CoSea_Lab

[photo G. Lupinacci; graphic A. Guerrazzi]

The Sapienza University of Rome supported the pilot of CO>SEA activity plan (numbered as c. in the above list) titled “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità socio-ambientale nel Golfo di Anzio”, via a dedicated funding program (“BandoTerza Missione 2024”) that includes the following activities from March 2025 to March 2026:

  1. Set up managerial, ethical compliance, risk and data management procedures (corresponding to WP1 in “Terza Missione” project).
  2. Issues gathering. Engagement and interviews with local stakeholders in the research area, organisation and realisation of transect walk for identification of major issues affecting coastal and open sea in the research area; transdisciplinary elaboration of a plan for analysis (corresponding to WP2 + WP3 in “Terza Missione” project).
  3. Socio geographical and bio-chemical data collection throught off and onshore transect walk, field-work note-taking (including where relevant biological sampling) in marine expedition with local experts, citizens, City Council video documentarist (corresponding to WP5 in “Terza Missione” project).
  4. Outreaching event. Training and exhibition on making science public in the city of Anzio (corresponding to WP4 in “Terza Missione” project)
  5. Co>Sea SailingLab. Operationalisation and testing of sailing lab by project leaders for marine observation and documentation of identified emergencies in the research area to fine-tune the marine social geography and visual research methodology. This includes brainstormig and writing for follow-up elaborations, internal assessment of conducted research and evaluation of team performances.
  6. Extra documentation day with scuba divers for documentary purposes.
  7. Report elaboration. Analysis of retrieved literature, interviews, field observations and visual material via critical geography methods, photographic reportage and visual documentary elaboration.
  8. Workshop on Marine Social Research at Sapienza University of Rome (supported by the Sapienza University of Rome “Bando Convegni Seminari e Workshop“) (corresponding to WP6 in “Terza Missione” project).
  9. Final event. Organisation and realisation of a public event in Anzio or nearby harbours for result presentation, video premiere, photographic exhibition with local participants and external guests.(corresponding to WP7 in “Terza Missione” project).

CO>SEA lab is endorsed as a U.N. Ocean Decade Activity 2025.

CO>SEA pilot experimentation in the Anzio (Rome, Italy) coastal water is intended to create a dedicated, reproducible and scalable methodology for investigating society’s relationship with the Ocean and the main socio-environmental issues affecting the coastal sea. Sapienza University of Rome -Memotef Dep. and external collaborators are setting up and managing a participatory process for gathering tacit knowledge of local stakeholders in the Gulf of Anzio about the main emergencies affecting the coastal waters. Special attention is dedicated to the marine plastic pollution issue. We aim to explore how attachments between societies and the sea are forged to “stay with the (environmental) problem” and engage with the process of sympoiesis, drawing on the composition of materialities, imaginaries and forces in the liquid space to reconceive our common belongingness to the ocean. Particularly we investigate how seagoing people conceptualise and experience the changing ocean invaded by plastic pollution. Through networking with local participants and international experts, transect walk and rapid appraisal open interviews, collaborative elaboration of an analysis plan (identification of scientific support needed) and plan for documentation and reporting, the fieldwork is designed with the support of local institutions. A sailboat offshore exploration is taking place in the summer of 2025 for observation and documentation of selected emergencies in coastal waters , field-work note-taking (including where relevant biological sampling), offshore interviews, video-photographic shooting in and out the water with scuba divers support.

[photo G. Lupinacci]

Socio-environmental context

The Gulf of Anzio is a biodiversity hotspot, housing various species (notably tortoise Carretta Caretta, spinner dolphins, and blue sharks) and is known for its Posidonia Oceanica meadows, which play a critical role in maintaining the biological balance and protecting the coastline. On the coastal side, the Circeo National Park, the Regional Reserve Tor Caldara, characterized by tuff cliffs and the presence of sabellaria alveolata, and the EU Site of Community Interest Gallinara Park protect Mediterranean dunes and terrestrial biodiversity from massive building investments that have characterized the area since the ’70s. The Gulf includes the coastal waters (12 miles from shore) of the city of Anzio (60 km south of Rome, Latium region, 50.000 inhab.) whose local economy is highly dependent on the sea (fishing, commercial boating, and tourism).

The area is menaced by years of malversation, cementation and privatisation of public shores lately testified by the dismissal of the previous City Council and the failure of the public company managing the harbour, further than the several disputes on fishing stocks and beach concessions for the structures. Here the citizens’ empowerment process is of particular relevance. Sea workers and seagoing people (sailors, divers, service providers companies; fishermen); environmental, cultural, and social associations; local schools and industrial partners, further than local shops and tourism services already signalled the need for a comprehensive analysis of the coastal waters conditions. Notably,  the proposed construction of a new touristic harbor in Anzio (currently under discussion) and the privatisation of the whole coast could cause serious damage to the fragile marine ecosystems, increase the cementing and subvert local people relationship with the sea.

