{"id":3395,"date":"2026-01-19T14:41:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portale2.unime.it\/coastalengineering\/?page_id=3395"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:11:38","slug":"platone-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/portale2.unime.it\/coastalengineering\/en\/platone-project\/","title":{"rendered":"PLATONE PROJECT"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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PLAstic Transport due to waves and currents ON Emerged and submerged beaches \n(PLATONE)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The dramatic and increasing spread of plastics in the marine environment is a major concern due to their persistence in the sea and the negative consequences for marine life and human health. Mitigation strategies require an understanding and quantification of the sources, pathways, and fate of marine plastics<\/strong>.<\/p>

Although the distribution of plastics in the open sea has been extensively studied, the dynamics in the surf and swash zones<\/strong> are still at an early stage of investigation, and little is known about how plastic particles are transported by waves toward the shore and how they are distributed on emerged and submerged beaches. Further studies are needed to improve knowledge on the vertical distribution of plastics in the water column, degradation processes, and the mechanisms of beaching<\/strong> and washing-off<\/strong> under the action of regular<\/strong> and irregular<\/strong> waves<\/strong> combined with currents.<\/p>

Within the framework of the PLATONE project, the physical processes that lead anthropogenic debris to accumulate on emerged beaches and disperse on submerged beaches have been investigated. Physical<\/strong> and numerical modeling<\/strong>, conducted under a variety of wave and current conditions, has been combined and integrated to study the processes that can determine beaching and the retrieval of waste material on emerged beaches. At the same time, research has focused on the seabed, where the interaction<\/strong> processes between the flow field<\/strong> and sand\u2013plastic mixtures<\/strong> are almost unknown.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Research Units Involved<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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University of Messina (UniME)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Carla FARACI (Principal Investigator) <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t
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Carla Faraci is a Full Professor at the University of Messina. She is the Scientific Director of the Hydraulics Laboratory. She is a member of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Basin Authority of the Sicily Hydrographic District \u2013 Presidency of the Sicily Region, a member of the PhD Board in Engineering, and an external expert on the Technical-Administrative Committee of the Interregional Public Works Authority for Sicily \u2013 Calabria.<\/p>

She has served as scientific coordinator of the European projects EU TA HY+ WINGS (2018) and INTERREG Italy\u2013Malta 2020\u201327 MAESTRI, and of the national projects PRIN2022 PLATONE (2024\u20132026), and BAC RAISE Passport (2025), as well as numerous agreements with public and private institutions.<\/p>

Her research interests, documented in over 60 publications indexed in major databases, focus primarily on marine hydraulics and coastal engineering, wave\u2013current interactions, wave-induced effects on coastal structures, wave energy extraction, the use of neural networks for wave forecasting, the transport of plastics in coastal environments, and the marine propagation of oil spills.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Claudio IUPPA <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t
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Claudio Iuppa was born in Enna on August 7, 1985. On July 19, 2011, he earned a degree in Environmental and Land Engineering from the University of Catania, graduating with full marks and honors (110\/110 cum laude). In January 2016, he obtained a PhD in Hydraulic, Sanitary-Environmental, and Transport Infrastructure Engineering (28th Cycle) from the University of Catania, defending a thesis entitled \u201cOptimization of Cast Marine Dams for Wave Energy Extraction.\u201d Since March 2023, he has been a Fixed-term Researcher in the Scientific-Disciplinary Sector ICAR\/01 at the Department of Engineering, University of Messina. He teaches in various courses and has served as principal investigator on research projects and in consultancy roles.<\/p>

His research activity is primarily focused on coastal hydrodynamics, wave energy devices, wave motion forecasting, and the dispersion of pollutants at sea. These research activities are carried out through laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and the application of neural networks.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Giulia Bonanno was born on May 6, 2000. In 2023, she earned a Master\u2019s Degree in Civil Engineering (LM-23) from the University of Messina, graduating with full marks and honors (110\/110 cum laude). From January 2024, she carried out one year of research within the PLATONE project, focusing primarily on laboratory experimental activities. Since December 2024, she has been a PhD student in Engineering at the University of Messina.<\/p>

Her current research is focused on predicting pollutant dispersion using neural networks, with particular emphasis on Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), aiming to integrate her engineering expertise with advanced computational tools.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Imen Chebbi earned a degree in Science and Technology, specializing in Ecosystem Dynamics, from the University of Sfax (Tunisia) in 2017\u20132019. She then completed a one-year second-level Master\u2019s program at the University of Le Mans (France), focusing on the processing of oceanographic data and integrated analysis of coastal ecosystems and their resilience.<\/p>

