Description: The purpose of the guidelines is to review existing knowledge and provide guidance for designing an Arctic monitoring program that will track litter and MP. The topics of litter, plastic pollution, and MP are addressed in many fora, including several of the Arctic Council working groups: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP; https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/amap-assessment-2016-chemicals-of-emerging-arctic-concern/1624), Protection of the Marine Environment (PAME, 2019), and Conservation of the Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). The development of an Arctic monitoring program and its technical approaches will be based on the work that already exists in other programs such as those of OSPAR, the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Plastic pollution is typically categorized into items and particles of macro-, micro-, and nano-sizes. These guidelines address macrosized litter as well as MP (〈 5 mm), essentially including smaller size ranges (〉1 µm). However, determination of nanoplastic (〈 1 µm) particles is still hampered by technical challenges, as addressed in Section 4.3 Analytical methods, and thus not currently considered in the current recommendations. Although most studies have addressed marine litter and MP, these guidelines also comprise the Arctic’s terrestrial and freshwater environments. Thus, the objectives of the guidelines are to: 1) support litter and MP baseline mapping in the Arctic across a wide range of environmental compartments to allow spatial and temporal comparisons in the coming years; 2) initiate monitoring to generate data to assess temporal and spatial trends; 3) recommend that Arctic countries develop and implement monitoring nationally via community-based programs and other mechanisms, in the context of a pan-Arctic program; 4) provide data that can be used with the Marine Litter Regional Action Plan (ML-RAP) to assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies; 5) act as a catalyst for future work in the Arctic related to biological effects of plastics, including determining environmentally relevant concentrations and informing cumulative effects assessments; 6) identify areas in which research and development are needed from an Arctic perspective; and 7) provide recommendations for monitoring programs whose data will feed into future global assessments to track litter and MP in the environment. To achieve these objectives, the guidelines present indicators (with limitations) of litter and MP pollution to be applied throughout the Arctic, and thus, form the basis for circumpolar comparability of approaches and data. In addition, the guidelines present technical details for sampling, sample treatment, and plastic determination, with harmonized and potentially standardized approaches. Furthermore, recommendations are given on sampling locations and sampling frequency based on best available science to provide a sound basis for spatial and temporal trend monitoring. As new data are gathered, and appropriate power analyses can be undertaken, a review of the sampling sizes, locations, and frequencies should be initiated. Plastic pollution is a local problem in Arctic communities, and thus, guidelines and references need to include community-based monitoring projects to empower communities to establish plastics monitoring with comparable results across the Arctic. Community-based monitoring is an integrated part of the objectives of this report. The monitoring program design and guidelines for its implementation are the necessary first steps for monitoring and assessment of litter and MP in the Arctic. The work under the AMAP LMEG is taking a phased approach under this new expert group. The first phase (which included the development of these Monitoring Guidelines) focuses on a monitoring framework and set of techniques for physical plastics. Later phases of the work will extend to assessments of levels, trends, and effects of litter and MP in the Arctic environment. The guidelines strictly cover environmental monitoring of litter and MP. This does not include drinking water or indoor air quality tests. Additionally, although there is an emphasis on examining litter and MP in biota that are consumed by humans, and thus of interest to human-health questions, the guidelines do not consider MP ingestion by humans.

Description: Remote sensing of night light emissions in the visible band offers a unique opportunity to directly observe human activity from space. This has allowed a host of applications including mapping urban areas, estimating population and GDP, monitoring disasters and conflicts. More recently, remotely sensed night lights data have found use in understanding the environmental impacts of light emissions (light pollution), including their impacts on human health. In this review, we outline the historical development of night-time optical sensors up to the current state of the art sensors, highlight various applications of night light data, discuss the special challenges associated with remote sensing of night lights with a focus on the limitations of current sensors, and provide an outlook for the future of remote sensing of night lights. While the paper mainly focuses on space borne remote sensing, ground based sensing of night-time brightness for studies on astronomical and ecological light pollution, as well as for calibration and validation of space borne data, are also discussed. Although the development of night light sensors lags behind day-time sensors, we demonstrate that the field is in a stage of rapid development. The worldwide transition to LED lights poses a particular challenge for remote sensing of night lights, and strongly highlights the need for a new generation of space borne night lights instruments. This work shows that future sensors are needed to monitor temporal changes during the night (for example from a geostationary platform or constellation of satellites), and to better understand the angular patterns of light emission (roughly analogous to the BRDF in daylight sensing). Perhaps most importantly, we make the case that higher spatial resolution and multispectral sensors covering the range from blue to NIR are needed to more effectively identify lighting technologies, map urban functions, and monitor energy use.

Description: This contribution presents the detailed responses to the peer-review of Froese et al. (2019) “Estimating stock status from relative abundance and resilience” (ICES J. Mar. Sci. 2019) which outlined a method called “AMSY” for inferring biomass trends for stocks for which only catch-per-unit-effort and limited ancillary (‘priors’) data are available. The responses emphasize that the required priors are legitimate and straightforward to obtain, thus, making AMSY a method of choice in data-sparse situations. This is also a good example of the role of peer-review in validating and improving science.

Description: The aim of this deliverable is to establish a strategy for the proper exploitation and dissemination of the results obtained in OceanNETs. We develop guidelines for knowledge management and protection as well as dissemination goals and also identify the target audiences and define the relevant communication channels and tools.

