Gioiosa Marea (ME), Capo Calavà east
The European project BESS for management and control has ended of the erosion of 'small beaches' through an integrated system of remote multi-parameter surveillance
The project BESS (Pocket Beach Management & Remote Surveillance System) financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union under the "Operational Program Italy - Malta 2014-2020" is concluded.
BESS, coordinated by the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences (MIFT) of the University of Messina (UniME), was created in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Palermo Section ( PA-INGV), with the Department of Earth Sciences (DiSTeM) of the University of Palermo (UniPA), with the Ministry of Gozo (Malta) and with the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Insular Coastal Dynamics (ICoD) of the 'University of Malta.
“The objective of the project was to create a management and control system for the erosion of 'pocket beaches', micro-beaches delimited by promontories that survive thanks to a delicate balance between the erosion produced by the motion of the waves and the deposits of sediments from the hinterland”, explains Francesco Italiano, Director of the Palermo Section of INGV. "The management of these ecosystems will be possible thanks to an integrated model of multi-parametric remote surveillance network aimed at acquiring and processing information provided by satellites, drones, cameras, maps and terrestrial and marine surveys".
BESS, which focused on the southern sector of the Mediterranean basin, made it possible to identify 132 pocket beaches distributed between Sicily and Malta, grouped within a Territorial Information System.
“INGV collaborates in the project with its network of multi-parameter stations equipped with sensors capable of detecting the effect of sea waves on 'pocket beaches', as well as recording and managing the data collected by the partner Universities of Messina, Palermo and Malta”, adds Italian. "All the information will be loaded into a database and, through the IT infrastructures of the multidisciplinary monitoring room of the INGV in Palermo, made available to the Territorial Information System".
Once the remote surveillance network has been perfected, the Information System can be made available to policy makers, sector operators and researchers, establishing a dialogue between science and stakeholders aimed at coastal management that can remove the causes of marine erosion, restore natural conditions to enhance the resilience characteristics of beaches, safeguard the economy of coastal areas and counteract the effects of climate change and rapidly changing weather conditions marine.
"The appointment at the beginning of February allowed us to address the issue of the danger of coastal erosion in the marine environment and how it is possible, thanks to projects such as BESS, to activate an integrated plan for monitoring and protecting these small bays", concludes Italian. "The presence of surveillance infrastructures such as the one proposed could also represent an important pole of attraction for investments in the Sicilian territory, not only from a scientific point of view but also from an industrial point of view for technologies related to the marine environment, a sector in continuous development at a international".
Bess project website: http://bess.pa.ingv.it/