Objectives of the service
Under this CCN, an EoP pilot service is being set up for a new business area and customer segment: sports events. The customer is the Westbrook team from the E-series, an electric powered boat racing competition that aims to offer an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional speedboat racing. Given this focus, the team wants to determine the race's impact on the environment, while also being concerned about safety, since floating plastic objects can pose a hazard to boats during a race. The demonstration service implemented under this CCN includes plastic litter monitoring based on the space component of Eyes on Plastic, turbidity analysis using the station statistics within Eyes on Plastic to assess the race's environmental impact, and water quality monitoring across the extended race area to provide a broader picture.
Users and their needs
A major challenge for these competitions is plastic pollution in the water. A floating piece of plastic previously damaged the racing team's boat, causing them to lose a race and highlighting the importance of detecting such hazards in advance. The service will thus detect plastic litter before the race to launch cleaning actions, if needed. Integrating innovative EO based methods for environmental monitoring into its sustainability reporting is a second motivation of the racing team. It has been actively supporting local sustainability initiatives together with local authorities. Therefore, the pilot service also includes a sustainability assessment to identify the impacts of the competition on the local aquatic environment, along with general monitoring of the water environment to evaluate the overall condition of the water body. The pilot service will be deployed at 7 race locations in Europe, Africa and North America in 2026.
Service/ system concept
The analysis begins 5 to 8 weeks in advance of each race. Very high-resolution source data from Planet is used to detect plastic pollution at the race locations. Planet's 3 m pixel resolution is well suited for identifying relatively small plastic litter patches, while its daily revisit capability is essential for monitoring over the comparatively short observation period. A second service component provides EO based water quality monitoring, focusing on turbidity as the parameter most influenced by boat racing. The EoP turbidity station statistics will be used to determine the race's effects on turbidity. In addition, chlorophyll, Secchi depth, and harmful algal blooms will be monitored across a wide radius around the race location and provide the bigger picture.
Space Added Value
The pilot demonstration uses Planet data for the plastic pollution and water quality monitoring in the race locations and Sentinel-2 data for the extended water quality monitoring in a wider radius around the race locations.
Current Status
The EoP CCN has been running since mid-April 2026, and it's been a great journey so far. Monitoring has already been completed at three race locations, Lake Como (Italy), Dubrovnik (Croatia), and Monte Carlo (Monaco), with reports published on the Westbrook Racing team's website. Two further race locations, Luanda (Angola) and Lagos (Nigeria), are currently being monitored and others will follow in autumn.
We are excited to be part of this exciting new journey, taking the service beyond the activity segments we originally planned. Let's keep our eyes on plastic and the water quality!
