HAZADR Strengthening common reaction capacity to fight sea pollution of oil, toxic and hazardous substances in Adriatic Sea OGS (Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale) Gulf of Trieste Kick off meeting Bari, January 2013

Partner’s institutional profile The knowledge of the surface marine currents is extremely important both for diagnostics and prediction of the oil-spill extension. The most efficient measurement technology for this part of the water flow are coasta high-frequenci radars. OGS (National Institute of Oceanography) as a scientific partner, having long-term experiences (about two decades) on the methodology, analysis and data interpretation from HF radars represents a key partner within the HAZADR community.

Main threats to your coasts due to technological hazards or needs The most serious threats of our area (Gulf of Trieste) are associated with heavy maritime traffic due to the presence of two harbours in the area (Trieste, Koper) with the crude oil terminal near Trieste (~ tons of crude oil per year).

Expectations from the project The project in our area should stimulate investments in the long-term monitoring network of the surface currents, development of tools for the efficient prediction of the surface flow in function of the local wind (bora which can be the crucial in spreading and oil spill transport). The most important future effort should be oriented towards the HF radar data assimilation into the surface flow predicting models.

Our contribution to HAZADR Our contribution as a scientific partner is in setting up the surface current measurement site in the Gulf of Trieste together with the Marine Biological Station from Piran, data quality check, analysis and interpretation. In addition, the data will be made available to all partners, end users and stakeholders. OGS will also interact with IZOR in setting up the measurement site in the Croatian coastal area.