the Adriatic Basin - NET4mPLASTIC is one of the latest Interreg projects in which the Faculty participates as a partner. The main objective of the project is to collect data on the distribution and composition of microplastics along Croatian and Italian coastal and marine areas. The project is aimed at improving the quality of water in the sea by applying a common integrated approach identifying microplastic accumulation zones and controls for the implementation of any mitigation measures.

Specific objectives

1. Improve cooperation in the context of exchange of knowledge on marine waste and changing of traditional approaches,
2. Improve the awareness of the population through the development of Early Warning System with the GIS database and
3. Detect microbial contamination in marine bios and related pollutants as potential risks to human health.

Main activities

1. Implementation of new technological solutions for monitoring mircoplastics in marine and coastal areas;
2. Development of an open access common platform coupled with and Early Warning System;
3. Designing an on-board unit for field activities and installed on marine drones for activities along the coast and on ships for offshore activities;
4. Approach standardization summarized in guidelines and recommendations for fishing and blue economy related to microplastics management and limitations at improving water quality;
5. Realization of 8 field surveys (water, sediment and shellfish) with 160 samples of sediments, 32 stream/river samplings and 64 samplings of microplastics on the sea surface (manta);
6. Testing new methodologies for recycling plastic items and in particular the development of an EP patent.

Expected results

The project will enhance the knowledge and understanding of the impacts associated with macro and microplastics in the coastal and marine environment by gathering different experts. The final result will be to evaluate the state of science, determine the distribution, the abundance and influence of microplastic deposition, and raise public awareness through online and offline dissemination Expected results are:

1. Analysis of the state of the art: ecological, climatological and geomorphological state of the research area;
2. Characterization of issues related to beach and waste management in the research areas;
3. Microplastic source characterization;
4. Collection of microplastic samples from marine environment, coastal areas and shellfish;
5. Improved quality of the sea and coastal areas through innovative technologies and approaches;
6. Defining the best practices for managing, monitoring and evaluating microplastics;
7. The development of a sensory platform set up on ships or marine drons;
8. Forecasting potential scenarios of microplastic accumulation areas (mapping);
9. Establish an Early Warning System and a common GIS database for microplastic accumulation areas that are forecasted after events such as river storms and so on;
10. Bridging the gap in lack of information with regard to microplastics, marine ecosystem and human health: the correlation of reported data, marine analytical testing and in vitro risk assessment for human health.

The project involves five partners from Italy: the Department of Physics and Earth Sciences of the University of Ferrara (main partner), the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Trieste, the Marche Region, the Veterinary Institute of Public Health Abruzzo and Molise Region and Hydra Solutions SRL and four partners from Croatia: Institute of Public Health PGŽ, Public Institution RERA SD for co-ordination and development of the Split-Dalmatia County, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy of the University of Split and Prosoft d.o.o. from Rijeka.

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The project value is 2,478,640.00 EUR, of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is the end of June 2021.
 

 

PMO-GATE - Preventing, Managing and Overcoming Natural-Hazards Risks to mitiGATE economic and social impact

Summary and general objective

The project "Preventing, Managing and Overcoming Natural-Hazards Risks to mitiGATE economic and social impact" (PMO-GATE), began in January 2019. The overall objectives of the project are to jointly develop an innovative methodology for preventing, managing and overcoming multi-hazard natural disasters in the involved Italy-Croatia NUTS, and to increase the level of protection and resilience against natural disasters specific of the IT-HR NUTS, such as river and sea floods, meteo-tsunamis and earthquakes.

The proposed approach is based on the integration among risk evaluation, prevention, preparedness and response actions against relevant natural hazards. The three pillars of the approach are: capitalization of the available heritage of expertise of IT-HR NUTS in natural hazards management, definition of probabilistic scenarios with detailed analysis of the territorial vulnerabilities in the respect of the community legislation governing the Strategic Environmental Assessment and effective communication strategies that increase awareness and perception in population and public agencies, through a two-way conversation between IT-HR NUTS and affected community members.

The present project will allow to prevent, manage and overcome natural hazard risks, safe-guard human lives and socio-economic and the socio-cultural heritage. In particular, PMO-GATE intends to create a synergy between local authorities, Research Institutes, schools and Universities and citizens, in order to evaluate and manage multi-hazard risks typical of Emilia and Croatian environments.