During her academic training, she developed skills in project support and contributed to capacity-building activities aimed at promoting community-based solutions for long-term ecological and socio-economic resilience. Since 2025, she has been a Research Fellow within the PLATONE project, actively participating in laboratory experiments studying wave-induced plastic waste transport. In parallel, she is involved in the MAESTRI project, contributing to the development of remote sensing\u2013based solutions for mitigating the impact of plastic pollution in coastal areas.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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University of Catania (UniCT)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Enrico Foti is currently a Full Professor in the CEAR-01\/A \u2013 Hydraulics scientific sector at the University of Catania. He is an expert in the hydrodynamics and morphodynamics of coastal and riverine environments. His research covers a wide range of topics, including the analysis and mitigation of hydraulic risk in both marine and riverine contexts, wave energy production, and the study of transport induced by wave\u2013current interactions through both physical and numerical modeling.<\/p>

He has extensive experience in coordinating national and international research projects. In addition, he carries out intensive professional activities, mainly for public institutions, with both national and international clients, focusing on coastal and marine hydraulics, port engineering, river hydraulics, and hydraulic risk mitigation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Rosaria Ester Musumeci is currently a Full Professor in the CEAR-01\/A \u2013 Hydraulics scientific sector at the University of Catania. She is an expert in the hydrodynamics and morphodynamics of coastal and riverine environments. Her research has focused primarily on the experimental and numerical investigation of the interactions between marine waves, currents, mobile seabeds, and coastal structures.<\/p>

Recently, her work has concentrated on assessing the vulnerability of strategic assets (e.g., ports, dam systems, cultural heritage, natural capital) to extreme events induced by meteorological conditions. These activities have been carried out within numerous national and international research projects, in several of which she has served as Principal Investigator or local coordinator.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Luca Cavallaro is currently an Associate Professor in the CEAR-01\/A \u2013 Hydraulics scientific sector at the University of Catania. His research focuses on the hydraulics of natural systems, the interaction between water bodies and infrastructure, and the development of hydraulic early warning systems.<\/p>

He has served as the scientific coordinator of research projects related to the implementation of hydraulic and coastal early warning systems based on the use of artificial neural networks. He has also provided consultancy for leading national engineering and construction companies.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Martina Stagnitti is currently a Fixed-term Type A Researcher in the CEAR-01\/A \u2013 Hydraulics scientific sector at the University of Catania. Her research, conducted within national and international projects as well as scientific collaboration agreements, focuses on: i) physical and numerical modeling of wave\u2013coastal structure interactions; ii) assessment of the impacts of climate change on coastal systems; iii) numerical study of sediment transport induced by littoral currents; iv) investigation of river flood propagation processes to identify solutions for flood risk mitigation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Giovanni Passalacqua holds a Master\u2019s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Messina. After a period of professional activity with engineering firms and design studios, from 2021 to 2024 he completed a PhD at the same University, conducting experimental research on the dynamics of non-floating plastic debris in coastal environments. During his PhD, he also carried out a research period at the laboratories of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).<\/p>

Since 2024, he has been a Research Fellow at the University of Messina (Minosse project) and subsequently at the University of Catania (Platone project), where he conducts tests and analyses on the dynamics of floating plastic particles, with particular focus on transport velocity and beaching mechanisms along the shoreline profile.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Fabrizio Narzisi is currently a PhD candidate in the National PhD Program in Defense against Natural Hazards and Ecological Transition of the Built Environment \u2013 40th cycle (XL) at the University of Catania. He earned his Master\u2019s degree in Civil Engineering of Water and Transport Systems (Water Curriculum) at the same university, defending a thesis entitled \u201c<\/em>Impact of Wave Forcing Variability on the Structural Design of Breakwater Walls: The Case of the Catania Port Breakwater.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

His research activity focuses on the experimental investigation of plastic transport conditions over seabeds characterized by the presence of ripples.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Giuseppe Bilotta holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Catania. Since 2008, he has collaborated with the Etna Observatory, Catania Section of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), where he has been a researcher since 2017. His work focuses on the modeling of geophysical flows and the development of numerical models for computational fluid dynamics on high-performance computing (HPC) platforms.<\/p>

He is also a contract lecturer for the course \u201cParallel Programming on GPU Architectures\u201d in the Computer Science degree program at the University of Catania.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Roberta Cristofaro holds a degree in Environmental and Land Engineering from the University of Bologna. Since 2021, she has been working in research, initially at ENEA, participating in projects on smart cities, service digitalization, and environmental sustainability, with a focus on data analysis.<\/p>

Since 2024, she has been a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) within the PLATONE project, where she works on the validation of a numerical model for plastic transport in coastal environments based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, implemented using GPUSPH. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Catania in the program \u201cAssessment and Mitigation of Urban and Territorial Risks.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Objectives<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The main objective of the project is to identify the transport mechanisms of floating and non-floating plastics in marine and coastal environments. In particular:\u00a0<\/p>

O1)<\/strong> Classify<\/strong> waste<\/strong> materials that may be found on emerged or submerged beaches according to their origin and physical and biochemical properties, using both existing data and new data acquired through targeted field surveys (distinguishing between floating\/non-floating; anthropogenic\/non-anthropogenic; biodegradable\/non-biodegradable).<\/p>

