Mapping tidal environments accurately
The majority of lagoons, estuaries and connected coastal areas in Europe are highly affected by anthropogenic activities that may affect natural deposition and sediment transport regimes. A better understanding of the physical and ecological processes that govern inter-tidal dynamics would enable improvement of management strategies concerning tidal environments. Urged by this the TIDE project developed comprehensive models of tidal areas involving both physical and ecological processes. These are not only capable of describing accurately the biology and physics of these areas, but they are also very effective in predicting the behaviour of the overall systems. Moreover, the project also focused on the socio-economic aspect of system change. Part of project results involved of effective classification techniques including methods and algorithms for the selection of the most appropriate remote sensors and data attributes. Classification of the selected data offers accurate vegetation maps in inter-tidal areas that can be employed for monitoring the state and trends of the environment. These maps can be used for assessing the possible results of human activities or of climatic changes on the inter-tidal environments. The direct involvement of the local authorities in the realisation of tools to monitor the Venice lagoon emphasises the great potential of the authorities' systematic involvement with regard to such supporting policies and strategies.