This course provides deep technical insights into advanced, field-deployable environmental monitoring solutions developed under the European Union’s iMERMAID framework. Designed to bridge the operational gap between slow, laboratory-bound testing and the urgent need for real-time actionable data, this program equips environmental authorities, industrial operators, and water utilities with the competencies required to detect emerging chemical pollutants, hazardous heavy metals (Zn, Cd, Pb, Cu), oil-derived volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and large-scale maritime oil spills. Participants will explore cutting-edge technologies—including miniaturized electrochemical sensors, electronic screening boxes (ECS Boxes), membrane-inlet mass spectrometers, and satellite-based artificial intelligence models—while learning to mitigate real-world engineering challenges such as electrical noise, biofouling, and signal stabilization based on actual industrial and marine use cases across the Mediterranean region.
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Evaluate advanced sensing hardware by understanding the design and electrochemical principles of portable tools used to screen heavy metals, PFAS, and organic micropollutants in the field.
- Deploy satellite-based AI models using Sentinel-1 SAR data and machine learning architectures to detect, map, and predict the dynamic movement of maritime oil spills.
- Optimize field conditioning and testing through critical on-site procedures, sample preprocessing, chemical buffer adjustments, and marine mass spectrometry to ensure signal stability and accurate low-ppb detection.
- Mitigate operational field anomalies by identifying and resolving real-world environmental deployment challenges like biofouling, sensor clogging, material regeneration limits, and electrical noise interference.
- Drive cloud integration and compliance by leveraging automated data pipelines to interpret real-time analytical data, enabling swift decision-making that aligns with strict EU environmental directives.