Last month ISPRA (Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) and the Italian Navy signed a three-year Framework Agreement to start a stable co-operation on several fields, including marine environmental monitoring, anti-pollution activities and operational oceanography.
By signing this agreement both public institutions, according to their respective institutional activities, are willing to enhance and further develop their capacities, maximizing the possible combination of their resources. In particular, the Italian navy will support ISPRA’s marine research and monitoring activities with specific regard to ocean and the deep sea. Means of integration of the existing marine monitoring networks and infrastructures (wavemeter, coastal radars, etc.) will be explored also considering the new EU Copernicus programme developemnt.
ISPRA manages the Italian national data buoy network (RON – Rete Ondametrica Nazionale) which includes 15 directional wave buoys and the corresponding land based receiving stations, collecting real time series of wave and meteorological parameters every 30 minutes. The network is located at the very heart of the Mediterranean Sea, providing data to define the state of the sea useful for several sea basins. To improve the RON marine monitoring capability for different purposes (environmental protection, safety, surveillance and forecasting, maritime planning) next foreseen steps are directed towards the integration of different infrastructures and instruments. The cooperation with the Italian Navy will contribute to this overall objective.
