EXECUTIVE ACT ON "TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN INTRODUCING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS TO REDUCE RISK AND VULNERABILITY AND STRENGTHEN ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CUBAN MARINE ECOSYSTEM"

Financed by the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition

Activities focus on the introduction of innovative technologies and tools to reduce risks and vulnerability and strengthen adaptation to climate change in the Cuban marine ecosystem. Particularly, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition (MiTE), this Executive Act is aimed at expanding, over the Cuban national territory, the application of advanced technologies to the remote mapping of marine habitat, as well as providing support in monitoring and planning maritime and coastal systems and increasing the capabilities to conduct assessments on the availability and feasibility of marine energy use.

ENEA Activities:

WP1 - Project management and coordination

In collaboration with MiTE and CITMA (Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment), ENEA participates in the project start-up and management activities.

WP2 - Marine habitat mapping through remote sensing

Training of Cuban personnel in the acquisition of satellite images and the elaboration of maps of the areas of interest.

Specifically, ENEA will make available its know-how on remote sensing and GIS technology and train the Cuban personnel on the interpretation of satellite images in the coastal marine environment (WP2.3). A recent work (Schill et al., 2021) of digital cartography, which addresses the Habitat Mapping of the coasts of the Caribbean archipelago, will be used as a starting point to strengthen Cuban skills to create and validate local habitats maps that allow to undertake actions for the conservation, resilience and maintenance of environmental services of Cuba's coastal marine ecosystems. Training actions will particularly focus on issues related to the most sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses. Supported by ENEA experts, the Cuban colleagues will carry out validation campaigns at sea aimed at calibrating the satellite signal and assessing the accuracy of the themes interpreted via remote sensing.

WP3 - Ocean Energy

ENEA will provide training and support to the Cuban personnel involved in the development and use of circulation models, very useful tools for identifying areas where it is possible to extract energy from the sea. The activity is aimed at the implementation of a general circulation model of the island of Cuba and at a nesting with higher resolution models in specific areas, in order to assess the local energy potential provided by sea currents. ENEA will put its laboratories and expertise at the disposal of the Cuban personnel to help them to acquire modelling skills on this specific activity, as well as its computing resources, currently lacking in Cuba, for developing the relevant models.

ENEA will also train the Cuban personnel on the acquisition of experimental data at sea through the use of current meters. The training will take place at ENEA in the initial phase of the project and subsequently in Cuba, where validation campaigns at sea will be carried out with the aim to validate the high-resolution models through the use of current meters (WP3.6).