Description: Establishing sustainable and responsible speleotourism development is a major challenge and involves complex activities. Adequate theoretical starting point is the application of geoethical values related to the conservation and protection of the caves to be used for touristic purposes. Positive and negative cases of human behaviors towards speleological geoheritage are discussed, in order to highlight what should be done in cave management to avoid malpractices and on what elements could be founded adequate strategies aimed at promoting sustainable speleotourism. This is important to tourism management organizations involved in the promotion of caves and in creating economic opportunities for local populations, while respecting cave ecosystems. Modern cave management must be focused on the protection of the cave ecosystems, finding ways to achieve at the same time an economic development of local communities. But this approach needs the adoption of a geoethical framework of values to be shared by all stakeholders involved so that successful cooperation can be achieved despite differences in interests and expectations. The aim of this paper is to raise the awareness about the need to apply the values of geoethics to speleotourism, stimulating new fields of discussion within the scientific and technical communities involved in studies and activities related to geotourism and geoheritage. The possibilities of developing new ways to manage caves, in order to promote a sustainable socio-economic development of local communities, have to be balanced with the protection of natural environments as much as possible. The proposed theoretical frameworks have the goal to increase the discussion on the best ways of connecting speleotourism to sustainable and responsible cave management, presenting two case studies, and pointing out potential solutions.

Description: Open access funding provided by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia within the CRUI-CARE Agreement

Description: Published

Description: id 73

Description: 7SR AMBIENTE – Servizi e ricerca per la società

Description: 1TM. Formazione

Description: 2TM. Divulgazione Scientifica

Description: JCR Journal

Description: Since the early ages of humankind, safety and security has been a critical issue against the forces of nature. However, history has always proven the power of nature over humankind in certain regions on Earth for centuries. Indeed, this is a never-ending war between Earth and its inhabitants, namely us, human beings. Humankind’s organization (cities, roads, lifelines etc.) in the nature has never been perfect within the view of environmental pollution and excessive consumption of the resources. Particularly, the quality of civil engineering design and practice is strongly affected from the social and economic background of the country. The societies in rapid development claim excessive demands in terms of housing and transportation. Such demands may create vulnerable urban areas if the economic and social conditions are not in balance or harmony. Thus, nature should not be blamed as the scapegoat in the regions where disasters claim human and economic losses. In fact, the reason for the losses is nothing else than humankind itself. A rational question arises then about how to overcome human and economic loss due to natural disasters. The idea of determining the most vulnerable items in urban areas and reconstructing with the most reliable equivalents may seem very challenging. Even though the macroeconomic implications are very complex, reconstructing the items in densely populated areas is the most effective mitigation action against disasters in the short term. Having learnt lessons from the major earthquake disasters in the heart of the industry and mostly dense urban areas, Turkish government has drawn a long strategic road map in the risk perception and the disaster mitigation strategy for almost all the community services and the infrastructure. The development of awareness against disasters has become part of formal education at all ages. The National Disaster Management system was reorganized from scratch and the capabilities improved by providing additional financial and human resources. All school and hospital buildings in İstanbul were assessed in terms of seismic safety. Those found inadequate were demolished and then reconstructed. In addition, a law on urban renewal of the seismic risk areas was enacted in 2012 allowing the licensed engineering offices to assess the seismic risk of residential buildings at the request of the house owners. If the assessment report is approved by the local municipality, the building is set to demolish within 60 days following the legal notice to the property owners. Disagreeing owners have the right to get the assessment re-evaluated by the independent peer reviewers. In the case of demolition, the house owners are eligible to receive 12 months of rental support from the government. During the time period 2012 to 2019, more than 120 000 buildings were assessed and 74% of them were demolished, the majority of the latter were in İstanbul area where a major earthquake is expected within the following decades. This chapter is intended to explain one of the most comprehensive and challenging disaster mitigation strategies being applied in Turkey based on experience since the 1999 earthquakes.

Description: Published

Description: 19-42

Description: 6T. Studi di pericolosità sismica e da maremoto

Description: R/V Alkor Cruise AL543 was planned as a six-day cruise with a program of water column and sediment sampling in Kiel Bight and the western Baltic Sea. Due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the original plan had to be changed and the cruise was realized as six oneday cruises with sampling in Kiel Bight exclusively. The first day was dedicated to water column and sediment sampling for radionuclide analyses at Boknis Eck and Mittelgrund in Eckernförde Bay. On the remaining five days, water column, bottom water, sediment and pore water samples were collected at eleven stations covering different types of seafloor environment (grain size, redox conditions) in western Kiel Bight. The data and samples obtained on cruise AL543 will be used to investigate (i) the sedimentary cycling of bio-essential metals (e.g., nickel, zinc, and their isotopes) as a function of variable redox conditions, (ii) the impact of submarine groundwater discharge and diffusive benthic fluxes on the distribution of radium and radon as well as greenhouse gases (methane and nitrous oxide) in the water column, and (iii) to characterize and quantify the impact of coastal erosion on sedimentary iron, phosphorus and rare earth element cycling in Kiel Bight.

Description: Rapid technological advances in airborne hyperspectral and lidar systems paved the way for using machine learning algorithms to map urban environments. Both hyperspectral and lidar systems can discriminate among many significant urban structures and materials properties, which are not recognizable by applying conventional RGB cameras. In most recent years, the fusion of hyperspectral and lidar sensors has overcome challenges related to the limits of active and passive remote sensing systems, providing promising results in urban land cover classification. This paper presents principles and key features for airborne hyperspectral imaging, lidar, and the fusion of those, as well as applications of these for urban land cover classification. In addition, machine learning and deep learning classification algorithms suitable for classifying individual urban classes such as buildings, vegetation, and roads have been reviewed, focusing on extracted features critical for classification of urban surfaces, transferability, dimensionality, and computational expense.