29 September 2026
On the occasion of the 2026 edition of Trieste Next, the NODC had the pleasure of exploring the sea with the many visitors who joined us at the OGS booth.
Now in its fifteenth edition, Trieste Next is a well-known scientific research festival, which this year took place from 25 to 27 September. Over three days of meetings, workshops and discussions, the festival showcased research, reflected on the relationship between scientific and technological innovation and society, and envisioned a more sustainable future. The theme of the festival was “The Shape of Thought. Interactions between brains and intelligence.” As usual, OGS set up a booth in Piazza Unità in collaboration with the Miramare Marine Protected Area, featuring a programme of educational games and activities, scientific demonstrations and talks with scientists on natural hazards, climate change, polar regions, the ocean and biodiversity.
The NODC presented the Gulf of Trieste live thanks to the OGS marine data geoportal: an interactive web platform that enables experts and non-experts to discover the Gulf’s waters in real time and observe how they change day by day. “What are the currents like in the Gulf today?”, “What is the water temperature at a certain depth?”, “How high are the waves at Grado?” and “Why does the Gulf change colour?” are among the questions that the geoportal can answer with just a few clicks.
Marco Jokic, NODC data steward and expert in information technologies, said: “Dozens of people approached me every day, interested in different aspects of the geoportal, from the technologies being used to its contribution to assessing water pollution. Some were industry experts, others university students, but most were middle-aged non-experts who access the geoportal mainly via smartphone. All of them provided us with many ideas for improvements.”
The geoportal is the result of collaboration between different OGS marine infrastructures: the Oceanographic Sensor Development Laboratory, the Oceanographic Calibration and Metrology Centre, and the National Oceanographic Data Centre. It supports the development of the European research infrastructures JERICO-RI and DANUBIUS-RI, and is also funded by the PNRR-ITINERIS and PNRR-iNEST projects.
Marina Lipizer, NODC data steward and scientist, said: “The geoportal allows users to obtain information on coastal and lagoon waters, which are continuously monitored by a network of observation systems in the Gulf of Trieste. The network is managed by OGS and includes observation systems operated on behalf of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Civil Protection Agency. The geoportal serves a wide range of scientific and outreach purposes. For example, last summer it clearly displayed significant temperature peaks, showing the heatwave recorded by the oceanographic buoys”.
To find out more about the data freely available on the geoportal, read the article Gulf of Trieste heating up: peaks exceed 32 °C in the Lagoon Gulf of Trieste and explore the NODC website.
Further communication material:
