Evaluation of Alternative Options for the Irrigation Aqueduct of the Cavallino Peninsula Using the MULINO Approach

In the present article we analyse the problem and the effects of changes in irrigation technology that affect a farmer community in the Cavallino Peninsula in the northeast of Italy. The obligation of closing and sealing the wells, which are currently used in the area for irrigation purposes, is due to a national law aimed at preserving the groundwater resources and preventing subsidence phenomena in the Venice area. The enforcement of this law implies that the regional administration is obliged to provide farmers with sufficient water supply for their agricultural activity. The methodology developed within the MULINO Project was used in this analysis, to test the potentials of a decision support system tool (mDSS) developed by the project. Firstly, the decision context was analysed and, as result, the problem was subdivided in two more specific sub problems: one related with water abstraction and the other related with water distribution. In order to build the decisional model, the opinions of experts and the preferences of the stakeholders were taken into account in different phases of the process. The results allowed the competent administration to identify the stakeholders' main concerns about the development of a new irrigation system and to develop strategies to cope with them. The quality of the water supplied and the economic effects of the change in the irrigation system were the main issues dealt with in this process. The application of the MULINO approach and DSS tool added efficiency and transparency to the decision making process, by allowing the elicitation of opinions and preferences of all the actors involved in the process, and demonstrating that, notwithstanding the different viewpoints and interests, a general consensus could be reaches on a single management option

Managing coastal environments under climate change: pathways to adaptation

This paper deals with the question of how to manage vulnerable coastal systems so as to make them sustainable under present and future climates. This is interpreted in terms of the coastal functionality, mainly natural services and support for socio-economic activities. From here we discuss how to adapt for long term trends and for short terms episodic events using the DPSIR framework. The analysis is presented for coastal archetypes from Spain, Ireland and Romania, sweeping a range of meteo-oceanographic and socio-economic pressures, resulting in a wide range of fluxes among them those related to sediment. The analysis emphasizes the variables that provide a higher level of robustness. That means mean sea level for physical factors and population density for human factors. For each of the studied cases high and low sustainability practices, based on stakeholders preferences, are considered and discussed. This allows proposing alternatives and carrying out an integrated assessment in the last section of the paper. This assessment permits building a sequence of interventions called adaptation pathway that enhances the natural resilience of the studied coastal systems and therefore increases their sustainability under present and future conditions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

PC7 – Proiectul FAST Aplicatia MI-SAFE

This is the presentation used in the Regional distribution of MI-SAFE for Romania, held in Jurilovca Town in 18 July 2017. This event was organized and performed by Adrian Stanica and Albert Scrieciu for end-users working or living close to the Study sites from Jurilovca Town (year one) and Iistria Town (year two). The event was organised with the support of the local authority from Jurilovca Town (Figure 2). The main goal was to present the MI-SAFE package, starting with a short presentation about the FAST Project, and focusing on the Romanian study sites and their importance for the project – we consider this to be a good idea to encourage the feedback from the participants (as they have a very good knowledge of these study sites and their particularities)

Trace element contamination in the arms of the Danube Delta (Romania/Ukraine): Current state of knowledge and future needs

This paper provides the first critical synopsis of contamination by selected trace elements in the whole Danube Delta (Romania/Ukraine) to: identify general patterns of contamination by trace elements across the Delta, provide recommendations to refine existing monitoring networks and discuss the potential toxicity of trace elements in the whole Delta. Sediment samples were collected between 2004 and 2007 in the three main branches of the Delta (Chilia, Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe) and in the secondary delta of the Chilia branch. Samples were analyzed for trace elements (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn) and TiO2, Fe2O3, MnO, CaCO3 and total organic carbon. Cluster analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that levels of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn were influenced by anthropogenic activities. At the opposite, concentrations of Cr and Ni largely originated from the weathering of rocks located in the Romanian part of the Danube catchment and naturally rich in these elements. Data analysis using Self- Organizing Maps confirmed the conclusions of CA/PCA and further detected that the contamination tended to be higher in the Chilia and Sulina arms than in the Sfantu Gheorghe arm. The potential ecological risks due to trace element contamination in the Danube Delta could be identified as moderate and localized, provided that the presence of the natural sources of Cr and Ni was properly considered. The available results suggest that monitoring sediment quality at the mouths of Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe arms is probably enough to get a picture of the sediment quality along their entire lengths. However, a larger network of monitoring points is necessary in the Chilia and secondary Chilia delta to account for the presence of local point sources and for the more complex hydrodynamic of this part of the Danube Delta

First considerations on environmental friendly solutions to protect the southern Romanian coast

