The AdSP has always paid the utmost attention to environmental issues, trying to carry out all infrastructural works while fully protecting the environment.

For this reason, the Authority has contracted the service “Integrated environmental monitoring of Taranto port area”.

The aim is to carry out the monitoring of the entire port area through a network of homogeneously distributed stations/measuring points, by which it is possible to systematically measure over time a defined set of parameters concerning all the environmental matrices of interest:

• Sea water and groundwater by means of:

• a general network of 10 fixed stations for the continuous survey of sea water;
• a general network of 46 mobile stations for the quarterly survey of sea water;
• a general network of 26 ground piezometers for the quarterly survey of groundwater;

• Air by means of 3 fixed monitoring stations for the survey of PM₁₀e PM_2,5, SO₂, NO/NO₂/NO_x, CO, O₃ and BTEX;

• Noise by means of 4 long-term noise monitoring control units;

• Soil to survey:

• the evolution of the shoreline and of the beach profiles in the stretch of coast west of the Multipurpose Pier, in order to evaluate any unexpected effects caused by the new breakwater to be built in the future;
• the suitability for vegetation development in the reclaimed area west of Punta Rondinella;

• Sediments by taking samples at 15 points in the see for chemical analysis;
• Flora and Fauna;
• Filter feeders by means of the “Mussel Watch” protocol at 9 points;
• Benthos through the taking of sediment samples at 7 points to be subjected to the recognition and counting of the biocoenosis present with the determination of their characteristic indices.

The monitoring data collected will be shared with the various stakeholders (control bodies, citizens, businesses, etc.) through a web portal/platform that the contractor will make available, allowing the people involved (not only the insiders) to have an insight on the environmental state.

The monitoring service in question represents an absolute news, considering that over the years this Administration has always carried out precise and non-coeval environmental monitoring, as it was only related to the specific ongoing infrastructural intervention, whose impact on the surrounding area was to be monitored. The planned network, on the other hand, is free from the concept of monitoring divided into pre-, in progress- and post- work phases. Therefore, in the context of “area” monitoring, the individual monitoring plans for the works can begin at any time, without risking to compromise the seamless acquisition of large-scale information. Thanks to them, in addition to being able to control the impacts arising from the ongoing infrastructural interventions, it will be possible to have a broad and coherent vision of the dynamics that characterise the port area.

The service in question is partly funded by CAP Infrastructures and Networks 2014-2020 funds, Action Line 5 of Axis D, co-funded by the European Union.

Amount eligible for funding: € 8,865,312.29.