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Home Case History The Marine face of Rheticus: coastal water monitoring of the Epirus Region

The Marine face of Rheticus: coastal water monitoring of the Epirus Region

Introduction

Eutrophication of coastal areas is one of the most important and long lasting water quality problems for densely populated and industrialised countries. It can greatly affect coastal ecosystems. It is included among the Descriptors of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) needed for evaluating the Good Environment Status (GES) of marine areas. Furthermore, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) includes eutrophication in the classification of ecological status because it affects biological and physical-chemical water quality.

Problem

The Water Directorate of the Decentralized Administrations of Epirus and Western Macedonia is in charge of provide stakeholders (e.g., fishermen, professionals in the aquaculture sector, scientific communities, etc.) with focused and actionable information on water quality in coastal areas they live/work in. Rheticus® Marine is where the regional authority found what they needed.

Rheticus® Marine Interface
Rheticus® Marine Interface

Solution

In order to monitoring the eutrophication risk of the coastal water of Epirus Region (Greece), The Water Directorate of the Decentralized Administrations of Epirus and Western Macedonia activated Rheticus® Marine.

Rheticus® Marine is the operational service focused on monitoring coastal water quality and eutrophication. It exploits EO open data such as those provided by TERRA/AQUA, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites together with the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) products for providing measurements of water quality parameters relevant for the eutrophication assessment (e.g. Chlorophyll-a Concentration, Water Transparency, Turbidity, Sea Surface Temperature, and so forth). Rheticus® Marine supports end-user to implement environmental

Rheticus® Marine Interface
Rheticus® Marine Interface

policies from local to international level, fulfilling requirements in the field of marine environment policy (i.e. MSFD, WFD, UN Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme, and so forth).

The Water Directorate of Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia enthusiastically adopted the innovative service, successfully providing its citizens with the needed information and overcoming difficulties and costs of field measurement campaigns. Local authority inquired into seawaters’ quality, health and evolution over time, reaching a fascinating full picture of the state of coastal areas and marine resources, easily spotting trends and anticipating risky situations and harmful events.

Customer Statement

“Thanks to Rheticus® Marine, we are able to provide our citizens with everyday accurate and reliable information about the eutrophication risk over our regional coastal area.”

Serafim Tsipelis, Director of Water Directorate of Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia

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