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Knowing the areas of greatest concentration of jellyfish, the areas affected by possible spillage, predict the occurrence of potentially toxic algae or how they will affect coastal works in the surrounding beaches are some of the goals that can be achieved thanks to the model of current available for consultation http://ocean.upct.es/marmenor/ public on the website that created the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT).

This page provides stakeholders current daily status of the Mar Menor, both surface and at the bottom, indicating the direction and speed of currents.

"The goal is to establish an open service, both to the scientific community, managers and citizens, we hope to help solve the current problem of this unique environment of the Region of Murcia," says its director, Javier Gilabert, which forms the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Mar Menor made yesterday.

The website is operational since June and has been used by the Directorate General for the Environment to address the situation of the Mar Menor.

"We have accelerated the provision of the service given the social concern about the state of the lagoon, but we still want to incorporate many other modules information to make predictions of temperature and salinity of the sea and the possible presence of potentially toxic phytoplankton" adds professor at the Polytechnic.

The origin of this service got its start in the project "Monitoring the Mar Menor coastal" funded under the Science and Technology Plan of the Region of Murcia 2007-2010.

This project encompassed several aspects, including the one developed by the UPCT was: the hydrodynamic study of the coastal lagoon, whose aim was to understand how the current system works within the lagoon and to ascertain the exchange of water and rate renewal of the Mar Menor.

Following the completion of financing in 2010, the UPCT has continued to work in the service with their own resources.

The results, which will be collected and presented in a doctoral thesis, allow definitely know the hydrodynamics of the lagoon and the systems that control the rate of renewal helping to explain what happened this summer in the Mar Menor.

Specifically, this study used the one hand, oceanographic instrumentation: 6 ADCP (instruments used to determine the speed and direction of the current in the water column, changes in sea level and temperature) and 6 sensors pressure (allows to know the changes in sea level) anchored for more than two years in the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean, and another, a hydrodynamic model of high resolution Mar Menor and canals developed, currently offered through the aforementioned website in an optimized resolution.

Source: UPCT