PERIOD
TYPE
International
STATUS
In progress

Summary

IMPACT "Port Impact on Marine Protected Areas: Cross-border Cooperative Actions" has as its objective the challenge of managing marine protected areas (MPA) close to port areas. The goal is to define cross-border sustainable management plans aimed at protecting protected areas that take into account the development needs of ports, both fundamental elements of Blue Growth. The project will provide essential support to the bodies responsible for implementing the Marine Strategy Framework Directory, in particular to the partners of the Tuscany Region, ISPRA (Italy) and Ifremer (France), which have been involved in this process for some time.
The three-year project was funded under the Interreg Italy-France Maritime 2014-2020 Program. 

 English abstract

 

Description

IMPACT will build a dedicated geographic information system on WEB (WEB GIS), whose information will be organized in specific datasets relating to:
the transport of sea currents between ports and MPAs, based on oceanographic measurements from coastal radar and drifters;
ecological retention properties of MPAs, obtained with ecological surveys and numerical models;
distributions of contaminants, based on historical data and dedicated measurements.
Maps with traffic light indices will be produced to estimate over time the vulnerability of the different areas within the MPA to the pressures associated with the proximity of ports.
The WEB-GIS platform will be an important interoperable unitary tool for the management of marine protected areas for the bodies in charge. 

Attività
IMPACT faces the challenge of sustainable port development within the cross-border cooperation space, in particular in relation to four Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), namely: Secche della Meloria, Cinque Terre, Port-Cros and Porquerolles, and the Marine Park of Cap Corse being set up.

The project will produce a series of governance tools (geospatial datasets, traffic light indices, dispersion scenarios, vulnerability maps, optimal monitoring indications) for the bodies responsible for managing MPAs and implementing monitoring plans. The project is based on an innovative multidisciplinary monitoring and modeling plan from different points of view.
Thanks to IMPACT:
  • the first cross-border network for measuring and monitoring marine currents will be created and updated, which will affect the borders of Tuscany, Corsica, Liguria and the PACA Region. The network will be absata on coastal oceanographic radars, capitalizing on the investments made in previous recent international and national projects (SICOMAR, JERICO-NEXT and RITMARE). Thanks to this network it will be possible to have an oceanographic characterization of the surface currents over a large part of the area of ​​cross-border cooperation.
  • historical data and dedicated measurements of population genetics and concentrations of different contaminants are brought together under a single frame of reference, relating them to the variability of local and regional currents.
  • thanks to ad hoc simulations, the correct dimensions and self-consistency of the marine protected areas considered will be quantified for the first time, in order to possibly propose different and dynamic zoning criteria, which support not only environmental protection needs but economic development. 
Partner
ISMAR CNR, Lead partner
CIBM -  Centro Interuniversitario di Biologia Marina ed ecologia applicata G. Bacci 
Consorzio LaMMA 
IFREMER -  Institut Français de Recherche pour l\'Exploitation de la Mer 
ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale 
CNRS - Laboratoire d\'Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques