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SMARTLAGOON at the RAMONES Summer School on Environmental Intelligence

Last July, the Environmental Summer School of the RAMONES project, held from July 3rd to 7th, 2024, took place in Methana, Greece. Part of the SMARTLAGOON team attended the school at the invitation of the RAMONES team. The event focused on the monitoring of radioactivity in marine ecosystems and brought together around 30 participants from different scientific disciplines and backgrounds, including students, professors and research professionals. The opening session of the Summer School was chaired by Theodoros Mertzimekis and Eleni Petra, both from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Together with the representatives of the municipality, including the Mayor of Troizinia-Methana, Mr Tasos Mougios,...

SMARTLAGOON 2024 Annual Meeting

During the last week of June, the SMARTLAGOON team gathered together at the UCAM HiTech Innovation hub for the 2024 annual meeting. This was the occasion to discuss the project's progress, address pending issues, and plan future activities as the project comes closer to its conclusion. Here is a recap of the meeting's key sessions and discussions.   Monday, June 24 SMARTLAGOON Project Status After an official welcome session, an overview of the project's status was presented, highlighting significant milestones achieved and outlining the objectives for the last months of the project. Mar Menor - Erken Lake Monitoring The monitoring activities for Mar Menor and Erken Lake were reviewed, focusing...

Highlights from the II Environmental Intelligence Summer School

SMARTLAGOON and WATCHPlant are delighted to announce that the II Environmental Intelligence Summer School, held from June 19th to 21st, 2024, at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), was a tremendous success. The event, dedicated to the digitalization of natural environments, brought together more than 45 enthusiastic students from diverse backgrounds, all eager to explore the latest advancements in environmental intelligence. The event kicked off with an inspiring opening ceremony attended by key figures from both the SMARTLAGOON and WATCHPlant projects. Laura García Carmona, Belén Picó Sirvent, Alfredo Quijano, Javier Senent Aparicio, and José María Cecilia Canales shared their visions and underscored the importance of...

Environmental Intelligence Summer School

Second edition of the International School in the field of Ambient Intelligence, dedicated to the digitisation of natural environments. The event aims to provide society with a vision of the different approaches to the natural environment in terms of access to useful information using new tools. The event will take place on 19, 20 and 21 June 2024, at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Edificio E (escuela técnica superior informática), organised in cooperation with the WATCHPLANT and SMARTLAGOON project.   Program   Wednesday 19th June 9:00 Opening Belén Picó Sirvent (Researcher vice rector at The Technical University of Valencia, UPV) Laura García Carmona (WATCHPLANT project coordinator. Head of Biosensor and Biofuel cells...

Unlocking the Future of Coastal Lagoon Monitoring with the Mar Menor Case Study

In the face of mounting environmental pressures, the monitoring of coastal ecosystems has never been more crucial. Coastal lagoons, dynamic and rich in biodiversity, are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. The Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain, stands as a poignant example of such a system under siege, primarily due to the eutrophication process spurred by excessive nutrient inputs. This backdrop sets the stage for a groundbreaking study recently published as part of the SMARTLAGOON project, titled "Assessment of oceanographic services for the monitoring of highly anthropised coastal lagoons: The Mar Menor case study". This research sheds light on the current challenges faced in...

SMARTLAGOON modeling workshop in Oslo

In March 2024, the modeling work packages convened for a two-day session in Oslo hosted by NIVA to explore the integration of socio-economic and environmental models—this effort aimed to enhance understanding of the connections between human activities and natural systems. The meeting brought together the socio-economic system dynamics (SD) model with the catchment model (SWAT) and the lagoon model (GOTM) to brainstorm strategies for integration. While socio-economic models delve into human behaviors, decision-making processes, and economic activities, environmental models simulate climate dynamics, land use changes, and ecosystem functions. Despite the challenge of creating a computational coupling, we devised alternative ways by providing boundary conditions...

Citizen Science and co-design initiatives with students to raise awareness about SMARTLAGOON and the Mar Menor

Citizen Science is a powerful tool for engaging individuals with diverse backgrounds, skills, and ages. Numerous studies have demonstrated its successful application in educational contexts, raising awareness about specific topics and involving students in serious discussions. In this context, we utilized Citizen Science as an educational tool for teenagers. Specifically, we conducted two activities in May 2023, engaging two classes (33 + 19 students) from a high school near Murcia (CEIP San Vicente de Paul, in El Palmar). The students were 15-16 years old, and each session lasted two hours, covering: An introduction to SMARTLAGOON and the issues surrounding Mar Menor. An overview of the...

Validation of the hydrographic model of the SMARTLAGOON project in a riverbed in the Campo de Cartagena

Currently, the accurate measurement of the variables necessary for hydrological modeling faces the challenge of costly models and sensors. This problem is aggravated in basins with high water stress where monitoring is more complex. Such is the case of Campo de Cartagena, characterized by ephemeral streams and average annual rainfall of less than 300 mm.     To address this situation, we implemented an innovative methodology that combines citizen science, through a mobile application that is able to obtain flow rates from recordings taken by citizens at specific control points; in addition to low-cost high-tech sensors capable of measuring the height of the water sheet, thanks to...

Coupled modelling of watersheds and water bodies – from global scale to Mar Menor

We may not always realise it, but our lives are surrounded by models. If we define a model as a “representation of something”, we can see a map as a model of real-world topography - helping us to navigate -, or a mannequin in a shop as a model of our bodies - so we can better visualise how we would look in certain clothes. Models can also be numerical: a weather forecast model tells us (not always accurately) if it is going to rain tomorrow. But also bus tables, city infrastructure, airplane design, and so many more things, are partially the product of...

BODOQUE: An Energy-Efficient Flow Monitoring System for Ephemeral Streams

Effective environmental monitoring is crucial for managing global environmental challenges and providing the necessary data for Environmental Intelligence (EI). This discipline involves the integration of data from various sources to gain a comprehensive understanding of specific regions or processes. In this post, we introduce BODOQUE, a hardware-software infrastructure to monitor water flows in ephemeral streams where the water rarely flows with great force. BODOQUE uses a low-power TinyML-based camera to detect the presence of water, activating a more complex system to measure flow only when the water flows, thereby optimizing energy consumption. This device is being deployed in the Segura basin, Murcia, Spain. This...