CO>SEA collaborators

Chiara Certomà is an assistant professor of socio-political geography at Sapienza University of Rome MEMOTEF Dep., with over fifteen years of research experience in participatory methods for science and policy making. Engaged in 15 national and international research projects, is an expert in environmental governance and social innovation for sustainability, adopts participatory citizen science and mobilises volunteers in data collection, elaboration and sharing on the biological consequences of marine plastic pollution. Chiara is actively committed in Marine Social Science, visual geography and ocean studies. She authored more than 30 papers and books and led the EU project “SeaPacs” (awarded the EU Citizen Science Prize 2024 – Diversity and Collaboration), “SeaPaCS”, “FishArt”, “Tentacular Thinking”, and “PartArt4OW”. chiara.certoma@uniroma1.it

Federico Fornaro is managing director of the independent news agency Raw-News with 18year + of experience in documentaries and hard news in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Expert in video-documentation and photography, including underwater and drone-based. Jointly with UniTo, he produced the video documentation in “SeaPaCS”, “FishArt”, “Tentacular Thinking”, PartArt4OW”. He is Italian stable correspondent for AlJazeera and NBC News; and recurrent correspondent for CBS, Euronews, Sky, CCTV, France24, BBC. Contracted with Greenpeace, Unicef, Unesco, National Geographic, DataLine, Colonial Pictures, Reuters, Italian Minister for Foreign Affars, Lebanon Minister of Turism and Avaaz. He is skipper and sailing instructor. Overly 20 years of experience in oceanic sailing, Esprit Marin Prize 2013 for the Atlantic solo-crossing during MiniTransat. federico.fornaro@raw-news.net

Giuseppe Lupinacci is a water photographer. He embarked as sailor and then as skipper, from 1999 to 2010, in the Maldives, Turkey, Egypt, Antigua, Barbados, Martinique, Sint Maarten, Saint Lucia, Tenerife and sailing the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Since 2013 he has been working as a freelance aquatic and underwater photographer for media agencies, press, sports institutions and international projects. Collaborating with international projects “SeaPaCS”, “FishArt”, “Tentacular Thinking”, PartArt4OW” to explore the transformation of oceanic ecosystems and the relationship between society and the ocean and his photography solo exhibitions has been presented in Milan, Rome, Palma de Mallorca and London. g.lupinacciphoto@gmail.com. Collaborator in “CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean” and “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Caterina Pozzobon is research assistant at Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep., working on the management of the EU Horizon project “Participatory Art for society engagement with Ocean and Water (PartArt4OW)”. After obtaining a Masters degree in Cooperation, Development, and Innovation in the Global Economy from the University of Turin, she earned a PhD in Urban and Regional Development from the Polytechnic of Turin, with a thesis in human geography on water resource management in rural central Tanzania, adopting a feminist political ecology approach. Her main research interests include participatory research, the use of visual methods, and the analysis of the human and more-than -human geographies of water. caterina.pozzobon@uniroma1.it . Collaborator in “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Luca Bertocci is research assistant at Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Depworking on the management of the EU Horizon project “Participatory Art for society engagement with Ocean and Water (PartArt4OW)”. After obtaining a bachelor’s in Literature and Philosophy and a Masters degree in Geography from the University of Bologna, he earned a PhD in Urban and Regional Development from the Polytechnic of Turin, with a thesis in urban philosophy and politics focused on planetary urbanization and the ongoing epochal transformation of planetary water due to climate change. His main research interests include political theory, philosophy and geographical thinking. They are conceived as crucial techniques for unveiling emancipatory potentials embedded in our metamorphic and always negotiated world. luca.bertocci@uniroma1.it Collaborator in “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Chiara Salari is research assistant at Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep. on the management of the EU Horizon project “Participatory Art for society engagement with Ocean and Water (PartArt4OW)”. After obtaining a PhD in visual studies (University Paris Cité and Roma TRE University), she was international fellow at the KWI (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of Essen, Germany) and research fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her main research interests include the environmental aesthetics of post-industrial landscapes, ecocritical approaches to the study of images, the representation of biodiversity and marine landscapes in multimedia online archives and atlases. Collaborator in “Marine Social Research” (Bando Workshop 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Tommaso Valente is researcher at the ISPRA /Sapienza University – Environmental Biology Dep. in Marine Ecology, Marine Pollution, Bioindicators, Feeding Ecology, Environmental Pollution, Marine Debris, Marine Ecosystems.

