Date    17 September 2024

Venue  Belfast Harbour 

            Harbour Office, Corporation Square, 

            Belfast BT1 3AL, United Kingdom

Cost     No charge for registered participants

Summary

The Belfast Harbour is hosting a one-day workshop on behalf of The European Space Agency (ESA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). The event will examine needs and priorities of the port sector around the themes of decarbonisation and sustainability and explore possible roles for current and emerging space data and services in supporting the green transition of port ecosystems.

Workshop Overview

The workshop will examine industry requirements for decarbonisation in known priority areas including onshore power, green shipping corridors and uptake of renewable energy solutions. 
Efficiency gains achievable through digitalisation of port operations will be examined including monitoring the impact of decarbonisation on port air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and water quality. 
Emerging solutions enabled by space data and services will be presented and their potential for commercial exploitation by the port industry will be explored.

Event Programme

08.30 – 09.45   Registration and Refreshments

09.45 – 10.15   Welcome and Introductions

• Belfast Harbour - Kyle Flanigan, Infrastructure & Capacity Planning Lead
• Belfast City Council - Debbie Caldwell, Climate Commissioner
• UK Space Agency - Chris White-Horne, Deputy CEO for Programme Delivery
• European Space Agency - Géraldine Naja, Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness

10.15 – 11.45   Port Ecosystems, Current Status and Future Directions

Session Chair - Kyle Flanigan, Belfast Harbour

• Port Industry Challenges - Mark Simmonds, Director of Policy & External Affairs, British Ports Association Download the presentation
• Green Shipping Corridors - Mark Wray, Ecosystem Director of Maritime and Ports, Connected Places Catapult Download the presentation
• Onshore Power - Marlene Mitchell, Commercial Manager, Port of Aberdeen Download the presentation
• Environmental Sustainability - Alan Wells, Founder, Redshift Associates  Download the presentation

11.45 – 11.55   Break

11.55 – 13.10   Delivery Pathways and Funding Opportunities

Session Chair - Rickbir Bahia, UK Space Agency

• Port Decarbonisation Innovation Network - James Lovett, Innovation Lead, Future Maritime Technologies, Innovate UK Download the presentation
• European Space Agency - Rita Rinaldo, Head of Applications, Projects and Studies Division Download the presentation
• UKSA Space Applications for Port and Maritime - Chris Hall, Space Applications Delivery Lead, UK Space Agency Download the presentation
• Northern Ireland Perspectives - Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office and NI Space Cluster Manager Download the presentation

13.10 – 14.00   Lunch, Network and Platform Demonstrations

• CACHE Net-Zero Platform - Geospatial Insight
• Digital Port Platform - Sinay
• Darwin Shuttle - Darwin Group
• SeaNext - Seafar

14.00 – 14.55   Panel 1.  Emerging Technologies - Industry Use Cases

Session Chair - Alan Wells, Redshift Associates

• Port IT Services 5G Connectivity - Laura O'Neil, Digital Transformation Manager, Belfast Harbour Download the presentation
• Autonomous road vehicles in ports – Paul Rizos, Business Analyst, Darwin Innovation Group Download the presentation
• Marine Sustainability - Quillon Harpham, Technical Director, Floods and Water Management, HR Wallingford Download the presentation
• Marine and Maritime AIS Data Fusion Analytics, KX Systems NI - Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office and NI Space Cluster Manager 

15.00 – 16.00   Panel 2.  Current and Emerging Solutions

Session Chair - Roberta Mugellesi Dow, European Space Agency

• CACHE Net Zero port services - David Fox, Geospatial Insight Download the presentation
• Digital port platform - Thierry Ducellier, Sinay Download the presentation
• APACE Net Zero -  Steve Godman, BP International Download the presentation
• Remote monitoring and control of semi-autonomous vessels – Ghazaleh Kia, Seafar NV Download the presentation

16.00 - 16.15   Summary and Wrap Up Session

European Space Agency, UK Space Agency, Redshift Associates

Who should attend?

This exciting event will interest port operators, users, and stakeholders with ambitions towards decarbonisation and Net Zero port operations; service providers offering relevant transferable technologies from the space and other sectors, and representatives from the SME sector looking for markets for their early stage (TRL 4-6 use cases) capabilities.  

• Optimisation and energy efficiency technologies applied to the port sector.
• Vessel efficiency focused on data, software or autonomy.
• Autonomous vessels and port vehicles including subsystems such as control systems and sensors.
• New measures driving port decarbonisation including sensors and robotic systems.
• Port operations optimisation and digitisation.
• Digital tools such as for port emissions monitoring.
• Opportunities to introduce new technologies into the maritime sector

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UK satellite operator and Earth observation experts Airbus Defence and Space has conducted a pilot project for Network Rail delivering land use and land use change data around the UK rail network. Project LUCI (Land Use Change Identification) was developed under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme. It delivers a baseline land use report tailored to Network Rail’s specifications which is updated every six months to provide accurate and timely information at a scale and resolution previously unavailable to Network Rail.

The initial project delivers baseline land use information for 25% of the UK rail network, at a resolution of 50cm.  Derived from Airbus Pleiades VHR optical imagery and using supporting datasets including ESA’s Sentinels 1 and 2, the service is updated every six months with fresh imagery.  A layer is produced highlighting areas that have undergone change, therefore identifying the changing risk profile of the area.

