The impact of the THETIDA project activities and outcomes during the 2nd reporting period can be summarised as follows:
• Remote sensing products and services, smart buoys, and small, low-cost vehicles are designed and developed for shallow water environments. Innovative methodologies addressing coastal erosion, land deformation, flood mapping, and land use change, and deterioration mapping contribute to the scientific community through peer-reviewed publications and the release of open-source code in public repositories. The deployment of sensors, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and smart buoys support the development of an integrated technological framework for monitoring and assessing the effects of climate change, natural hazards, and pollution on the ecosystems and environments of cultural heritage sites. Moreover, these advancements significantly enhance the sensing phase of CH protection, enabling more detailed representations and expanding coverage in both area and depth, all at substantially reduced costs. The broader society and local private sector are also expected to benefit from adopting and applying these technological innovations.
• The participatory Living Lab Dialogues involve multiple stakeholders, end users and community groups that include all the THETIDA target groups for participatory value and impact assessment, training and capacity building, and action planning to build a roadmap for the active monitoring, protection and sustainable development of UW and CH sites. These target groups include: I. Cultural Heritage related SMEs and Industries; II. Partnerships, Associations, Initiatives; III. Local administrators, policymakers, and financing institutions; IV. Academia and research community; and V. Citizens, public, municipalities .VI. Coastal and Underwater archaeologists, VII. Cultural Agencies, VIII. Environmental monitoring agencies, IX. Fishery authorities, X. Search and Rescue agencies. The project activities contributes to a high societal impact by reaching, involving, and engaging a wide range of target groups for the active monitoring and protection of the heritage sites, as well as raising awareness, educating, and building capacity across multiple sectors and actors
• The assessment and management of underwater and coastal cultural heritage is advanced by new technologies that are expected to produce a last-longing social and economic impact on the preservation and safeguarding of underwater and coastal cultural heritage. Sampling at pilot sites provides material degradation information and leading to protective measures with an important impact on the ability of protecting and safeguarding cultural heritage. This is coupled by mathematical models developed to evaluate the impact of environmental variables and thresholds on heritage sites, allowing the creation of risk maps for different conditions and respective impacts on the heritage sites.
