Summary:
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Maritime Transport Report 2024, maritime transport accounts for approximately 80% of global trade. This activity has a significant environmental impact on port environments, particularly in terms of air quality, noise and water pollution. Added to this is growing international regulatory pressure, which requires ports to move towards more sustainable and resilient management models. It is in this context that the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) recommends implementing environmental monitoring systems that enable immediate warnings and alarms to be issued in the event of potential air and noise pollution problems.
Given this scenario, the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) established in its 2021-2025 Innovation Strategy an exclusive focus on innovation in ‘Sustainability and climate neutrality’, with strategic objectives such as decarbonising port activity and mitigating pollutant gas emissions (GHG and aerosols) to reduce climate change and improve air quality; increasing the environmental quality of port activity in the urban fabric; and preserving the marine ecosystem and biodiversity by ensuring the compatibility of port activity, among others.
One of the first steps in this transition towards decarbonisation is to identify port-related emissions from all sources and understand the impact of port logistics activities. As ports pursue climate neutrality goals, it is essential to accurately measure GHG emissions and the impact of industry activity on the carbon footprint. Only in this way will it be possible to obtain a granular view with which to establish baselines, identify reduction opportunities and monitor the progress and effectiveness of the policies and projects undertaken.
To this end, the APBA considers it essential to have innovative technological solutions that enable real-time data on the environmental status of the port to be obtained and facilitate decision-making in operational and environmental management. This proactive vision seeks to reduce the impact of port activity on the environment and the health of people, both workers and residents of the urban environment in which it is located.
Within this strategic framework, and thanks to the support of the APBA, the project “Advanced Platform for Observation, Correlation and Early Warning of Environmental and Operational Events in the Port Environment (PANORAMA)” project, an R&D&I initiative funded by the Andalusia ERDF Operational Programme 2021-2027 and the Regional Ministry of Universities, Research and Innovation of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and developed in collaboration with the University of Cádiz (UCA) and, in particular, with the UCASE Software Engineering Research Group.
The main objective of the project is to research and develop an advanced digital platform capable of observing and correlating massive environmental and operational data provided by various data sources, particularly operating systems and sensor networks deployed in port environments. The purpose of this platform is to provide early warning of detected situations of interest in real time and to facilitate decision-making for the port environment in order to minimise the impact on the environment, the cities where seaports are located and their socio-economic context.
The platform will be based on an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) that will integrate massive data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, operating systems and digital platforms, processed in real time using Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology. Specifically, the PANORAMA platform will consist of three functional layers: (1) a data ingestion layer, which will integrate information from sensors and systems deployed in the port; (2) a processing layer, which will apply correlation algorithms to detect critical situations; and, finally, (3) an exploitation layer, which will include a digital twin and an advanced visualisation console to keep the virtual representation of the port environment up to date with physical data, and support decision-making by exploiting both real and simulated data.
Expected results:
- Provide a digital tool for actively monitoring the correlation between environmental and operational events in the port.
- Automatically detect interest situations by analysing environmental and operational data.
- Support decision-making in environmental management with contextualised, real-time information.
- Reduce the impact of port and maritime activity on the environment.
- Use reliable data to prioritise decarbonisation initiatives and evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policies and sustainability projects.
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