Conceived jointly by the Port Authority of Bari and DBALab (a company belonging to DBA Group), the ISMAEL Platform is an innovative monitoring and Decision Support System. The platform aims at monitoring environmental pollutants generated by traffic within the port area (ships, ferries, cargos, vehicles) and at evaluating the impact on the port itself and on its urban surroundings (city of Bari). It targets the predictive assessment of environmental indicators related to air, water quality and carbon footprint, and on the assessment of impacts on the supply chain.
ISMAEL is based on the paradigm of Internet of Things and it consists of the following main elements:
- The collection of environmental data (such as pollutants in air and water), weather condition data and trucks’ and ships’ traffic data through a network of sensors.
- The collection of “big data” related to the operational port processes (e.g. ship schedule, AIS surveys, tourist buses transit) through connection with the Port Community System “Gaia” of the Port System Authority of the Southern Adriatic Sea
- The transmission and aggregation of data in one central system
- The analysis and presentation of the above data in a user-friendly tool in order to promptly support decision making.
The goal of the environmental model is to simulate the port area, looking at parameters, such as pollutants in the air or movement of sediments in the water. The model can predict the impacts of port activities on the air and water quality, due to, for example, the arrival and departure of cargo and passenger vessels. The simulation allows the Port of Bari and the local environmental protection agency (ARPA) to evaluate the impact of existing port operations and to examine/consider alternative scenarios for organising these operations. The virtual reconstruction of the port, creating a dynamic digital twin which is constantly up to date, is a remarkable added value of ISMAEL.
Operational in the port of Bari since January 2019, the ISMAEL Platform has been developed by DBALab with EU contributions from Apulia Regional Development Fund.