Sea state monitoring and simulation in the “wind, ports, and sea” project

Maritime transports and port activities can be seriously affected by severe weather and sea conditions. For this reason, sea state monitoring and reliable wind and wave forecast are of primary importance to avoid damages to ships, marine structures and humans. The European project “Wind, Ports, and Sea”, funded by the European Cross-border Programme “Italy-France Maritime 2007–2013”, aimed at creating a real-time monitoring and forecasting system of the weather and sea conditions in the marine areas in front of the main ports in the Northern Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Sea. The wave forecast system, which is now fully operational, is based on a spectral wave model. It has been validated through the comparison with the wave measurements of three buoys with fully satisfactory results. The wave monitoring system, which consists of three OS-ISR stations, allows monitoring the sea conditions by means of micro-seismic measurements. The system, calibrated and validated with buoy data, has proven to be a reliable, maintainable, and cost-effective substitute to direct buoy measurements.