MARINE-EO procures the following innovations for the two addressed thematic areas:
a) Copernicus Marine Monitoring thematic area
Feature 1: Ocean biotic and abiotic parameters, climatological information and historical statistics. There is lack of a holistic approach, combining data from diverse sources in one single web platform, in order to serve the needs of Marine authorities at typical operating conditions. This first feature provides environmental status feedback, both on coastal and offshore marine protected areas, based on data gathered from various sources. Further analysis of these data can produce statistical results, as well as interpolated parameter maps. Furthermore, this service will be connected with the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD 56/2008 EC) and the environmental status assessment process.
Feature 2: Fish farm monitoring. The need for a dedicated service that will monitor Fish Farms, and enhance Fish Farmers awareness of relevant critical information, is considered of paramount importance for this fast-growing market. The feature will be applied in selected aquaculture sites, in order to prevent massive fish-killing events that would possibly result in the area’s destabilization and serious economic damages. The feature will provide end-users, on regular intervals, with access to information related to parameters of high interest.
Feature 3: Arctic based services. In order to ensure navigational safety and security at sea, vessels and icebergs detection is of great matter. Therefore, identification of vessel types, their navigational status, as well as icebergs in the vicinity, along with their dynamics, is crucial. This feature covers the monitoring of specified areas of interest, with respect to sea ice status, iceberg status and vessel recognition, combining information from advanced forecast models. This feature allows the competent on-shore authority to make good decisions in the implementation of contingency plans in future operations, where threats from ocean structure and icebergs could appear.
b) Copernicus Security thematic area
Feature 1: Unusual/Irregular activity monitoring around a Critical Infrastructure. A critical infrastructure is an asset or system essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions, whose damage may have significant negative impact for the security of EU and the well-being of the citizens. This feature aims to support the Maritime Security, by monitoring an area around a particular critical infrastructure, detecting abnormalities and identifying behavioral patterns in its surroundings, in order to foresee possible threats.
Feature 2: Change detection around coastal areas. Certain coastal areas surrounding Europe are labelled as possible sources of irregular migration, mainly due to their (strategic geographical) position and societal situation. This MARINE-EO platform feature aims to support the detection of irregular activity taking place in specific areas of interest, in order to minimize the appearance of unpleasant events/situations OR the number of future dinghies departing from these coasts, towards the EU.
