Pollution uses cases

An operational service to support the reduction of Floating Marine Litter in the coastal area. The FML-TRACK service provides an innovative solution to support the reduction of floating marine litter pollution in the coastal area. FML-TRACK uses an ensemble of new technologies to monitor and track marine litter origin and destination across the coastal ocean.

It includes:

• In-situ data (radar HF)
• Satellite observations (ocean colour)
• Forecasting Model data (waves and hydrodynamics)
• Marine litter transport model
• Video monitoring at river mouths

It is intended for public administrations, cleaning companies, associations and scientists to support a better understanding of marine litter along a given coastline and related decision making.

Air pollution is a serious issue affecting millions of people globally, leading to severe health problems. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) uses different observations to provide real-time, consistent, and quality-controlled information about air pollution and health worldwide, helping to reduce toxic elements in the air. CAMS data is used to create applications such as airText, a free service providing air quality forecasts for individual users, and the Plume Air Report, a mobile app that gives information on current and future levels of air pollution.

A near-real time service for coastal to nearshore waters to warn users and stakeholders about water quality sanitary risk has been developed. It uses a downscaling modeling suite model to monitor turbid plumes. The Copernicus Marine Service model is used as boundary conditions of the coastal model to provide higher resolution plumes. Fed by Copernicus Marine data, numerical models and optical imagery processing are coupled in order to improve the forecasting capacity. These tools are cross-validated by Copernicus Marine and local in-situ data. This service allows stakeholders to optimize preventive closure of recreational beaches in case of sanitary risk suspicion, e.g. bacterial -E. coli or coliform -contamination. In such case, the service also supports further the management of bathing water quality. In summary, it produces alerts in case of risk resulting in an efficient optimization of preventive beach closure, pollutant source identification, and finally aims to improve sewer system management. It also helps public stakeholders regarding health-care issues and limits impact on coastal zones economy, especially during the touristic summer period.

Microbial organisms, also referred to as pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses in water bodies can make waters unsafe for humans. Swimming and other recreational activities in water contaminated with pathogens can make people ill. Hence monitoring the microbial organisms in water bodies helps local authorities to protect human health.

Monitoring water quality in lakes and reservoirs is key in maintaining safe water for drinking, bathing, fishing and agriculture and aquaculture activities. Long-term trends and short-term changes are indicators of environmental health and changes in the water catchment area. Directives such as the EU's Water Framework Directive or the US EPA Clean Water Act request information about the ecological status of all lakes larger than 50 ha. Satellite monitoring helps to systematically cover a large number of lakes and reservoirs, reducing needs for monitoring infrastructure (e.g. vessels) and efforts.

The Lake Water Products (lake water quality, lake surface water temperature) provide a semi-continuous observation record for a large number (nominally 4,200) of medium and large-sized lakes, according to the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) or otherwise of specific environmental monitoring interest. Next to the lake surface water temperature that is provided separately, this record consists of three water quality parameters:

• The turbidity of a lake describes water clarity, or whether sunlight can penetrate deeper parts of the lake. Turbidity often varies seasonally, both with the discharge of rivers and growth of phytoplankton (algae and cyanobacteria).

• The trophic state index is an indicator of the productivity of a lake in terms of phytoplankton, and indirectly (over longer time scales) reflects the eutrophication status of a water body.

• Finally, the lake surface reflectances describe the apparent colour of the water body, intended for scientific users interested in further development of algorithms. The reflectance bands can also be used to produce true-colour images by combining the visual wavebands.

The project consists of setting up a pollution and impact monitoring system for lagoon areas. The objective is to develop an observation service to identify the causes of pollutions and its evolution. The service is based on the optimal use of various technologies: • Satellite observations to provide quantification and global monitoring over a territory with daily revisits. o Water quality: CMEMS Sentinel 2/MSI at 100m resolution. The dataset "Mediterranean Sea, Bio-Geo-Chemical, L4, monthly means and interpolated daily observation" is completed by "Mediterranean Sea, Bio-Geo-Chemical, L3, daily observation". o Air quality: Daily mean surface information from "CAMS European air quality forecasts", that is a median of 11 european models with assimilation of in situ and satellite observations. o Soil-adjusted vegetation index: sentinel 2 data, resolution 10m • A UAV boat to take water quality samples on a one-off basis and thus complement and calibrate the satellite measurements with better resolved data. • Connected beehives deployed in key areas to quantify the impact of observed events on the environment and biodiversity Main targeted users are institutions in charge of the management and environmental monitoring of lagoons littoral areas, local authorities or cities in coastal areas and private companies with an economic activity dependent on the environmental state of a lagoon. The service provides the following benefits: • Understand the environmental situation in the monitored area • Optimise actions and use of available funds • Implement and understand the impact of public policies on pollution control and vegetation actions • Monitor diffuse pollution problems that are difficult to identify (i.e. discharge from wastewater treatment plants)