Survey on environmental monitoring requirements of European ports

A group of 26 European ports was interviewed to understand their requirements for environmental information and to establish how widespread the use of Earth Observation (EO) data was amongst them. Aspects covered by the research included port profile characterisation, environmental management activities, environmental needs and current monitoring practices. The study reflected the diversity amongst European ports and their environmental performances. Most of the ports were publicly owned and located in estuaries and rivers. General cargo was the most popular commodity handled. Practically all the ports had an environmental policy in place and half of them had been accredited by an external body. The main environmental parameters that ports required to be monitored were marine related issues (currents, waves and tide), water quality, meteorological parameters, turbidity and sediment processes. The principal driver for monitoring was maintaining key port operations, followed by legislation, and local responsibilities. Ports in general collected their own data in situ and only one-third had used remotely sensed data (data from Earth Observation satellites or from airplane mounted sensors) for environmental purposes. Half of them used computer modelling. This study was conducted within the framework of the European funded port environmental information collector project (PEARL).