14.3.4. Technologies towards aquatic ecosystem damage prevention (direct work)
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14.3.4. Technologies towards aquatic ecosystem damage prevention (direct work)
In 2025, METU worked directly on technologies and practices that help marine industries and authorities prevent damage to aquatic ecosystems.
Each example below is direct work by METU researchers – not only a study of damage after it has happened – that gives a marine or water-using industry, or the authority that regulates it, a tool to foresee and avoid harm to aquatic ecosystems before it occurs:
- MARMOD (Sea of Marmara): pollution reaches the sea through wastewater discharges. The digital twin shows where these pollution loads go, so the Ministry and the operators of treatment plants and discharge points can test treatment and discharge options in the model and choose the ones that protect the sea before they are put into practice.
- BRIDGE-BS (Black Sea): aquaculture, fisheries and other blue-economy industries put pressure on the sea. The project's assessment tools and digital twin demonstrator show how much of these activities the Black Sea's ecosystems can support, so the industries can be planned and managed within those limits.
- OceanICU (ocean industries): fishing and seabed mining can weaken the ocean's ability to store carbon.The decision support tools let industry and policy makers predict the impact of an activity before it goes ahead and choose ways of using marine resources that avoid this damage.
Digital Twin of the Sea of Marmara (MARMOD Phase III, 2024–2025)
The METU Institute of Marine Sciences, with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, built a Digital Twin of the Sea of Marmara that maps the pollution loads from wastewater discharges and lets decision-makers and operators test treatment and discharge strategies before acting. It was completed on 4 December 2025.
BRIDGE-BS (Horizon 2020, 2021 – November 2025)
Coordinated by METU with 31 partners from 14 countries, BRIDGE-BS developed tools to assess and model how multiple pressures affect Black Sea ecosystem services, identifying sustainable blue-economy activities (such as aquaculture and fisheries) that ecosystems can support.
The project ended with a final conference in Brussels on 25 November 2025, attended by 160 participants, where its Black Sea digital twin demonstrator – which combines data, models and scenarios to support decisions on managing the sea under environmental and socio-economic pressures – and its policy brief were presented.
In August 2025, the press reported on the AI-supported digital twin of the Black Sea developed by METU's Marine Ecosystem and Climate Research Centre with partners from five countries and more than 30 national and international partners, supported by the EU and by the Presidency of Strategy and Budget. By simulating environmental change in the sea, climate scenarios and the effects of human activities, the system is designed to guide decision-makers towards an ecosystem-based blue economy and nature protection.
OceanICU: tools for ocean industries (Horizon Europe, 2022–2027)
METU's Institute of Marine Sciences is a partner in OceanICU, which studies how the ocean's biological carbon pump works and how industrial activities affect it. Fishing removes biomass and mining stirs up sediment, and both act most strongly on the higher levels of the food web that play a key part in the ocean carbon cycle. The project is designing decision support tools, developed with stakeholders, that let scientists, industry and policy makers predict the impact of natural processes and industry actions and choose ways of using marine resources that protect the ocean's ability to store carbon.