Amedeo Boldrini is PhD student at the University of Siena – Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences expert in water contamination.

Marcello Dato is the artistic director of the Berlin-based international company Platoon Cultural Development, with decades of experience in the conception, organization and management of large international artistic events.

Massimo Battaglia Associate professor in Economy and Management, Sapienza University of Rome -Management Dep., collaborator in ” CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Roberta Gemmiti Full professor in Economic Geography, Sapienza University of Rome – MEMOTEF Dep., collaborator in “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome). Project coordinator of the research “Ambiente, diseguaglianze e giustizia in Italia”

CO>SEA networks

Our local network includes local administrations, seagoing professionals and service providers; environmental, cultural, social associations; local schools and industrial partners, local shops and tourism services.

We cross-fertilise and exchange with our international network of scholars, activist and insitutions, including UN Ocean Decade Action, Marine Social Science, U.N. Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience, SAP&O Science+Art+Participation in&about the Ocean, Bremen Ocean World From Outside in, Ocean Decade Art+Science, H-Net Ocean and the EU project PartArt4OW and cognate projects TidalArt and Prep4Blue.

Museo della Geografia Sapienza University of Rome, led by Riccardo Morri and Sandra Leonardi, collaborator in “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio Collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità nel Golfo di Anzio” (Bando Terza Missione 2024 Sapienza University of Rome).

Informed consent form available here:

Activity Diary (by points and news)

  • 13.01.2025 Press release CO>SEA is starting!
  • 23 Jan 2025 CO>SEA presenting team activities from SeaPaCS to PartArt4OW at TidalArts event “Where Art/Ocean/Science meets” (online meeting)
  • 8.3.2025 CO>SEA team participation and documentation of the meeting between trawling fishermen of Anzio and the Municipality representatives – Tourism and Productive activity dep.
  • 20 March 2025 Granted the support to CO>SEA pilot (“Laboratorio Collettivo per il Mare e la Sostenibilità socio-ambientale nel Golfo di Anzio”) by Sapienza University of Rome – Bando Terza Missione 2024 in collaboration with Roberta Gemmiti (MEMOTEF Dep.), Massimo Battaglia (Dep. Management) and Museo della Geografia (see COSea_Lab Terza Missione 2024)
  • January-March 2025 CO>SEA tram interviewed gate-keepers and stakeholders in the city of Anzio to identified via a participatory marine social geography process the principal emergences affecting the coastal sea and the coast of the Gulf of Anzio. Over 10 in-depth, open and long interviews (30 min- 1.5 hour) have been conducted, recorded or video-recorded (by Raw-News), unsploot and ready for content mapping and semantic analysis. Interviewed citizens (including seaworkers and seafarers, administrators, seagoing people, associations…) have been asked main problems of the coastal sea and the high seas in the area (notably in the Gulf of Anzio up to the Pontine Islands), how the crucial issues for the health of the global oceans in your experience impact the local sea; what actions undertaken do you know (e.g. safeguard/care practices implemented by the inhabitants).
  • 9 April 2025 Sampling of river Loricina (Nettuno) for preliminary chemical and biological analysis by the University of Siena; visual documentation (complementing samples of river waters Fosso dello Schiavo (Lido dei Gigli) realised on the 4th of Apr 2025)
  • 22 Apr 2025 Celebrating EarthDay by the Ocean
  • Apr 2025 CO>SEA has been endorsed as a U.N. Ocean Decade action.
  • 16 Mag 2025 Marine water sampling in the vicinity of sewage treatment plant discharges and discharge points (complementing analyses realised on the 4th Apr 2025) for biological pollution + documentation of marine plastic brought back from trawling fishermen at the harbour.
  • 30 may 2025 Presentation of CO>SEA research group work at the Giornate della Ricerca MEMOTEF – Sapienza University of Rome (photo M. Bica)
  • 3-4 jun 2025 Second water sampling for chemical polluants at Fosso dello Schiavo – Lido dei Gigli and Loricina river – Nettuno (Rome)
  • 5 jun 2025 Presentation of CO>SEA research and video-doc “Blue Kinship. Documenting Ocean Relationship” at the Pavillion for People with U.N. Ocean Conference 2025
  • 5 jun 2025 marine water sampling in the vicinity of sewage treatment plant discharges and discharge points (complementing analyses realised on the 4th Apr 2025) for biological pollution
  • 17 jun 2025 CO>SEA team is following the activities of the ZeroPlastic project managed by Comune di Anzio in collaboration with Sapienza MEMOTEF and Raw-News. The plastic and oil – collecting drone has been operationalised in the Anzio Gulf.
  • 21 jun 2025 Presentation of short video-doc “The sense of place. Documenting Ocean Relationship” at the Circolo Vela Roma, Anzio (Italy)
  • 7 jul 2025 Participation to the roundtable “aMare Anzio” , Anzio City Council
  • 5 sep 2025 Caterina Pozzobon presented at the Congresso Geografico Italiano University of Turin, the contribution “Deep sight. On the heuristic value of Visual Research for Marine Social Geography” on the use of visual methods in the participatory research of CO>SEA.
  • 6th Sept 2025, CoSea (Chiara Salari) participated in the IMPETUS Demo Day at Ars Electronica in Linz, in the frame of the conference “New Pathways: AI, Art, and Collaboration in Citizen Science—#AI, Art, Policy”. Through an interactive format the audience was invited to role-play as stakeholders—scientists, policymakers, journalists—engaging directly with the 2024 cohort of CSIs (citizen science initiatives) through questions, feedback, and symbolic “investments”. CoSea participated in the IMPETUS Accelerator in 2023 with the project SeaPaCS (Participatory Citizen Science against Marine Pollution).
  • 18 Sept 2025 2025 Chiara Certomà presented “CoSea_Lab. Laboratorio collaborativo per il mare e la sostenibilità socio-ambientale nel Golfo di Anzio”, at the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico, Session Insieme nella Transizione Ecologica, Università Roma Tre

