Valencia – 24.01.19. The Fundación Valenciaport has begun work on the HiSea project (High resolution Copernicus-Based Information Services at Sea for Ports and Aquaculture) funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Programme.
The main objective of HiSea is to test and demonstrate information services that provide high resolution data on water quality at sea.
Within this framework, HiSea will develop a web server service that will provide atmospheric, land and marine data through the Copernicus (EU Earth Observation and Monitoring service) satellite programme. This system/service will allow the collection of data for local monitoring as well as advanced modelling of various parameters of possible pollution at sea. Therefore, HiSea will allow better planning, performance and management of operations both in ports and in the aquaculture sector which is also taken into account in this project.
It is worth noting, the high accuracy and high resolution of satellite images playing a crucial role in the representation of physical, chemical and biological processes of water quality, providing detailed information for the sake of knowledge of the coastal environment.
Information services include the following:
- Early warning service with regard to the identification of situations that may have a potential risk for daily activities (storm warnings, harmful algal bloom warnings, pollution warnings, etc.)
- Real-time crisis management with respect to pollution accidents to identify appropriate responses, as well as the timing and magnitude of threats to activities;
- Key performance indicators with respect to fish farming rates, environmental conditions or the level of vulnerability to storms for vessels;
- Information for planning operations, including accurate and reliable weather, hydrodynamic and water quality forecasts;
- Knowledge base based on cause-effect relationships that can help to better understand and manage operations in the future
In this sense, the main objective of HiSea services is to provide accurate, reliable, available, understandable and high resolution/accurate information for decision making in port operations to users.
