Monitoring Northern Adriatic Seashore At Jesolo Resort

Jesolo is the main seaside resort on the northern Adriatic seashore, and among the most important along the whole Italian coast, attracting millions of international tourists every year. It is located in northwest Italy, close by the Venice lagoon. During late fall and winter, it is exposed to intense wind storms that cause severe sediment mobilization and, in some cases, beach reshaping events. Considering its economic relevance and the multiple activities taking place on the sea (tourism, fishery, diving, etc.), Jesolo beach is an ideal candidate for implementing research activities aimin to investigate marine and coastal dynamics. The development of innovative modeling and monitoring approaches will lead to more efficient coastal planning and management, in the wake of the increasing awareness about coastal vulnerability issues, including climate change-related phenomena. In the framework of the Italian Flagship Project RITMARE—the Italian Research for the Sea, Subproject 3 (Coastal Waters), Workpackage 4 (Coastal Oceanographic Modeling), the Jesolo littoral zone has been identified as the Strategic Test Area for the study of coastal dynamics and for the collection of a time series of integrated measurements to support comprehensive, detailed insight on coastal circulation, wave dynamics, sediment transport and coastal erosion. The research plan, launched in spring 2013, envisaged the deployment of an acoustic system for the continuous measurement of vertical 3D current profiles and wave spectral parameters approaching the coast. A video monitoring system was installed for a high-frequency survey of the key morphological metrics along the coastal reach. Thisis flanked by a morphobathymetric survey plan allowing a high-detail description of morphological variations, a thorough estimate of sediment fluxes and the validatio of the video monitoring system. The research area covers approximately 1.5 square kilometers, ranging nearly 1 kilometer in the long-shore direction and 1.5 kilometers in the cross-shore direction, reaching an offshore depth of 10 meters and enclosing the whole active beach. The data collected will be used for calibrating of a standard alkaline battery in these conditions is approximately 100 days, but the bottleneck for system maintenance is caused by severe biofouling occurring in the shallow working environment, requiring at least monthly upkeep inspections.