New video reportage “Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships”

The CO>SEA research group, hosted at Sapienza University of Rome’s Memotef Department and supported by the EU Citizen Science Prize 2024 – Diversity & Collaboration Award, proudly announces the release of its latest video reportage: “Blue Kinships. Documenting Ocean Relationships.” This thought-provoking visual exploration delves into the essence of visual research for marine social geography…

PartArt4OW@European Ocean Days

I’m taking part together with PartArt4OW partners (Sapienza, Raw-News and CMMI) in the 3rd Annual Mission Ocean and Waters Forum, taking place on 4 March 2025 with a series of related events in the week of 3-7 March including the European Ocean Days 2025 as part of the Mission Ocean. The 3rd Annual Forum will be held at…

Pontos. Planetary urbanization and the Sea

Toward the Italian Geographic Congress that will be held in Turin (3-5 September 2025) we share the call for our session n. 43, entitled “Pontos. Encounters-Clashes between planetary urbanization and the sea within the ecological crisis” which arises in connection with the Horizon Europe project PArtArt4OW – Participatory Art for Ocean and Water and the…

CO>SEA pilot_Socio-geographical explorations in the Anzio sea

[photo L.Bertocci] [Italiano in basso] Anzio, 4 April 2025 The research work of the CO>SEA ‘Collaborative Laboratory for the Sea and Socio-Environmental Sustainability in the Gulf of Anzio’ project continues in the sea of Anzio. The CO>SEA research team of the MEMOTEF Department of the Sapienza University of Rome with the independent visual production agency…

Premiere of “The Sense of Place” @Nuit des Idees – French Embassy

Continuing its exploration of the fascinating relationship between society and the ocean, the CO>SEA research group has premiered the new short documentary entitled The Sense of Place: Documenting Ocean Relationships on 14 May during the event La Notte delle Idee – Mari e Oceani: Verso nuove rotte, organised by the French Embassy in Italy and…

CO>SEA on the sea of Anzio @TG Leonardo

[english below] Il mare di Anzio raccontato dal TG Leonardo, RAI 3 – Protagonista il progetto CO>SEA Il progetto di ricerca partecipativa CO>SEA, dedicato alle emergenze socio-ambientali nel Golfo di Anzio, è stato protagonista di un servizio speciale trasmesso dal TG Leonardo su Rai 3 il 5 giugno 2025. Il servizio, a cura di Laura…

Advancing marine citizen science throught participatory geography now out in Local Environment

SeaPaCS project results on participatory citizen science in marine geography now out in Local Environment. The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability in a research article titled ““I felt as someone special today”. Advancing marine citizen science throught participatory and critical geography explorations “. Working on the results of SeaPaCS has been made possible thanks…

“Blue Kinships”: engaged research and visual documentation at SiciliAmbiente Film Festival

As part of the public engagement activities of the EU Horizon project PartArt4OW – Participatory Art for Society Engagement with Ocean and Water and the scientific co-creation of knowledge about Ocean and Society advanced by participation for raising awareness about the issues affecting the Ocean, CO>SEA Collaboratorium for the Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean, Raw-News…

