earlier start: 7th - 7th June 2013 University of Basilicata, Matera, Italy

6th EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Coastal Zone

Topics

Southern Italy

The global implementation of the strategic plan for Coastal GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) and the Panel for Integrated Coastal Ocean Observations (PICO) suggested adoption of an adaptive, Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA) for sustainable development, including marine spatial planning and management. In this context EBA requires the sustained provision of multidisciplinary data (biogeochemical and ecological as well as geophysical) and information on ecosystems states, especially in the coastal zone where goods and services are most concentrated.

The identified priority indicators of the ecosystem state (health) are:

Essential variables to be measured include both ecosystem state variables and external pressures, as listed in the above mentioned PICO report:

External Pressure:

Ecosystem States:

Remote sensing methodologies represent a real opportunity for estimating at least some of these essential variables with increasing precision, starting from basic measured variables such as remote sensing reflectance, emitted radiation, or radar backscattering.

Current literature proposes a large variety of (often empirical) algorithms for estimation of environmental parameters from basic remotely sensed variables, but in most cases their quality is still far from meeting quality requirements for monitoring environmental parameters of the coastal zone, both in terms of accuracy as well as temporal or spatial resolution. This means that specific efforts must be devoted to investigation of remote sensing capabilities for applications in coastal zones aiming at the detection of key coastal environmental parameters and to propose new ideas to achieve better results in terms of accuracy requirements.

Considering this general framework and future challenges for the coastal zone remote sensing community, the 6th Workshop represents an ideal opportunity for discussing these themes and trace the route for forthcoming projects and collaborations. Themes proposed for discussions are:


and their investigation with Remote Sensing:
Previous events: