In_Sand

In-Sand is a tool to face with an integrated approach the problem of coastal erosion.

A new layer has been added to the SIC (information system on coast and sea of Emilia-Romagna region), essential for a correct planning of nourishment interventions along the coast. Developed in collaboration with ISMAR-CNR, the database consists in geometries, tables and images revealing the perimeter of the deposits, their thickness, the lithology and the usable volume of sands.

Over the past 10 years the Emilia-Romagna region has completed two large beach nourishment projects using undersea sand deposits.

The Sea and Coast Information System (SIC) is thus enriched by an essential element for the planning of future projects nourishment.

It was just during the implementation of the two extraordinary interventions of nourishment in 2002 and 2007 that the need for an operational tool for the consultation and the rapid analysis to support decision-making and a tool to design sand nourishments from offshore deposits emerged .

To address this need, SGSS signed an agreement with ISMAR-CNR, the National research Centre, Marine Geology Unit, that in collaboration with ARPA DT (Technical Direction, specialist sea and coast Unit ), acquires, processes and stores most of the data regarding the underwater sand deposits.

Technical report

To populate in_Sand, all geognostic and geophysical data collected in research projects since the 80s to the present were used, data collected in the offshore portion of the sands of the Adriatic platform in front of the Emilia-Romagna region.

The operational project has been focused on three main objectives, namely:

1. to have a geodatabase of all data and cartographic products processed, useful to the characterization of the deposits and monitoring of interventions;
2. To be able to manage the stages of planning and design of interventions through applications for automatic calculation of the quantities of sand;
3. To develop a strategy for the management of these sand deposits.

The effectiveness of this tool depends strictly by the ongoing update of the database with the data newly acquired mostly made of multibeam bathymetry (multibeam) of deposits in question and information on the monitoring of interventions. The updating of the database should therefore be scheduled within the regional strategies of exploitation of the resource submerged sand .

The testing phase of the system is one of the pilot actions of the European Project SHAPE and will be completed during the future nourishment projects .