CoSea_Lab Photo-research exhibition

[photo G.Lupinacci, CoSea_Lab reportage] On the 26th of June 2025, CoSea_Lab presented for the first time the photographic reportage “CO>SEA. Collaboratorium for Socio-Environmental Analysis of the Ocean” by Giuseppe Lupinacci/Raw-News, documenting the participatory action-research activities performed during the pilot implementation in Anzio (Rome). The reportages document some of the main emergencies identified during the field…

Report and social map of CoSeaLab research now unveiling data and results

The results of the CoSea_Lab research describing the state of the sea and the coast of Anzio (Rome, Italy) as a result of a participatory social geography research and mapping. The CO>SEA project proposes an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to analysing the socio-environmental transformations of marine and coastal ecosystems, with particular reference to the Gulf…

“Blue Kinships. An Exploration of Society & the Ocean”_now out!

[cover graphic Allegra Guerrazzi] Blue Kinships, edited by Chiara Certomà, as just been released by Palgrave MacMillan, NY. Blue Kinship contributes to the emergent movement of ideas and practices that are interpreting the ocean as a conceptual and physical space for reconsidering our relationship with the complex, heterogeneous and mutable ecological systems of the Anthropocene;…

“Around Alone”: technologies, society and the sea premiered at the RGS AC2025

On the 27th of August 2025, Chiara Certomà (Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep.) and Federico Fornaro (Raw-News Visual Production Agency), research team CO>SEA, presented the premiere of the new  short-documentary “Around Alone. Documenting Ocean Relationships” at the Royal Geographical Sociaty with IBS Annual Conference 2025 (RGS AC2025), University of Birmingham, “Film Geography” session. “Around…

CO>SEA & PartArt4OW at the RGS2025

CO>SEA team is presenting at the RGS with IBG Conference 2025, held at the University of Birgmingham, 26-29th Aug, the photo exhibition “An intimate connection. Society and the Ocean in Water Photography” produced for the EU project PartArt4OW as slideshow amongst the highligths of the event. Part of the photographies are included in the book…

Marine Social Research. CoSea_Lab creative workshop @Sapienza Memotef

The CO>SEA research team invites eveybody to the creative workshop “Marine Social Research. Present and Future of science, creativity and participation for the Ocean” will be held on the 3rd of October 2025 at Sapienza University of Rome, MEMOTEF Dep (via del Castro Laurenziano 9, Rome). The worshop is part of the EU Horizon project…

CO>SEA/PartArt4OW Sailing Lab testing

Writing and documentation expedition Within the framework of the pilot project “CoSea_Lab. Collaborative Laboratory for the Sea and Socio-Environmental Sustainability in the Gulf of Anzio”, funded by Sapienza University of Rome – Third Mission, on the 9-11 May 2025 the CO>SEA research group continues its activities of analysis, documentation, and elaboration of results through a…

CoSea. Critical Visions from the Sea_new video-docu out

On the 7th of November, during the creative workshop “Marine Social Research. Present and Future of science, creativity and participation for the Ocean”, the new video-documentary “CoSea. Critical Visions from the Sea”, produced by Raw-News Visual Production Agency and directed by Federico Fornaro, is premiered at the Sapienza University of Rome – MEMOTEF Department. Based…

CoSea_Lab + Zero Plastica public presentation

[photo G.Lupinacci] What are the main environmental problems in the Gulf of Anzio? And how do major global challenges, such as climate change, intertwine with daily life and the local environment? What protection measures have been implemented? And how has the relationship between the sea and society changed? The participatory research project “CoSea_Lab. Collaborative Laboratory…

Products

  • Certomà, C., Pozzobon, C., Salari, C., Bertocci, L., Boldrini, A., Valente, T., Fornaro, F. (2025), “CO>SEA nel Golfo di Anzio. Report tecnico-scientifico”, Zenodo, https://zenodo.org/records/16313580
  • Pozzobon, C., Certomà, C., Salari, C., Bertocci, Fornaro, F. (2025), “CO>SEA nel Golfo di Anzio.  
    Mappa delle emergenze socio-ambientali“, available here and on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/uploads/16890288
  • Graphic recording of the workshop Marine Social Science (7 nov 2025) by Veronica Vitale/IschireStudio

Press

CO>SEA on international repositories/databases:

SCI_STARTER https://scistarter.org/collaboratorium-for-socio-environmental-analysis-o?new=true

UN SDGS https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/cosea-collaboratorium-socio-environmental-analysis-ocean

OCEAN LOVERS https://www.oceanloveawards.com/new/co-sea-p-collaboratorium-for-socio-environmental-analysis-of-the-ocean-tackling-marine-plastic-in-anzio

UN Ocean Decade https://oceandecade.org/fr/events/cosea/

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