Critical marine environment observation: Measurement problems, technological solutions and procedural methods

This paper focus on the observation of critical marine environments, pointing out the difficulties that these kinds of dynamic, sensitive and fragile environments create for monitoring operations. The technological solutions adopted, through the use of robotic vehicles, and the operating procedures implemented are also described. The data acquired in two particular critical environments, the front of tidewater glaciers in Svalbard and an area in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea affected by submarine gas emissions allow us to identify and characterise phenomena strongly localised and requiring very high resolutions, both in space and time. This result can be useful to obtain environmental indicators that can be used as hazard precursors and, eventually, to implement alarm procedures.