ECOMAP - Ecosustainable management of marine and tourist ports

The ECOMAP project will help smaller ports, the local authorities and organisations managing ports to address environmental issues. Most ports of the Programme area are small ports often combining shipping, fishing and leisure activities. Despite their small size, they have important economic, social and environmental links with their surroundings and a large cumulative impact. The main aim of "ECOMAP" is to help local ports to design better environmental strategies and to have access to suitable environmental management tools to remain competitive and to contribute to a more sustainable Programme area. Partners will work together to improve their environmental status, through investments in equipment and small infrastructure, education of staff and stakeholders, and environmental certifications. The cross-border partnership is led by the Municipality of Podstrana, Croatia, and is the well-balanced mix of local authorities, scientific public Institutes, and marina operators. During the 30 months, the partners, supported by experts, will share and identify better practice, as well as test and formalize methodological tools for monitoring and to prevention of pollution. The results of this work will be put at the disposal of all local ports in Programme area online and through organised congress and local dissemination events. To sum it up, overall objective of this project is to improve the environmental quality conditions of the sea and coastal area connected to nautical ports and navigation, through the use of a new coordination innovative methodologies to focus on thematic areas of the pollution from anthropogenic activities and use of sustainable and innovative technologies and approaches, within the area of port management on Italian and Croatian Adriatic. Main outputs:1/ Improvement of environmentally-friendly services in marinas and nearby area in order to prevent the waste polluting the surrounding beaches and the sea; 2/ Delivered and completed project Communication plan to raise knowledge, environmentally-responsible behaviour and awareness of stakeholders for the project; 3/ updated protocols on multidisciplinary methodologies to analyze the geomorphologic evolution of port areas (sedimentation and erosion dynamics) due to climate change in order to identify defense systems and sediment removal operations that hinder the hydraulic functions of ports and its effect on water resource availability (protocols for the management of water resources developed in LIFE+ projects (WARBO and CAMI) have addressed the metods and tools for the characterization of water bodies in the application of the Water Framework Directive).