Visualising and analysing the land adjacent to railway infrastructure is a key factor in developing and maintaining efficient networks. Both large and small-scale land use changes can have serious and potentially dangerous implications for railway networks; geospatial data can identify and anticipate these risks, enabling operators to understand the effects and develop sustainable solutions. For example, if land adjacent to a railway has been recently developed and now contains more impervious surfaces, the area may be at increased risk of flooding. This flood risk could have an impact on the railway lines, putting lives in danger on and off the track.

“Airbus continues its partnership with Network Rail to deliver detailed land use data and change information,” said Thomas Harling at Airbus. “Our partnership, supported by ESA, highlights how Airbus imagery partnered with our AI and land use expertise can drive innovation in the geospatial industry.  LUCI demonstrates that actionable intelligence from space can make a difference to businesses and ultimately to public safety”

Airbus has shown that accurate land use information can be produced and updated at much faster frequencies than that provided by aerial survey.  Airbus has also shown that the level of detail available is much higher than from traditional land use data sources.

The results from project LUCI have been analysed and demonstrate that the data can provide valuable actionable intelligence .  This data enables Network Rail to have an up-to-date picture of the landscape around the railway boundaries and means that they can optimise the use of resources and focus them on the areas most at risk.  This is far more cost effective than  systematic inspections and can lead to quicker response times.

“Space technologies are an enabler for the digitalisation of railways. In particular, the use of satellite Earth observation data allows for  efficient management of rail infrastructure, with a reduction of operational costs” says Enrico Spinelli, ESA Technical Officer of the LUCI demonstration project. 

By leveraging geospatial data, Network Rail have the operational tools to stay on top of these changes in land use and develop plans to ensure the safety and sustainability of their networks, their employees, and the passengers they serve.

“Network Rail is proud to invest our R&D resources into this important initiative across multiple off-track disciplines,” said Stephen Brooks from Network Rail. “Maintaining safe and sustainable railway networks to best serve our clients is our top priority, and the data-driven insights delivered by Airbus will better enable us to provide transportation to the people of Great Britain. The LUCI project will enable us to better understand land use change beyond our boundary fence that may impact the operational railway.”

The processing technology behind project LUCI will allow the project to be scaled across the whole of the UK network and to other rail networks as needed.

 

UK satellite and Earth observation specialist Earth-i has successfully delivered an operational system which provides up-to-date information on global supply chains for metals and minerals. The Global Activity Indices from Space (GAINS) project, developed under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, focuses on two key areas - global steel smelting operations and movements of iron ore for steel production - and has already gained its first customers, underscoring the sector’s appetite for such a system.

Earth-i’s GAINS service monitors and tracks activity at numerous globally distributed industrial sites to provide high-frequency indicators of activity in complex supply chains, with a focus on sites producing tradeable goods and high-value commodities. Two products were developed as part of the project: a steel smelter activity monitoring service that covers over 95% of known global steel production, and an iron ore stockpiles product focusing on Chinese ports. 

Recognising that ground sources can be unreliable and patchy, GAINS uses a mix of very-high, high, medium and low resolution Earth observation data to deliver data-agnostic geospatial insights in a format that is easy for non-technologists to understand and use. The two initial products use different automated methods to process the data, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, spectroscopic analysis and volumetric calculations.

The steel smelter product offers daily monitoring and a continuous dataset dating back to 2016, enabling users to aggregate data by company, country or region, or have custom filters, with options to compare production between different countries or regions. Globally, there are over 1200 sites related to steel production, of which around 800 are operational.

Francesco Feliciani, Head of the Company Led Projects Division at ESA, said “We are pleased to have supported Earth-i in the development of this service which has been well-received by industry, having already been adopted by targeted customers.” 

Target markets for GAINS include traders, asset owners, market research companies and regulators. GAINS can provide data down to individual asset performance level or aggregated up to a macro-economic level, depending on the requirements of each trader. Meanwhile, market regulators can use the data to better understand market movements and validate information being reported by industrial operators.

Earth-i launched the live operational GAINS service in May 2023 on a subscription basis. It currently uses optical satellite data of different resolutions from multiple operators, but will later expand to include radar and thermal imaging data, with the programme designed to accommodate other satellite and remote-sensing sources as well as new open source datasets. 

Charles Davis, CEO at Earth-i commented “The GAINS service demonstrates the power and scalability of fusing Earth Observation (EO) data and AI to be able to monitor, process and analyse over 1,000 sites dispersed around the globe on a daily basis to a high level of accuracy, and at a low cost. At a time that supply chains are becoming more opaque and more complex, GAINS provides the near-real time transparency our customers require to gain a competitive advantage by being able to validate data 30-90 days ahead of their competition. Earth-i is grateful to ESA and the UK Space Agency for their support to the GAINS project.”

The scalable architecture developed and demonstrated under the BASS project will enable Earth-i to add more product lines in future, such as lead, zinc and other commodities, and extend coverage along entire production chains in specific industries. With scrap steel smelting set to become a major focus in the steel industry, the company is also looking at a scrap steel stockpile monitoring product; the European Union has set a target of 40% of capacity to adopt this approach by 2032. With a transition to electric smelters predicted to result in 80-95% reduction in emissions, Earth-i also has plans to monitor and forecast the pollution caused by steel smelting, to support regulators and authorities to improve the environmental impact of the industry.