A geographical information system for the management of the aquaculture data in the Adriatic Sea – the Strengthening of Centres for Aquaculture Production and Safety surveillance in the Adriatic countries experience: Present capabilities, tools and functions

Abstract

The European Commission (EC) regulation no. 854/2004 requires a systematic monitoring of chemical and microbiological contaminants in live bivalve molluscs, live echinoderms, live tunicates and live marine gastropods for human consumption through surveillance plans to be implemented in all European Union (EU) countries.A consortium of five Adriatic countries was set up in the framework of the Instrument of Pre-accession Assistance Adriatic Cross-border Cooperation Programme (IPA Adriatic CBC) 2007- 2013 with the aim of collecting data and distribute information on harvesting and production in mollusc areas. A web-based geographical information system (GIS) application was developed to support the partners to manage data and to make these data available to final users, policy makers and to risk assessors. The GIS for the Strengthening of Centres for Aquaculture Production and Safety surveillance in the Adriatic countries (CAPS2) is divided into two levels, the national and the supranational one, and it distributes spatial and epidemiological information coming from various data acquisition and management sites. The great innovation is the possibility for each country to use online drawing, modifying and change of the geographic areas according to national surveillance needs. Currently it hosts data coming from about 230 production and relay areas with more than 29,478 laboratory tests performed on collected samples since August 2014. Data collected are used by each national competent authority to classify production or relay areas according to the EC regulation mentioned and to conduct risk assessment studies to evaluate the level of consumers’ exposure to contaminants in the consumption of bivalve mollusc products.

Evaluation of new approaches to the access of official monitoring results for live bivalves molluscs

“…In parallel, with respect to bivalves produced in different countries from where they are consumed or commercialized, a global platform that would aggregate the information from all regulating entities in Europe would also be necessary. This platform could replicate the proposed for the Adriatic Sea 17 but at a European level and make data available through web services accessible remotely. This way, any user would have access to updated information about the toxicity controls of all classified production areas Europe, either directly through the platform or through a mobile application which would be linked to the platform.…”

Surveillance Plan of Lipophilic Marine Biotoxins in Molluscs from the Croatian Coast

“…The competent authorities were supported by the CAPS2 information system provided by a Web GIS for data querying and visualization. It was developed by the Istituto Zoopro lattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise "G. Caporale" and available at http://www.caps2.eu/caps2/ (Tora et al 2017). The database is lled by authorized users in accordance with the privileges assigned to each pro le.…”

The ADRIREEF database: a comprehensive collection of natural/artificial reefs and wrecks in the Adriatic Sea

“…Another attempt made to identify aquaculture zones in the Adriatic Sea, also through a WebGIS application (http: //www.caps2.eu/caps2/, last access: 3 May 2021), reports zones of production, harvesting, and farms (Tora et al, 2017), but it does not include a few Italian reefs dedicated to this practice.…”