Here's how drones could save our beaches!

Drones can be a useful new tool to save our beaches. Together with an infallible 'secret' ingredient.

Summer, several very long weeks late, has finally arrived on the Peninsula. Those who can are rushing to beaches, the sea, rivers and lakes as soon as possible. This year too there will be a contest of beach leg photos to share on social media, selfies with crystal-clear water in the background and cocktails in the foreground. And this year too the web will fill up with wonderful panoramic videos showing the beauty of our beaches, also thanks to the use of drones (except that, unlike last year, we will be safer thanks to the new ENAC rules).

Another summer paced by social media, with the World Cup thrown in... and, all things considered, that's fine, because summer is best when it isn't taken too seriously.

What is very serious, however, is the erosion of our beaches, a phenomenon that is hard to think about while you're sunbathing and enjoying a well-deserved rest by the sea, but which remains at the top of the concerns of regional administrations, River Basin Authorities and harbour offices. Here, in brief, are some of the ways UAVs can help us protect our Great Beauty.

Highlighting the areas at greatest risk of erosion

Tourists from all over the world are a huge resource for Italy's seaside destinations. But if not properly managed, they can have a harmful, and even uneconomic, human impact on the environment.
They know something about this in the Salento area, where the coastal erosion emergency has led to the extension of many patchwork bans along the Adriatic coastline, for a total of about 13 km. These access restrictions required long and costly works; in a case like this, using a drone would have been a godsend, allowing surgical and timely intervention, as already happens in agriculture, rather than extending prohibition orders that are not always useful, that only partly solve the problem and would also be damaging from an economic point of view.

An embryonic experiment along these lines took place in Sardinia, in the beautiful Poetto area, subject to tourism stress like almost all of Sardinia's marvellous coasts. Here, a company from Sanremo used an underwater drone to check the condition of the seabed for calculations related to coastal erosion, and the changes to the seabed following works with a major environmental impact.

Timely detection of illegal construction

While in Veneto, apparently, the biggest risk for the beaches is street vendors, so much so that drones will be used to track them down, elsewhere the worst and hardest-to-fight form of illegality is illegal building (which can now be tackled precisely thanks to drones and smart mapping systems).
Those who experience the sea only in the summer find it harder to remember that beaches exist in winter too, and it is generally in the winter months that eyesores and small terraces overlooking the sea are built, stealing metres of coastline (and therefore extremely dangerous for people as well as for the environment). Periodic aerial monitoring of these areas, with an inexpensive and easy-to-use tool like a drone,can allow the authorities to remedy a legality problem as well as protect the environment.

With a drone it is in fact possible to monitor the area continuously without resorting to expensive helicopters or aeroplanes. You simply scan the area from above at regular intervals and overlay the photos to understand the state of the coast.

Let's help drones not notice our passing

Every time you watch a panoramic video shot with a drone, showing the beauty of the seas at home or anywhere else in the world, always remember that all this beauty must be protected, including through a new attitude of respect and widespread legality. Any protection effort becomes difficult if:

• you leave papers and cigarette butts on the beach,
• you take away stones and shells from places where it is forbidden,
• you want a beach club where the umbrellas reach right down to the water,
• you rent a house too close to the sea, with a gate opening directly onto the beach.
  
  

The next time a drone films the area where you spent your holiday in marvellous footage, make sure it doesn't notice your passing.

See sea from above.