Monitoraggio integrato della qualità delle acque marino-costiere nel Tirreno Nord-Occidentale.

The main components of a marine monitoring system for the area between the Ligurian and the Northern Tyrrhenian Seas are shortly described. The system integrates observations and ocean models at a regional scale. The operational chain dealing with satellite data is mainly concentrated on the parameters of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentration. The latter is particularly important in the evaluation of water quality and trophic characteristics, besides being a tracer for the hydrodynamics. The development of the hydrodynamic model ROMS configured for the regional Tuscan sea, together with observational campaigns whose data are used for calibration and verification of models and remote observations. The entire work was developed in close collaboration with the French institute IFREMER, in a perspective of cooperation and shared objectives, methodologies and results as outlined in the recent European directives.