Background

Since September 2020, FIWARE Foundation has been leading the successful i4Trust project around Data Spaces, which has been receiving funding by the European Commission under the Grant Agreement of 951975. Thanks to the extraordinary collaboration of partners such as iShare and FundingBox, 32 selected solutions on Data Spaces have been awarded and funded. With the first impacting results available, FIWARE has decided to publish a fine selection of Impact Stories showcasing FIWARE-based solutions created by an awarded and funded consortium of DIHs and SMEs. iGreenPort is a dataspace for sharing and accessing environmental and operational data, such as the seawater quality in the port, in near real-time it is contributing to the European Data Space strategy.

Figure 1 . Global socio-economic context of iGreenPort

The port of Palma de Mallorca identified a need for iGreenPort, a program to support the digitization of seawater quality control. The Port Authority of the Balearic Islands seeks the help of the port’s maritime pilots to address the issue of water pollution caused mainly by maritime traffic such as ship anchoring and the discharge of poorly treated water, which has a high impact on Posidonia.

So far the environmental perspective has been mostly overlooked in the digital transformation of ports. Currently, real-time data on seawater quality in all port maritime areas does not exist, nor is it integrated with Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, which is transmitted every 3 to 6 seconds by all ships at sea, providing information on their characteristics and position. The combination of seawater quality data with AIS data is crucial for identifying the ships that could cause water pollution. 

Having a single platform that integrates these two datasets (water quality and AIS data) would be highly valuable to port authorities, enabling them to monitor seawater in near real time. This “data space platform” would contribute to the PortCDM (Collaborative Decision Making) model, which is being adopted by the most digitally advanced ports. This model facilitates information sharing between all stakeholders in real-time, without paper and with fewer radio calls.

Regarding seawater monitoring, it is important to note that:

• globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources is estimated at 3 trillion dollars per year or about 5% of global GDP. Additionally, over 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods;
• The acidity of the seas has increased by 26% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and coastal waters are deteriorating due to pollution and eutrophication. This is expected to increase by 20% by 2050;

European Sea Ports Organization’s SDG 14 Environmental Code of Conduct, instructs port administrations to develop tools to manage environmental problems.

Figure 2 . Route map of a pilot’s boat during 1 day

Figure 3 . iGreenPort Dataspace

Figure 3 . iGreenPort’s Data Value Chain

In iGreenPort’s Data Value Chain, JEMINOAL is a level 1 data provider, since it provides the AIS raw data at high frequencies. Meanwhile, HIADES, PLEYONE, and CANARY are all data consumers and data providers, creating new data packages or data services shared through the i4Trust Marketplace: 

• At level 2, PLEYONE provides data packages of processed AIS data, and a seawater quality heat map of the port, which visualizes the turbidity and ship traffic of different areas in real-time.
• At level 3, HIADES provides identification of vessel traffic density, a reconstruction of port status and vessel information in case of turbidity anomalies, and a notification system for anomalous indicators to the relevant authority.
• At level 4, CANARY creates real-time dashboards and port characterization models based on water quality historical data.

In summary, the iGreenPort Marketplace, will make available high-value data package services for monitoring and analyzing the seawater quality of ports, such as:

• Heat maps with seawater indicators in all the maritime areas of the port displayed on an interactive monitor
• Alarm system for anomalous seawater indicators 
• Reports of vessels that sailed before contamination incidents
• Dashboards with historical data of seawater indicators
• Predictive models of vessels with a higher likelihood of causing pollution incidents.

Figure 5. Architecture of iGreenPort

By following the philosophy of i4Trust and utilizing FIWARE technology and its various components, such as a marketplace, security component, and the storage of large amounts of real-time data, as well as iShare for multinational electronic identification, iGreenPort creates a space where different entities involved in a port can exchange data efficiently, securely, traceably, and automatically. This creates a Data Space, a place where these entities and their systems can exchange information and generate new value, through the aggregated data.

The HIADES, PLEYONE and CANARY entities have FIWARE components, while JEMINOAL and PALMA PILOTs do not require it.

JEMINOAL collects the raw AIS data and sends it to PLEYONE for processing and delivery to the marketplace in response to specific requests. Seawater quality data is also collected through PLEYONE, which receives the data directly from the sensor installed on the pilot boat.

End users such as Port Authorities, can request data/service packages through the Marketplace (as explained in the section “Solution”). Each specific request is validated as a trusted entity and eventually translates into data acquisition requests to each data provider, which is then intercepted by their respective PEPs.

iShare Satellite will enable, in coordination with the identity provider and authorization registry, the validation of trusted organizations sharing data in the iGreenPort Data space.

Benefits & Impact

Port Authorities are responsible for the prevention and control of marine pollution emergencies in their service area (Zone 1) and are investing in specialized surveillance to allow for rapid action in the event of pollution incidents. iGreenPort provides a cutting-edge tool for monitoring seawater quality in near real-time and identifying ships that could cause water pollution.

The results are aimed at Port Authorities, or by delegation, Port Control, coast guards, pilots, and their suppliers, as well as other port agents and research groups in this field. 

Under a conservative assumption of reaching 59 ports in 5 years, representing 5.1% of the total addressable market, which is the 1,164 ports in Spain and South/Central America, where HIADES already has commercial networks, and the USA (a market that HIADES is currently entering).

iGreenPort projects more than 6M€ in revenue in the fifth year, with an annual profit increase of over 30% during the following 5 years.

Future plans, in addition to commercial actions, include expanding iGreenPort to a new customer segment such as pollution monitoring on busy beaches.

Added value through FIWARE

In recent years, the port sector has undergone significant changes. Port Authorities have shifted from being solely responsible for managing the port’s territory and assets, to organizing and managing the entire port ecosystem. In this new paradigm, digital data exchange platforms play a crucial role in providing real-time information to all port agents on the operations taking place in the port. This improves situational awareness, enables collaborative decision-making and leads to increased efficiency and safety in maritime-port operations.

HIADES has been utilizing FIWARE applications for 3 years. After consolidating the AMURA Smart Port Ecosystem digitization tools in more than 20 ports globally, HIADES implemented a digital platform in the cloud to exchange all this digitized data, along with data from IoT devices placed in ports and other digital assets. This led to the creation of the AURORA SmartPorts Platform, a state-of-the-art product powered by FIWARE, that brings best practices from the use of FIWARE in SmartCities to the port sector. AURORA provides the opportunity to collect data from different sources and compile it into a single platform to apply advanced analytics. This enables the creation of real-time monitoring dashboards or predictive models on the port.

HIADES has successfully applied its FIWARE AURORA platform in various projects. These include iGreenPort and AMURA ZIDAY, both of which are focused on real-time monitoring and detection of pollution incidents in port waters, with an identification service for the vessels causing them.

FIWARE technology is ideal for Big Data exchange projects due to its many advantages, including:

• Seamless integration of real-time data and data from different sources.
• Federation of different FIWARE platforms with each other.
• A great supporting community.