Management of coastal and marine natural resources presents a number of challenges as a growing global population and a changing climate require us to find better strategies to conserve the resources on which our health, economy, and overall well-being depend. To evaluate the status and trends in changing coastal resources over larger areas, managers in government agencies and private stakeholders around the world have increasingly turned to remote sensing technologies.

The BIVALVIANET, in cooperation with companies specializing in this sector, will apply satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques to provide coastal managers with information on wetland losses, biomass changes, invasive species, riparian buffers, suspended sediment and chlorophyll concentrations and other environmental features and processes.

An innovative automated system will be developed, installed and tested; it will also be evaluated in terms of functionality and impact on product quality and on the development of the mussel production sector in general. Among the expected results are the improvement of economic performance, the reduction of risk and uncertainty, the overall improvement of farm management, the increase of labor efficiency and the protection of farms from external factors.

The BIVALVIANET is planning to install a complete floating monitoring station of currents, wave analysis, meteorological parameters and water quality measuring and logging.

The data transmission will be made via mobile telephone every 15 minutes. The buoy is equipped with all the required marking systems (radar reflector, lamp, etc.). The data are logged in a database and simultaneously automatically populate a web page. The system is expandable and can accept extra sensors.