News

Natural Solutions to Adapt to Climate Change: Lagoons and Marshes. This topic was discussed during an immersive walk between the Marceddì Lagoon and the San Giovanni Marsh on Friday, July 5, 2024, in the village of Marceddì (Terralba) during the TransformAr project open day. This project, funded by the European Union (Horizon 2020) and coordinated locally by the MEDSEA Foundation, aims to develop and demonstrate innovative solutions for large-scale transformative adaptation. Discussions and dialogues on environmental issues, architecture, and landscape adaptation solutions to climate change continued on Saturday, July 6, at the Museum of the Sea, during the "Laguna ABitata" Round Table organised by DICAAR. Manuela Puddu from the MEDSEA Foundation illustrated activities in Sardinia to protect the wetlands of the Oristano area. Also present were the mayor of Terralba, Sandro Pili, and regional councillor, Emanuele Cera. 

Among the six pilot sites chosen by the TransformAr project to test some climate change adaptation solutions is the San Giovanni Marsh - the only site in Italy - which will soon be equipped with advanced sensors to monitor water quality variations to protect fish stocks. "The project involves the implementation of a SMART GATE and a monitoring system to detect real-time alterations in water parameters that threaten lagoon production," explain MEDSEA representatives. Additionally, there are plans to improve water circulation within the lagoon and its connection to the sea, as well as to restore buffer areas with natural water filtration and purification functions. 

TransformAr is not the only project focused on the area's lagoons and marshes. On this occasion, two new European projects launched a few months ago were also presented. DesirMED, Horizon Europe, focuses on strengthening climate change adaptation capacities through the use of nature-based solutions (NBS), and Wetland4Change Interreg Euro-MED, which will develop and test models in the Marceddì Lagoon: the first on the CO2 absorption and storage capacity of wetlands, and the second on coastal flood risk prevention, capitalising on the results and equipment developed under TransformAr. 

Friday's open day, organised in collaboration with the Municipality of Terralba and the CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change), saw about forty people attending the nature and environmental tour guided by environmental guide Manuela Fa and the Councillor for Fisheries and Environment of the Municipality of Terralba, Maura Mura, in the San Giovanni Marsh and the Marceddì Lagoon, with a visit to the Torre Vecchia, opened for the occasion. Subsequently, at the Museo del Mare on Via Lungomare 49, the public presentation of the solutions developed in the TransformAr project and the exhibition of the "Laguna ABitata" project, carried out as part of the educational activities of the School of Architecture of Cagliari, took place. "The project envisions a repopulated village, a resilient community with different productions from the current ones," say Prof. Giovanni Battista Cocco and Andrea Cadelano from DICAAR. 

Meanwhile, between the Museum of the Sea and the Marceddì pine forest, a children's workshop on water quality was held with birdwatching led by Maria Pala, an environmental guide from the MEDSEA Foundation. 

The event is part of the environmental promotion initiatives of the European Green Week, focused this year on the theme of water.