Demonstrators
TERRA’s innovations will be systematically demonstrated across three (3) selected sites in the EU and associated countries, showcasing the practical application and impact of the project’s technologies.
Demonstrator 1
Assessment of Water Contamination in Coastal Areas and the Water Cycle
Currently, water pollution monitoring in Europe is conducted using a variety of methods, such as satellite imagery, in situ observations, aircraft, and ship-based measurements. While these methods provide valuable insights, they often operate in isolation, limiting their overall efficacy. This use case proposes combining these approaches to create a unified system that enables robust monitoring and forecasting of water pollution.
Key components of the approach include leveraging Copernicus data and services, along with data collected by Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) operating in rivers and coastal regions. These vehicles gather pollution data along their routes, such as in the river delta and coastal areas of Fthiotida, Greece. By assimilating data from different models, including physical-biochemical and water movement models, the system aims to predict pollution levels and their distribution, offering insights into both direct and indirect effects on human health.
The objectives are to develop water pollution models from multiple data sources, integrate these models at a high level, and apply the system in real-world scenarios. This integrated approach enables the detection of pollution distribution and its impacts, facilitating fire mitigation actions and supporting decision-making processes. The ultimate goal is to deliver an end-to-end product chain capable of operating seamlessly across national borders, ensuring effective monitoring and forecasting of water quality.
To assess and monitor water contamination in coastal regions and the broader water cycle, leveraging advanced Copernicus services and AI-based techniques.
Locatiion: Fthiotida, Greece
Demonstrator 2
Detection of Illegal Human Activities in Harbour Areas
Seaports around the World are gateways to the global economy. Without sea ports practically all economies would not function properly. However, seaports also have their impact: on environment, urban development, transportation or illegal activities which may pass through their infrastructure.
Satellite data from the Copernicus system, together with other data sources, should provide short and long-term solutions which would enhance monitoring of seaports and their impact on surroundings. This Use Case will focus on environmental monitoring and identification of possible illegal ship activities.
To create and utilize a Digital Twin framework for monitoring coastal change, supporting resilience against coastal erosion and other climate-driven impacts.
Location: Online platform & Port of Gdansk, Poland
Demonstrator 3
Digital Twin for Monitoring Coastal Change from Satellite Remote Sensing
Coast erosion threatens communities, infrastructure and ecosystems situated at/near the coast. Engineering to protect the coastline from erosion is expensive, and maintenance of existing defences is more so. With anthropogenic climate change, sea levels are already rising, and it is expected there will be ~85 cm of sea level rise by 2100 on our emissions trajectory. Coastal change occurs across a variety of timescales, from short-term changes associated with storms and seasons to longer-term (decadal) changes controlled by relative sea level change, land use, and sediment supply. The existing records of coastal change rely on a sparse historical record of shoreline observations. Coastal field surveys are time-consuming and thus expensive, but satellite imagery can provide regular coastal monitoring to support planning, risk management and coastal change adaptation.
Continuous monitoring of coastal change is vital for coastal management, planning and coastal adaptation to climate change. For this demonstrator, the DTs will be leveraged to provide the historical mapping of CCIs from satellite imagery with ongoing real-time updates as new satellite images are acquired. Techniques have recently been developed to automate the extraction of the water-edge shoreline contours from satellite images, correcting for tidal conditions relative to the intertidal topography, and have been shown to have a high level of accuracy relative to the resolution of the satellite images. UGLA has recently extended these capabilities to map vegetation edges (VEs) at the coast as an alternative. VEs respond to flooding and erosion events, providing a useful boundary between marine and terrestrial environments from which to assess change, but are less affected by the uncertainties associated with tides when extracting water-edge contours, and less reactive to intertidal geomorphic dynamics and fluctuations.