Technologies list

ENEA has developed a digital cartography of the coastal-marine habitat by using Remote Sensing (RS) technologies. Specifically, they provide non-stop mapping to reconstruct the history of the Earth’s surface, monitor changes in near-real time, and follow the marine ecosystem response to climate changes. RS is particularly suitable for digital habitat mapping in remote and geographically extensive areas, allowing for prompt and effective management of local ecosystems. Hence, ENEA can help SIDS (Small Island Developing Countries) or other countries to sustainably manage and protect their marine and coastal ecosystems.

• Production of digital cartographic information for marine spatial planning
• Planning of Marine-coastal environment with identification of potential Marine Protected Areas
• Collection of information for restoring degraded ecosystems
• Cost-effective and prompt generation of data on the habitat conditions for environmental and health protection and conservation purposes
• Effective management of the territory, also large remote areas
• Identification of areas most

Two projects — "A National Marine Spatial Plan for Vanuatu, including a Network of Marine Protected Areas" and "Strengthening Protected Area Management in the Kingdom of Tonga" — were established under agreements between the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) and the respective environmental ministries of the two countries involved. Their main objective was to promote the sustainable management of coastal areas by monitoring and protecting the most valuable coastal habitats — such as coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds — from the impacts of climate change and human activities.

To support this goal, an open-source digital cartography was developed at a nominal scale of 1:100,000, focusing on the key coastal marine habitats of these two archipelagos. This cartography was produced through image analysis and photointerpretation of freely available Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Programme.

The image processing enabled the mapping of coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows within a free and updatable geographic information system (GIS).

Atlas of Coastal Marine Habitat Republic of Vanuatu

Atlas of Coastal Marine Habitat Kingdom of Tonga