The aim of this work is to assess the effect of a nature-based solution for reducing wave heights on the Southern Romanian coast. Apart from investigating the presence of seagrass from the environmental point of view, there is also a need to assess its impact on the coastal hydrodynamics. The impact on the wave heights of a seagrass meadow located on the Southern Romanian coast, has been analyzed by means of a wave model. In this purpose, several numerical simulations have been performed, both for low and average offshore wave conditions, available from a previous wave climate study, which used a 30 years climate data set. A first set of simulations have been performed in the absence of seagrass. Then a seagrass meadow has been added to our grid and the wave model has been run in the same offshore wave conditions. The differences in computed nearshore wave heights reach around 4% for moderate energy waves. These results show that, on the Southern Romanian coast, seagrass could be regarded as an additional measure for nearshore wave attenuation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Multivariate hybrid modelling of future wave-storms at the northwestern Black Sea

The characterization of future wave-storms and their relationship to large-scale climate can provide useful information for environmental or urban planning at coastal areas. A hybrid methodology (process-based and statistical) was used to characterize the extreme wave-climate at the northwestern Black Sea. The Simulating WAve Nearshore spectral wave-model was employed to produce wave-climate projections, forced with wind-fields projections for two climate change scenarios: Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5. A non-stationary multivariate statistical model was built, considering significant wave-height and peak-wave-period at the peak of the wave-storm, as well as storm total energy and storm-duration. The climate indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation, East Atlantic Pattern, and Scandinavian Pattern have been used as covariates to link to storminess, wave-storm threshold, and wave-storm components in the statistical model. The results show that, first, under both RCP scenarios, the mean values of significant wave-height and peak-wave-period at the peak of the wave-storm remain fairly constant over the 21st century. Second, the mean value of storm total energy is more markedly increasing in the RCP4.5 scenario than in the RCP8.5 scenario. Third, the mean value of storm-duration is increasing in the RCP4.5 scenario, as opposed to the constant trend in the RCP8.5 scenario. The variance of each wave-storm component increases when the corresponding mean value increases under both RCP scenarios. During the 21st century, the East Atlantic Pattern and changes in its pattern have a special influence on wave-storm conditions. Apart from the individual characteristics of each wave-storm component, wave-storms with both extreme energy and duration can be expected in the 21st century. The dependence between all the wave-storm components is moderate, but grows with time and, in general, the severe emission scenario of RCP8.5 presents less dependence between storm total energy and storm-duration and among wave-storm components.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Am I Safe? Copernicus downstream service is zooming in on coastal flood risk

FAST project poster for the EUROPEAN STAND of the GEO WEEK EXHIBITION (Washington DC, October 2017

Assessing the coastal protection role of seagrass meadows along a barrier beach, southern Romanian coast

The presence of seagrass along the Romanian coast is currently seen as an important component of the marine ecosystem. Moreover, seagrass meadows play an additional wave energy dissipation role that has also to be considered among other ecosystem services. Assessing the impact of a seagrass meadow on the local hydrodynamics is needed to present an integrated protection and adaption plan for discussion with local stakeholders and coastal managers. The impact on wave heights of a possible seagrass meadow, located in front of the barrier beach at the Mangalia marsh on the southern Romanian coast, has been analysed using numerical modelling. Several seagrass configurations have been studied, for low and average wave conditions from various directions. The same waves were used after adding a vegetation mask to the analysed domain, to simulate the presence of a seagrass meadow. The results of the numerical simulations were extracted in several output points, located along three transects crossing the vegetation mask. They show the most significant reduction in the calculated wave energy density during a year of 16.6%, occurring within the seagrass meadow. Our results suggest that, for the southern Romanian coast, seagrass could be introduced in coastal protection plans as an additional measure for wave attenuation.The idea of this work came up following the FP7 RISES-AM project, GA 603396, funded by the FP7-ENV-2013-two stage program of the European Commission. The first author acknowledges the mobility projects MC2017-1274 and MC2018-1922, funded by the Romanian Authority for Scientific Research, covering the expenses of two research visits at the Maritime Engineering Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia Barcelona Tech (LIM-UPC), during which work on this topic started. This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government within the Research, Development and Innovation Program through the grant to ECOPLANTS project (Ref. PID2020-119058RB-I00). The REST-COAST Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Grant 101037097 has also contributed to finance some of the authors. The rest of the work has been performed within the projects PN 18160103 and PN 19200201, funded by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization of Romania and H2020 DOORS (EC Grant Agreement 101000518). We acknowledge as well the valuable comments of an anonymous reviewer, which allowed us to significantly improve the manuscript.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version