The UniTs MARE SOPRA project concludes with 140 km of coastline mapped: on Monday 15 September, the virtual tour will be presented to reveal the submerged future of Friuli Venezia Giulia

From the depths of the sea off Muggia to the lagoons of Grado, an immersive 360-degree journey to discover what Friuli Venezia Giulia will be like when the sea has flooded our coasts. The MARE SOPRA project, an innovative scientific dissemination initiative conceived by the University of Trieste and funded by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which involved over 350 people, including students and citizens, in a unique experience, will conclude on Monday 15 September 2025 at 6.30 pm with a public presentation at Bagno Ausonia in Trieste. an innovative scientific dissemination initiative conceived by the University of Trieste and funded by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which involved over 350 people, including students and citizens, in a unique experience: touching and measuring where the sea level will reach in the coming decades.

"After taking measurements and understanding where the sea water will reach in 2100, we pulled two coloured tapes showing the future average and high tide levels, giving an idea of how sea level rise will impact our coasts", explains Stefano Furlani, associate professor of geomorphology and creator of the project.
The beating heart of MARE SOPRA was the direct involvement of citizens through the citizen science model: just under 200 young people from seven local schools and dozens of citizens took part in practical activities in Trieste, Muggia, Duino Aurisina and Grado, armed with measuring instruments to calculate the impact of sea level rise on piers, ports and coastal structures.
The project leaves the region with an interactive virtual tour covering all 140 kilometres of the regional coastline, from Muggia to Lignano. Thanks to 360-degree spherical aerial videos captured by drones and underwater diving, a high-resolution journey along the entire regional coastline has been created.
The interdisciplinary network for coastal resilience MARE SOPRA was a model of interdisciplinary collaboration coordinated by the University of Trieste, with the contribution of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The project involved three university departments (Mathematics, Computer Science and Geosciences; Political and Social Sciences; Life Sciences), together with partners Miramare Marine Protected Area, Municipality of Muggia, Marevivo Association - FVG Delegation, Marco Polo Comprehensive Institute of Grado and Galileo Galilei Scientific High School of Trieste.
During the final presentation of the virtual tour at Bagno Ausonia, in Riva Traiana 1, after greetings from the authorities, all the project partners will speak. Students from the Galilei Scientific High School will present the awareness-raising activities carried out and the Interactive Virtual Immersive Environment of the Friuli Venezia Giulia coastline will be illustrated. The event, open to the public, will mark the official end of an adventure that has made the abstract concept of climate change tangible, transforming numbers and projections into concrete experiences along some of Italy's most vulnerable coastlines.