b'CommentaryEnvironmental geophysicsSo, my question to the Fugro people Environmental geophysics was - why is Italy being particularly proactive in mapping seagrass extent? Their response was - seagrass mapping is a key component of Italys National Mike HatchRecovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).Associate Editor for Environmental geophysics More particularly, it addresses: Mission 2 - Green Revolution and Emichael.hatch@adelaide.edu.au Ecological Transition, Component4 - Protection of Land and Water Resources, Mapping seagrass important habitat for a huge numberMeasure 3 - Safeguarding Air Quality and of species, hosting a huge number ofLand Biodiversity Through the Protection Welcome readers to this issuesinvertebrates along with the largerof Green Areas, Soil and Marine Areas, column on geophysics applied to thecreatures that live o\x1f of them. AccordingInvestment 3.5 Restoration and Protection environment. For this issue, I spent someto the South Australian Government,of Seabed and MarineHabitats. time learning about the importance ofapproximately 40 times more species live inDigging a little bit, I found that this is seagrass to coastal and, in fact, worldseagrass habitat than in adjacent bare sandpart of the EUs Next Generation EU health. It all started with an email(https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/programme, which looks to me a lot like announcement that Fugro in Italy, alongtopics/coasts/explore-and-learn/ the USs In\x1cation Reduction Act. Both with their partner CGR SpA (Compagniaseagrass-restoration-in-sa). Furthermore,have huge budgets and are designed Generale Ripreseaeree SpA), has justthey act as important sea-wave bu\x1fersto act as economic stimulus, providing received a large grant from the Italianand sand traps, reducing erosion alongneeded infrastructure and jobs, while Government to perform a super highshorelines (every article that I read toaddressing climate change, green tech, super expensive survey of theresearch seagrass mentions this). But,economy expansion, etc. entire Italian coast, speci\x1ecally looking ateven more importantly, they are one seagrass habitat. This contract is part of aof the most e\x1fective sequesterers ofBack to what the folks at Fugro say, (much) larger Government project calledatmospheric carbon, sequesteringcurrently 19.1% of Italian waters are the PNRR MER Project (Marine Ecosystemabout twice as much CO 2per hectareunder conservation measures but Restoration)and is worth somethingas terrestrial forests. According to thethat is not enough. In order to reach like 400m (which in turn is sourced atSmithsonian seagrass habitat is reducingthe European biodiversity protection least partially from an even larger EUby ~1 percent per year, with otherobjectives by 2030, this percentage funded project). Many thanks to thesources that Ive seen stating that whilstmustincrease signi\x1ecantly. The plan international team of seagrass expertsseagrass loss is no longer as bad as itenvisages large-scale actions to restore (maybe more correctly hydrographywas back in the mid to late 20th century,and protect the seabed and marine experts) at Fugro for information aboutimprovement is spotty and slow (Naturehabitats in Italian waters, to reverse this project.Communications (2019) 10:3356). Whilethe degradation of Mediterranean Seagrasses, of which there areattempts at reintroduction are improvingecosystems, and enhance their resilience approximately 72 species worldwide,(https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/to climate change. This will also favour are some of the most important plantstopics/coasts/explore-and-learn/ maintaining fundamental activities, on Earth (see https://ocean.si.edu/ seagrass-restoration-in-sa), most speciessuch as \x1eshing, tourism, food and blue ocean-life/plants-algae/seagrass-and- are notoriously di\x1bcult to re-establish,economy growth, in a sustainable seagrass-beds). On a local level they areand then grow very slowly.fashion. Adequate mapping of seabed habitats and precise environmental tracking are considered to be a prerequisite for e\x1fective protection measures. For this reason, the national system of research and observation of marine and coastal ecosystems is being strengthened, including increasing the availability of updated research vessels. The goal is to have 90% of marine and coastal systems mapped and monitored and 20% restored by 2026.The project, which is due to start in March 2024 and to be completed by June 2026, includes acquisition of hydrographic data utilising multiple state-of-the-art sensors, including airborne lidar, airborne gravimetry and various satellite sensors over 10 200 km, and the deployment of vessel-based multibeam echosounder technology over Figure 1: Fugro-supplied graphic illustrating the tools being used to map the Italian coastline. 4000 km2. In addition, an autonomous APRIL 2024PREVIEW 31'