Coastal Sea Temperature Data Using Low-cost Commercial Sen Sors Around a Small Mediterranean Island

Abstract

The acquisition of coastal data, especially in areas of the Mediterranean, is of fundamental importance in numerical forecasting and climatological studies. Islands are particularly significant due to their central location within the sub-basins of the Mediterranean Sea. It is equally important to obtain high quality data acquired according to common standards, which can be achieved through the exchange of information. In Sardinia, western Mediterranean, an initial experiment was conducted on the small island of San Pietro through the Citizen Science project MedSeaPOD. Twenty temperature sensors were installed at 17 sites around the island for minimum of 12 months in very shallow waters between 3 and 30 metres depth, involving local not scientist people. This made it possible to provide high quality scientific data to the European EMODnet repository and to raise public awareness of climate change. This project has been recognized as having relevant scientific value by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and it has received the endorsement as Action of the Ocean Decade (2021-2030), within which we have established contacts with scientists from neigh bouring Corsica. Terminated in September 2025, acquisitions and the activities as Action went on through the involvement of stakeholders in Sardinia measuring coastal temperature in other sites and other Mediterranean islands like Malta, through a bilateral project that has started in January 2026, where similar measurements are being collected.