EU Awards €2 Million to HiSea Project to Provide High Resolution Data on Sea Water Quality The project is developing an innovative service that will provide information and alerts to ports and aquaculture sectors to enable real-time crisis management and improve future operations © HiSea Project DELFT, the Netherlands, January 7, 2019 – The European Union (EU) has awarded the HiSea consortium close to €2 million to develop, test and demonstrate information services that provide high resolution data of sea water quality. These services will incorporate and process data obtained through different Copernicus services (the EU’s Earth Observation and Monitoring service), such as the marine, land and climate services, local monitoring data, and advanced modelling. The platform is aimed at improving operation, planning and management of different marine activities, with a focus on the port and aquaculture sectors. The HiSea information services will include: • Early warning services on potential risk factors by issuing alerts on storms, harmful algal blooms, faecal contamination and other hazards. • Real-time crisis management regarding pollution accidents to identify the appropriate responses. • Key performance indicators regarding fish growing rates, environmental conditions, or the level of vulnerability to storms for vessels. • Information for planning operations including accurate and reliable meteorological, hydrodynamic and water quality forecasts. • Knowledge database built on cause-effect relations that will help better understand and manage future operations. “The main goal of HiSea services is to deliver accurate and reliable information which is readily available, easily understandable and can fit seamlessly into users’ operation, planning and management requirements,” said Dr Ghada El Serafy from Deltares, who is the coordinator of the HiSea Project. “HiSea will provide relevant information, derived from many different sources, in a simple and effective way to add value to their operations and provide them with a competitive advantage.” The consortium, which received funding through the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, is comprised of seven partners from the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Spain, France, Greece and Israel. The HiSea Project held its opening conference in Scheveningen, the Netherlands on January 8-9, 2019. About HiSea HiSea is an EU-funded project that develops an innovative service offering high-resolution water quality data at sea for ports and aquaculture. HiSea transforms the wealth of marine data collected by Sentinel satellites and generated by different Copernicus services in order to provide real-time information thus improving operation, planning and management of different marine activities. For further information: https://hiseaproject.com/ Keywords marine, AI, water quality, crisis management, meteorological, hydrodynamic, aquaculture Countries Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal
