Smart Technologies for Autonomous Marine Monitoring

This chapter addresses the trajectory and application of autonomous marine monitoring technologies for coastal conservation. It begins with an ecological rationale that includes whale nutrient pumping and the threat of emerging pollutants, and explores advances in smart chemical sensors, robust control algorithms for surface and underwater unmanned vehicles, and hybrid communication architectures—LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and acoustic modems. It describes in detail the principles of mechatronic design—additive manufacturing, antifouling strategies, power generation modules, and edge AI—applied to buoys, drones, and submersible vehicles. The chapter also addresses the emergence of low-cost detectors suitable for citizen science and FAIR-aligned data protocols, tools that enable the construction of digital twins of coastal systems. Finally, it examines adaptive governance frameworks that translate continuous streams of high-resolution data into effective policies for interdisciplinary and resilient ocean management.