Specific objectives

1. Definition of single-hazard exposure indexes;
2. Definition of multi-hazard exposure indexes;
3. Implementation of awareness measures.

Main activities

1. Assessment of floods exposure in coastal and urban areas;
2. Assessment of meteo-tsunami exposure in coastal areas;
3. Assessment of climate-unrelated hazards exposure in urban and coastal areas (seismic action);
4. Assessment of combined flood-seismic hazards;
5. Assessment of combined seismic-flood-meteo tsunami hazards;
6. Improved early warning system for single risks;
7. Improved early warning system for multi-hazard risk;
8. Risk management plan.

Expected results

The purpose of the project and cross-border cooperation is increasing the level of protection, resiliency and natural risk prevention, such as floods, earthquakes and meteo-tsunamis, in the relevant Adriatic area. Planned project results are:

1. Increase of the scientific knowledge about the multiple vulnerabilities of the IT-HR NUTS involved in the project;
2. Implementation of the acquired knowledge into existing multi-hazard risk management plan;
3. Implementation of an early warning system that will decrease environmental and economic losses. The multi-risk analysis is based on integrated and multidisciplinary analysis of all data into a single integrated model capable of providing a support to decision to emergency managers and civil protection agencies.

The partnership includes the Department of Engineering of the University of Ferrara as the Lead partner (UNIFE), the University Of Split, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy (UNIST-FGAG), Public Institution RERA SD, for Coordination and Development of Split Dalmatia County, and the Municipality of Kastela, the National Institute Of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Roma (INGV) and the Municipality of Ferrara. UNIST-FGAG is in charge of the implementation of Work Package 3 - Assessment of single-hazard exposure in coastal and urban areas and Work Package 4 - Assessment of multi-hazard exposure in coastal and urban areas.

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The total value of the project is € 1.429.112,05 of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is the end of June 2021.

 

Plastic Busters MPAs: preserving biodiversity from plastics in Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas

Project Budget: € 5,055,000

The project is cofinanced by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund with € 4,296,000

Project duration: 48 months

The central problem

The Mediterranean is one of the seas most affected by marine litter worldwide. The threats marine litter poses to wildlife and ecosystems are increasingly documented in scientific literature, with impacts varying from entanglement and ingestion, to bio-accumulation and bio-magnification of toxics released from plastics, to damages to benthic habitats and species.

The Barcelona Convention’s Regional Plan for Marine Litter Management in the Mediterranean and the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive have helped things advance in the right direction. Yet there is still a long way ahead towards implementing policy commitments and effectively reducing marine litter and the risks it poses to Mediterranean marine wildlife.

Who are we?

Plastic Busters MPAs gathers 15 implementing partners and 17 associated partners from 8 countries, Albania, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Spain.

Meet our Team and Associates:

https://plasticbustersmpas.interreg-med.eu/our-story/who-we-are/

What we do?

Plastic Busters MPAs provides a comprehensive, multifaceted and coordinated approach to fight marine litter in Mediterranean coastal and marine protected areas towards healthy marine ecosystems.

Plastic Busters MPA deals with the entire waste cycle in the sea!

Plastic Busters MPAs’ main lines of action focus on:

• Defining and testing harmonized methodologies for monitoring marine litter: Plastic Busters MPAs will elaborate a harmonized approach for monitoring macro- and micro-litter in Mediterranean pelagic and coastal MPAs, based on recent scientific and policy advances.
• Assessing the marine litter impacts on biota dwelling in MPAs: The harmonized methodologies for marine litter monitoring will be tested in selected sites and the results will feed into a comprehensive diagnostic analysis of the impacts of marine litter on biodiversity and endangered species in Med MPAs.
• Identifying marine litter hotspots in MPAs: Plastic Busters MPAs will develop a forecasting model to identify marine litter hotspots in Mediterranean MPAs. The model will provide valuable information to support targeted marine litter prevention and mitigation actions in the most affected Mediterranean MPAs.
• Showcasing marine litter prevention and mitigation measures: Plastic Busters MPAs will set-up and implement at least 10 marine litter demonstration projects in pilot MPAs. The demos will showcase MPA-relevant marine litter measures and the learned lessons will be captured in a set of comprehensive guidelines to support replication actions.
• Building capacities and transferring knowledge on marine litter issues: Plastic Busters MPAs will implement fit-for-purpose knowledge transfer, capitalization and replication mechanisms to create a truly enabling environment for concrete, effective and continuous actions against marine litter in a network of Mediterranean MPAs.
• Setting up a joint governance plan for managing marine litter in pelagic and coastal MPAs: The project will mainstream its results and ensure their uptake via a joint governance plan for managing marine litter in pelagic and coastal MPAs. The plan will consolidate the knowledge gained throughout the life-cycle of the project and will empower MPA managers, decision makers and other stakeholders to undertake coordinated and targeted actions against marine litter.

