The Challenge

Globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources and their industry is estimated at $ 3 trillion/year or about 5% of the global GDP. More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods, with the oceans being the world’s largest source of protein (200,000 identified species). Current acidity levels in the open seas have increased by 26% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Coastal waters are deteriorating due to pollution and eutrophication, which is expected to increase by a further 20% by 2050.

According to the SDG 14, “Underwater life”, which deals with the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources, ESPO (The European Sea Ports Organisation) created an Environmental Code of Conduct, instructing Port Administrations to develop instruments that enable them to manage environmental problems. ESPO’s 2020 Annual Environmental Report includes among its 10 priorities the quality of water and ship waste.

This project arises from the real need in the Port of Palma de Mallorca in which Baleares Port. Authority requests the support of Palma Pilots to digitise the control of the sea water quality.

The Solution

The objective of the iGreenPort experiment consists of the monitoring of sea water quality in a port. iGreenPort responds to the request of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands given the current risk of extinction that Posidonia, an endemic Mediterranean aquatic plant, suffers from possible anomalous indicators of the sea water quality at the port.

iGreenPort intends to develop a digital ecosystem to control and monitor the sea water quality in different areas of any port. In essence, different datasets (geoposition data on water quality, AIS navigation real-time data, etc..) will be shared in iGreenPort data space to create several data packages at different levels of the ‘data value chain’ to be utilised both by iGreenPort partners as well as external entities, particularly authorities with environmental competencies in ports (Port Authorities, or by delegation, PortControl, Pilots or Cost guards), their suppliers, and research groups in the field.

Business projections – scalability

• Customers and end-users: Port Authorities.
• By delegation (depending on each port): Port Control, Pilots, Coast Guards.
• Commercial actions to Ports (once we have a POC).
• Introduction of new sea water pollution indicators.
• New customer segment: pollution monitoring on busy beaches.