Mapping of Italy’s Coastline for Marine Ecosystem Restoration
Fugro has been selected to map the coastal habitats of the entire Italian coast as part of the Italian government’s Marine Ecosystem Restoration (MER) project, a groundbreaking initiative under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) has selected Fugro, in partnership with Compagnia Generale Ripreseaeree (CGR), to leverage the company’s cutting-edge technology and extensive experience in coastal resilience solutions to deliver the crucial mapping component of the MER project.
MER aims to restore the marine habitats, fortify the national system for observing marine and coastal ecosystems, and comprehensively map coastal and marine habitats across Italian waters (specifically Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows). Fugro and its partners will use a mix of mapping methodologies.
The project, due to start in March 2024 and finish by June 2026, includes acquisition of hydrographic data utilizing state-of-the-art sensors, including airborne LiDAR and imagery, airborne gravimetry and satellite sensors covering 10,200 km2; vessel-based multibeam technology spanning 4,000 km2; and deployment of a Fugro AUV to cover 4,000 km of coastline for direct observation and ground-truthing of other data sets.
The collected data will be managed through VirGeo, Fugro’s cloud-based geodata engagement platform, to provide seabed and habitat mapping insights.