What we achieve?

Objectives

In line with the recommendations of the UfM Ministerial Meeting on Environment and Climate Change (May 2014) and the UfM Ministerial on Blue Economy (November 2015), the overall goal of the project is to effectively tackle the issue of marine litter in the Mediterranean.

Specific objectives are:

• Address data needs and gaps on trends and impacts of marine litter, contributing to the establishment of cooperation with other relevant initiatives/projects implemented in the Mediterranean and elaboration of recommendations to facilitate effective policymaking at regional, national, local levels with regards to the reduction of marine litter in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Prevent and reduce marine litter through the implementation of concrete and specific no-regret measures to prevent and reduce marine litter in pilot areas. Joint activities with fishing communities (fishermen associations and fish farm) will aim to remove so-called ‘ghost fishing nets’ that can cause serious damage to marine environments as well as prevent and reduce marine litter overall.
• Increase awareness and close knowledge gaps: by identifying hotspots of marine litter and pave the way for a regional integrated monitoring program and use findings and information to raise awareness.

Plastic Busters MPA is a project funded under the Interreg MED program which aims to maintain biodiversity and preserve natural ecosystems in coastal marine protected areas by consolidating Mediterranean efforts against waste in the sea.

The project encompasses activities related to the entire cycle of waste management in the sea, from monitoring and evaluation to prevention and mitigation.

The project uses a multidisciplinary strategy and a common framework of action developed within the framework of the Plastic Busters initiative, run by the University of Siena and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. This initiative defines the priority activities needed to address the wastewater problem in the Mediterranean and is labeled within the Union for the Mediterranean in 2016, gathering the political support of 43 Euro-Mediterranean countries.

 

SALTWATER INTRUSION AND CLIMATE CHANGE: MONITORING, COUNTERMEASURES AND INFORMED GOVERNANCE (SECURE)

The standard Projects MoST, Asteris, and Change We Care developed within the Interreg V-A IT-HR (MAC  IT-HR in the following) allowed significant advances both in i) the characterization of the process of saltwater intrusion under the effects of climate change in the Adriatic low-lying coastal areas of Italy and Croatia and ii) proposing best practices for facing this scourge. Specifically, the monitoring networks established by these three Projects helped to design and realize countermeasures aimed at mitigating the salinization of farmland soils and water bodies, thus enhancing agricultural productivity. In addition, from the gained experiences, specific guidelines were developed by each of the three projects at the local scale considered in each pilot site.

SeCure, which is allocated in the Cluster Adaptation to climate changes "governance and capacity building", is aimed to maximize i) the main outcomes and the experiences developed in MAC IT-HR projects, ii) synergies between the projects to enhance visibility and transferability, fully exploit and consolidate the results achieved so far, and increase the knowledge base on the saltwater contamination of the northern Adriatic coastlands in preparation for the next programming period, in particular Specific objective 2.4..

First, SeCure will allow to extend to one more year the monitoring activities of the three joint projects giving the opportunity to use a longer time window for improving the characterization of the saltwater intrusion, which is subject to a wide range of natural forcing conditions and climate change. Second, SeCure will take advantage of one more year of monitoring to assess the effectiveness of the realized countermeasures in terms of water quality and agricultural productivity. Third, comparison and integration of the different experiences coming from MAC IT-HR PPs will allow to upscale the guidelines previously developed at local scale to the more general and wider view point of the entire Adriatic basin focusing on lowlying coastal farmlands.

Više informacija na: https://programming14-20.italy-croatia.eu/web/secure