CALYPSO SOUTH
Università degli Studi di Palermo, Transport Malta, Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente della Sicilia, Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero, Civil Protection Department
Abstract
The project tackles the common challenge of safety in maritime transport, the preservation of human lives at sea and the protection of marine-coastal resources. Technological progress and the results of scientific research are put at the service of the humanitarian response in emergency situations, in a joint manner, in order to reduce the risks associated with migration flows and maritime transport.
CALYPSO SOUTH benefits from the developments of the previous CALYPSO and CALYPSO FOLLOW ON with the following general objectives:
extend the coverage of the HF network towards the western part of the Sicilian-Maltese channel and south of the Maltese archipelago;
- extend the coverage of the HF network towards the western part of the Sicilian-Maltese channel and south of the Maltese archipelago
- implement monitoring and forecasting tools;
- provide services aimed at supporting the competent authorities in maritime safety operations. The availability of these innovative tools allows the bodies responsible to reduce the intervention times by limiting the research areas.
The main outputs include the installation of weather stations for the implementation of integrated port security applications, and the expansion of the HF network to increase coverage in strategic areas, as well as the quality of the data distributed through oriented applications. The actors involved in the international relief chain are benefiting, including: Armed Forces of Malta, Transport Malta, the two departments of Civil Protection, the Italian Coast Guard and the Italian Navy, thanks to the optimization of the navigation safety and safeguard operations of the sea. The synergistic approach of project actions is aimed at consolidating transnational cooperation, given the cross-border characteristic of the problem. Observations and models indicate, in fact, that the variability of surface currents and wind is such that a danger triggered in one of the territorial waters could affect the others; safety at sea also largely involves international waters, whose monitoring requires the installation of HF stations on both national shores. The project is a further element towards the establishment of an innovative offshore information highway for support in the area of competent authorities.
