Special Session 4

SPECIAL SESSION #4

Fabiana Di Ciaccio

University of Florence, Italy

• fabiana.diciaccio@unifi.it

Paolo Russo

University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

• prusso@diag.uniroma1.it

Roberto Pierdicca

Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

• r.pierdicca@staff.univpm.it

Eva Savina Malinverni

Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

• e.s.malinverni@staff.univpm.it

The world's oceans and seas are home to a wide variety of marine species and provide essential ecosystem services for human societies. However, the health of our oceans is under threat due to various anthropogenic activities, including overfishing, pollution as well as climate change effects. In fact, climate change is a growing concern worldwide, and its impacts are increasingly visible in the marine environment. As the world's oceans warm, sea levels rise, and weather patterns change, marine ecosystems are facing unprecedented challenges. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) technologies have emerged as powerful tools for monitoring, analyzing, and preserving the marine environment. These technologies can help researchers and policymakers better understand the complex interactions between human activities, climate change, and the health of the oceans. Moreover, AI and DL can assist in the development of effective policies and strategies for marine environment preservation, including habitat restoration, species protection, and pollution reduction. The use of AI and DL in marine conservation efforts has the potential to revolutionize our ability to preserve and protect the world's oceans, allowing us to more effectively manage and sustainably utilize marine resources for future generations.

Papers in this special session will explore how AI techniques (e.g., Deep Learning, Machine Learning and Computer Vision) can be used to monitor, model and predict the marine ecosystems evolutions and the effects of climate changes on the environment. They may also consider the potential for AI to help preserve and restore cultural heritage sites that are threatened by rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

This special session aims at collecting all the contributions broadening the knowledge on this field; in particular, potential Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and Machine Learning applications could be, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assessment of climate change impact on marine and coastal environment;
• Prediction of sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and other climate change impacts;
• Greenhouse gas emissions from marine transport and energy systems;
• Prediction models for sea weather, tides and temperature fluctuation;
• Preservation and restoration of cultural heritage sites threatened by climate change impacts on coastal communities and regions;
• Marine and underwater sensor, data processing, navigation and localization;
• Visual data, e.g., underwater target localization, detection, florae and fauna classification;
• Processing of acoustic or other kind of data, e.g., raw signal processing, denoising, attitude estimation;
• Visual and inertial based methods for robots positioning;
• Navigation and mapping, SLAM algorithms, intelligent, adaptive or bio-inspired control architectures, obstacle avoidance;
• Coastal and ecosystem monitoring, management and mapping;
• Morphological and morphodynamical modelling of coastal and seabed areas;
• Pollution source and litter detection, localization and monitoring;
• Sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices.