A marine information system for environmental monitoring

The ability to remotely detect and monitor oil spills at sea is becoming increasingly important due to the high demand of oil based products. As a consequence, shipping routes are becoming very crowded and the likelihood of oil slicks occurring is also increasing. In this frame, a fully integrated remote sensing system can act as a valuable monitoring tool. We propose an integrated and interoperable system able to monitor ship traffic and marine operators, using sensing capabilities from a variety of electronic sensors, along with geo-positioning tools, and through a communication infrastructure. Our model is capable of transferring data, freely and seamlessly, between different elements of the information systems (and their users). In this way different data are brought together, easily and in a consistent and usable form, in order to facilitate dynamic links between different models and analytical processes.