A significant amount of the produced solid waste reaching the oceans is made of plastics. The amount of plastic debris in the ocean and coastal areas is steadily increasing and is now a major global environmental issue. The monitoring of marine plastic litter, ground-based monitoring systems and/or field campaigns are time-consuming, expensive, require great organisational efforts, and provide very limited information in terms of the spatial and temporal dynamics of marine debris. Earth Observation (EO) by satellite can contribute significantly to marine plastic litter detection. In 2019, a new hyperspectral satellite, called PRISMA, was launched by the Italian Space Agency. The high spectral resolution of PRISMA may allow for better detection of floating plastic materials. At the same time, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms have the potential to find hidden patterns and identify complex relations among data and are increasingly employed in EO. This paper presents the development of a new method of identifying floating plastic objects in coastal areas by exploiting pan-sharpened hyperspectral PRISMA data, based on the combination of unsupervised and supervised ML algorithms. The study consisted of a configuration phase, during which the algorithms were trained in a fully controlled test, and a validation phase, in which the pre-trained algorithms were applied to satellite data collected at different sites and in different periods of the year. Despite the limited input data, results suggest that the tested ML approach, applied to pan-sharpened PRISMA data, can effectively recognise floating objects and plastic targets. The study indicates that increasing input datasets can help achieve higher-quality results.

Rhodolith beds represent a key habitat worldwide, from tropical to polar ecosystems. Despite this habitat is considered a hotspot of biodiversity, providing a suite of ecosystem goods and services, still scarce quantitative information is available thus far about rhodolith beds occurrence and ecological role, especially in the Mediterranean Sea. This study reports the composition and patterns of distribution of rhodolith assemblages found in four study areas along ca. 860 km of coast in the Central Mediterranean Sea. These rhodolith beds were studied for the first time and significant differences at all spatial scales have been highlighted, documenting the high variability of this habitat. Rhodolith species composition, morphology and distribution have been discussed considering the potential role of environmental factors in driving these patterns. The need for improving their protection is discussed to complement present conservation and management initiatives, particularly in the frame of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The ADRIREEF project was targeted to valorization of the natural and artificial reefs in the Adriatic Sea according to the principles of the Blue Growth. ARPA Puglia identified the coralligenous reef in the Torre Guaceto MPA (Brindisi, Italy) as a case study for the project purposes. According to the project objectives, the Agency selected some low-impact monitoring methods, like a standard photographic sampling method for the benthic communities and the visual census method to describe the fish assemblages and finally a R.O.V. to test the applied methods and compare the obtained data.

To meet the objectives of the MSFD, 2008/56/EC, the Puglia Regional Agencies for the Prevention and Protection of the Environment (ARPA Puglia) performed a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the MPs on the basis of the data collected during 2015-2017 monitoring program. A total of 90 samples in 5 campaigns were collected using a manta net. The MPs average density of 0,469 n/m³ was calculated for the entire dataset. No significant statistical differences were detected among sampling sites, campaigns and distance from the coast.

In recent decades, the issue of marine litter has emerged as a major environmental concern, particularly with regard to plastic litter. The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) requires member states to monitor marine litter along the coast, in the water, and on the seabed. Since 2014, beach litter monitoring has been carried out in Italy’s coastal regions, an activity entrusted to the Regional Environmental Agencies System (ARPA). ARPA Puglia is responsible for monitoring the Apulian coastline, and this paper summarizes the main results obtained from 2014 to 2023. The monitoring, which was repeated twice a year, consists of a visual census of litter items along a 100-meter stretch of beach in six different locations across the Puglia region. During this period, an average of 506 litter items per 100 m were observed on the six target beaches in Puglia, 90% of which were plastic ones. Among these, single-use plastic items (SUPs) accounted for 37%. A trend analysis reveals a decline in the aggregate quantity of marine litter on Apulian beaches over the past decade, a phenomenon that is particularly evident when considering the SUP subcategory in isolation. This decreasing trend is consistent with the overall pattern observed along the Italian coastline and the coastlines of European seas. Consequently, it can be hypothesized that an increase in awareness of the issue, in conjunction with the implementation of European Directive 2019/904 for the reduction in single-use plastics, has resulted in more responsible practices. However, further efforts are needed to achieve the goal of 20 litter items per 100 m of beach to attain the Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The findings emphasize the importance of constant monitoring of litter items along the shoreline, as well as the integration of new and alternative methodologies (e.g., drone surveys) to evaluate the efficacy of European regulatory implementation.

ARPA Puglia carried out a numerical study to simulate the evolution of the turbidity plume geometry and to describe the bacterial dispersion caused by the discharge of a mixture of raw sewage and surface runoff from the so called condotta Matteotti into the marine-coastal waterbody close to the urban beach (bathing area) called “Pane e Pomodoro”. The condotta Matteotti is an underground concrete pipe connected with a spillway to the main sewer system: it acts as an emergency weir to prevent flooding during or soon after intense rainfall events. During these rainfalls the seaward sluice gates open, and the untreated sewage is discharged into the sea thus decreasing the water quality. The simulation, according to a heavy rainfall and overflow event occurred in July 2018, was implemented using the DHI's Mike 3 suite enhanced with the ECOlab module, both organized as step-by-step processes. The validation of the final model was performed by comparing the microbiological concentration resulted from the model application with the on-field measurements and samples collected by ARPA Puglia during its ordinary water monitoring activities.