Fugro delivers enhanced marine protection for Italy’s coastal waters
Real-time data is crucial for protecting coastal communities. To support this, Italy’s ISPRA has contracted Fugro to develop the ROCA network, which will monitor offshore waves and currents and include tsunami early-warning stations in the Sardinian Channel and South Ionian Sea. The two-year project will be carried out with Italian partners Poliservizi and Prisma.
The contract is part of ISPRA’s Marine Ecosystem Restoration (MER) project, a groundbreaking initiative under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, that aims to restore marine habitats, fortify the national system for observing marine and coastal ecosystems, and comprehensively map coastal and marine habitats across Italian waters.
Fugro is taking the lead in designing, installing and operating the ROCA network, while Italian partners oversee marine operations and service work. This advanced monitoring system includes 11 SEAWATCH Wavescan buoys positioned in Italian waters at depths ranging from 210 to 3,000m, covering the Adriatic, South Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas.
These buoys will deliver real-time geodata on key parameters such as wave height, currents, air and water conditions, and wind. A reliable two-way satellite communication system will link them to a data-receiving centre established by Fugro for ISPRA. As part of Italy’s MER project, the network also supports seabed and habitat mapping, including crucial seagrass surveys. This work will aid in protecting marine biodiversity while promoting sustainable activities such as fishing and tourism and fostering a resilient blue economy.
Optimal spatial coverage
Giordano Giorgi, ISPRA’s national coordinator of the MER project and director of ISPRA’s National Centre for Coasts, said: “The ROCA network represents an indispensable tool to acquire detailed and reliable data and information on climate change that is affecting, and will affect, our countries in the future. In fact, today’s climate change scenarios are based on global modelling systems that do not consider specific and proper measured data on currents in the Mediterranean Sea. In this respect, the ROCA network will provide an optimal spatial coverage of Italian waters and the Mediterranean Sea.”
Jørn Erik Norangshol, Fugro’s regional service line director, Metocean Science for Europe and Africa, said: “Having implemented many similar real-time metocean monitoring systems for national authorities across the globe and over several decades, we’re looking forward to delivering another important monitoring project based on our world-leading geodata solutions. Marine ecosystems are vital to our planet’s health and this new project for ISPRA aligns closely with our own Towards Full Potential Strategy, providing the monitoring data to support urgently needed climate change adaptation to contribute to a safer and more liveable world for everyone.”