2014 annual RAMOGEPol Exercise, Elba, Italy, 16 and 17 September 2014 – Sep 16, 2014
The annual RAMOGEPol Exercise organised by the Italian Ministry of Environment in cooperation with the Government of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain was held in Portoferraio on Elba, Italy, between 16 and 17 September 2014.
The Italian Ministry of the Environment and the Italian Coast Guard (ITCG) kindly accepted the participation of the MEDESS-4MS partners, namely the Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre), the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) to test the tool developed under the Mediterranean Decision Support System for Marine Safety (MEDESS-4MS) Project during the aforementioned real scale exercise.
The tool was tested at the Prefecture Maritime de Toulon and at the Italian Coast Guards Headquarters in Rome with the support of Cedre and INGV. REMPEC coordinated MEDESS-4MS contribution from the Command Centre of Portoferraio whilst a representative of Cedre launched several buoys from the ITCG’s vessel to follow on real time their movement and compare their trajectory with the forecasting models.
The test carried in September 2014, in the framework of MEDESS-4MS testing campaign, also called “Serious Games-(SG)” (e.g. ITCG SG Elba Island region, 16-28 May 2014, MEDESS-GIB in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, 9-11 September 2014) showed promising results, as the trajectory of the buoys corroborated with the predictions of the forecasting models. The animation of the predictions of the forecasting models as well as the animation combining the buoys trajectories and the forecasting models can be seen below.
In addition, the above results will also be compared with the oil spill drifting predictions provided by the Emergency Reponse Office (ERO), established in the framework of the partnership between REMPEC and MOON (Mediterranean Operational Oceanography Network) and with the models provided by Eni S.P.A (ENI) during the exercise.
The results were presented during a press conference following the exercise and the debriefing session.
The support provided during the RAMOGEPol Exercise 2014 will be essential for the finalization of the MEDESS-4MS tool which is expected to be completed early 2015.
The final report can be downloaded for information.