O2)<\/strong> Develop<\/strong> models<\/strong> of the processes that can lead to the dispersion of waste materials on the emerged beach or along the submerged beach, with particular attention to beaching (stranding) phenomena and washing-off back to the sea.<\/p>

O3)<\/strong> Identify the preferential pathways<\/strong>, both on the emerged beach and in the coastal marine area (swash zone and surf zone), where waste materials tend to accumulate.<\/p>

O4)<\/strong> Propose mitigation<\/strong> solutions<\/strong> and strategies to reduce the trapping of waste materials.<\/p>

O5)<\/strong> Disseminate the project results<\/strong> to raise public awareness and foster a network with other projects funded on related topics.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Conducted Research<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The activity was conducted experimentally<\/strong> within a wave flume, investigating the physical processes driving the movement by identifying the conditions for incipient motion<\/strong>, determining the transport<\/strong> over beds with varying roughness (both horizontal and inclined), and measuring settling or rising velocities<\/strong> in the presence or absence of waves.<\/p>

In parallel, numerical simulations<\/strong> were carried out using two different approaches: a Lagrangian approach<\/strong>, aimed at identifying plastic hotspots<\/strong> within a domain selected as a case study (the Bay of Milazzo), and a GPU-SPH<\/strong> technique, an open-source CFD<\/strong> software capable of identifying plastic particles and modeling their transport in marine\u2013coastal environments, through which an attempt was made to reproduce the experimental results.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Results<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The main results achieved within the project can be summarized as follows:<\/p>

R1) Database<\/strong> of the main types of waste identified at the Milazzo Coast site;<\/p>

R2) Experimental results<\/strong> (identification of incipient motion conditions; determination of transport conditions; settling velocity; rising velocity; beaching velocity) and numerical results<\/strong> (large-scale Eulerian\u2013Lagrangian simulations to estimate plastic hotspots; and small-scale GPUSPH simulations to reproduce specific aspects of the experimental activities);<\/p>

R3) Maps<\/strong> of potential debris accumulation areas at the experimental site and in the selected sample areas;<\/p>

R4) Identification<\/strong> of best practice cases;<\/p>

R5) Engagement and awareness-raising of active citizens<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Deliverables<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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D1.1:\u00a0<\/a> Progress report containing a review of the state of the art, the research gaps, and the open questions
D1.2:\u00a0<\/a> Debris database implemented on a GIS-based platform
D2.1:<\/a> Progress report containing a database of the investigated experimental conditions
D2.2:<\/a> Progress report containing a database of the investigated numerical conditions, for both wave-averaged and SPH models, including the full setup information and, where possible, test cases files for reproducibility of the results
D2.3:<\/a> Journal and conference publications. At least two journal papers and four conference proceedings are expected to be published within 18 months after the closure of the project
D3.1:<\/a> Report on the main current available mitigation solutions to be set in terms of beach and coastal sea cleaning procedures and possibility to be applied to the case study.
D3.2:<\/a> Pathways implementation on the GIS-based platform (in connection with D1.2)
D4.1:<\/a> Report of practices set up in different parts of the world, selection of the most appropriate for the selected case study
D4.2<\/a>: project exhibition: photos & collected samples
D5.1:<\/a> Project website, social media impact, mass media releases
D5.2:<\/a> Final event
D5.3:<\/a> technical reports, educational papers; scientific publications.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographic Competition \"Fuori Luogo\"<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8 CALL TO ACTION: Concorso Fotografico \"Fuori Luogo\" \n\ud83d\udcf8\nLa plastica \u00e8 \"fuori luogo\" nei nostri fiumi, laghi e mari. Aiutaci a raccontare il suo viaggio e a sensibilizzare tutti su questo tema cruciale!\nSei uno studente delle Universit\u00e0 coinvolte nei progetti Platone e Minosse - ManagIng plastic Transport in Rivers and Coastal Areas (UNIME, UNICT, UNIFI, UNIPV)? Questa \u00e8 la tua occasione per fare la differenza con uno scatto.\nPartecipa al nostro concorso fotografico \"Fuori Luogo: Il Viaggio della Plastica dal Fiume al Mare\". Cattura un'immagine che testimoni la presenza (purtroppo) della plastica negli ambienti acquatici e condividi un messaggio potente.\u00f9\n\n\ud83c\udfc6 In palio per le 3 foto migliori:\n1\u00b0 classificato: Cuffie wireless \n2\u00b0 classificato: Power bank \n3\u00b0 classificato: USB pen \nCome partecipare?\nScansiona il QR code sulla locandina o invia una mail a platone.minosse1@gmail.com con i tuoi dati e la foto.\n\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f Scadenza per l'invio: 16 gennaio 2026, ore 12:00.\nMostra il tuo punto di vista. Il tuo scatto pu\u00f2 fare la differenza. Partecipa ora!<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t