Progetto Sailing
Progetto Sailing
The S.A.I.L.I.N.G. scientific and photographic project is the first European experiment to monitor constantly the waters of Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta. It was carried out in 2014 and 2015.
S.A.I.L.I.N.G. (an acronym for Sensor-based Assessment on In Lake processes and water quality scientific Investigation and Growing environmental awareness) was carried out thanks to a memorandum of understanding between the CNR Institute of Verbania, photographer and skipper Walter Zerla and Fantini. The project has enabled the collection of data and various water parameters in real time, such as temperature, pH, electrical conductivity and dissolved oxygen, with a detail and spatiotemporal extension never before experimented at European level.
Monitoring water quality and making it known helps to raise people's awareness and understanding of the need to safeguard it as a precious asset.Monitoring water quality and making it known helps to raise people's awareness and understanding of the need to safeguard it as a precious asset.
The project made use of the sailing boat Caipirinha-Fantini, transformed into a float-ing laboratory at the service of the CNR, Institute for the Study of Ecosystems in Verbania, and for the dual purpose of science and photography. Sailing throughout 2014 on Lake Maggiore and over the course of 2015 on Lake Orta, the boat carried out a scientific monitoring activity based on the use of special sensors, suitable for long-term in-water activities, for the measurement of limnological parameters with a high space-time frequency, positioned on the keel of the Caipirinha-Fantini to allow real-time and continuous data collection thanks to a connection via radio to the CNR laboratories.
The photographic research, carried out in an extraordinary natural environment, involved the processing of images produced by innovative means, such as ultra-light remote-controlled drones, using the most modern cameras or ultra-sensitive cameras. This has resulted in a visual documentation of the two lakes in every season and in the various weather and light conditions as never before.
