ITINERIS - Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System - Marine Domain

Sound knowledge and understanding of the ocean, a critical component of the Earth systems, is essential to mitigate human impacts on the global environment and to promote the ocean’s sustainable use and blue economy. Effective ocean management depends on marine observations, generated by existing national or regional ocean observing systems and networks. In the last two decades, significant investment in ocean observing infrastructures and facilities has been made by Italy to contribute to the European effort on ocean observations. As emphasised by the Italian Oceanographic Commission (COI), the national body of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, it is mandatory to coordinate the national effort on ocean observations and implement a single portal where all Italian marine monitoring systems and modelling results are displayed and all marine data are visible and easily accessible.

On this aim, the ITINERIS Marine Domain is establishing the Italian Integrated Ocean Observing System (IT-IOOS) to coordinate national observations to improve quality and interoperability of ocean data, for three critical themes: climate, operational services, and marine ecosystem health.  ITINERIS Marine Domain is building up IT-IOOS by incorporating and scaling-up existing ocean observing capabilities via integration and harmonization of observations carried out by RIs.  The involved marine RIs are the Italian nodes of  DANUBIUS, eLTER, EMSO ERIC, EURO-ARGO, EUROFLEETS, ICOS ERIC, JERICO, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, N/R Laura Bassi, SIOS, GeoSciences. The National Marine Data Center, designed by the Italian Oceanographic Commission, national body of  as a distributed system, is under implemention in order to provide a single access point to Italian marine data.  The IT-IOOS data center will be interfaced with existing RI data centers as well as thematic data centers and ITINERIS central HUB.

Thanks to ITINERIS project, crucial data gaps in EOVs and EBVs observation will be filled to ensure continuity and increase monitoring of biochemistry, biological and ecosystem EOVs. On this aim, key sites is upgraded to improve acquisition of biological observations at ecosystem level by exploiting both automated and new technologies.  The capability of Italian research ships to provide continuous NRT ship-based observations has been expanded  to contribute to the international effort on full-depth, coast-to-coast ship based transect measurements. Data will be made available through the IT-IOOS data center in order to guarantee data fairness. . Finally, pilot services will be developed to tackle overarching marine issues and to respond to key stakeholder requirements, this will allow to demonstrate the impact of the integration and harmonization of data and facilities. This will enhance and strengthen the actions undertaken for the study, management and protection of the sea system by the research community and stakeholders.