ECSA CONFERENCE 2020, TRIESTE

Public Event in Trieste

Date and Time:

Sunday, September 6th, 2020

2.00 - 5.30 p.m. CEST

5.30 - 6.00 p.m. Prize Giving Ceremony

Location: Via Bellini, Trieste

To the discovery of avvistAPP

Description: avvistAPP is a freely downloadable app developed to collect sightings of marine organisms by citizen scientists, simply by sending a picture of the animal. The app was initially developed to monitor the invasion of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi (sea walnut) in the northern Adriatic Sea, but it can be used to collect sightings of other jellyfish species, dolphins and sea turtles, whose monitoring is often challenging for researchers. (https://www.avvistapp.it/)

On September 6th, 2020, avvistAPP will be showcased to the public. Citizens will be quickly trained on its use, as avvistAPP is an easy tool that will allow everyone to actively contribute to data collection on several common marine organisms of our sea. How to use it: download and open avvistAPP on your mobile phone, register, recognise the organism, take a photo of the animal and send the sighting. You will receive an e-mail once OGS researchers will have validated your sighting.

Within ECSA, avvistAPP launched from February 6th 2020 to August 23rd a "Sighting Marathon": the three citizens that provided the highest number of sightings with avvistAPP during this period will receive a prize. The award consists of a subscription to the National Geographic magazine and will be delivered during the award ceremony to be held on September 6th, starting at 5.30 p.m.

To the discovery of Noixapp

Description: Noixapp is a crowdsourcing/citizen-science solution to measure acoustic pollution in urban areas that uses cheap mobile phone microphones to acquire data on background noise and send it to an integration platform that allows to reconstruct a full picture of the acoustic space of an area. The solution is based on an application software (currently running on Android only, but soon an iOS version will be available) where it is possible to run recording, compute and average Sound Pressure Level value, georeferenced the data and transmit them to the OGS central servers. Anonymization is guaranteed.

Among the many forms of pollution in urban areas, acoustic pollution is one of the less considered, albeit very important for the public health and welfare. Being less popular it is also less known and accounted for, so that few initiatives exist in this field. These are generally based on systematic surveying practices based on fixed stations only which cannot reconstruct a full picture of the acoustic spaces of the cities. A new perspective is necessary.

On Sunday 6th of September 2020, Noixapp will be showcased to the public. Citizens will be quickly trained on its use and a pool of Noixapp volunteers will be committed to acquire data in the city. Every acquisition will increase the score of each participant. The highest scores will receive as prize a National Geographic subscription during the award ceremony to be held on the same day, starting 5.30 p.m.

To the discovery of SeaWatcher app

Description: SeaWatcher is a new App for collecting geo-referencing observations of marine litter, invasive and protected species.

SeaWatcher was developed by the Information and Communication Regional Activity Center (INFO/RAC), which operates inside the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) in the framework of the bilateral agreement between the Italian Ministry of Environment (MATTM) and the Mediterranean Action Plans for the environment and the Mediterranean of the United Nations (UNEP/MAP).

On Sunday 6th of September 2020, SeaWatcher will be showcased to the public. Citizens will be quickly trained on its use, and involved in monitoring marine litter along the coastline of Trieste. The event will also include a brief discussion on the issues related to marine litter, and especially plastic waste, and the role of citizens' involvement in the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan.