IHCantabria starts a project contracted by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon, Portugal
Oil spill from a ship at sea
This project reinforces the commitment of IHCantabria and its partners to protect the marine environment and improve maritime safety through the development of advanced tools and methodologies
The Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria), through its Oceanography, Estuaries and Water Quality Group, has initiated an important scientific and technical consultancy project contracted by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). This is the “Framework Services Contract: Technical and/or scientific consultancy services in SAR (Search and Rescue) and maritime safety drift simulation, oil spill modelling and oil spill response operations at sea”, whose execution period is 48 months, starting on May 6, 2024.
The main objective of this collaboration is to provide EMSA with technical and scientific consulting services to support the development of new tools and algorithms to assess the efficiency of oil spill response operations at sea, as well as to improve the IMS drift simulation service for search and rescue (SAR) and maritime safety operations.
Scope of the project
The project proposed by EMSA is divided into two main modules. The former will provide technical and/or scientific consulting services, including technical input on use cases, review of technical documentation, participation in technical meetings and definition of use cases for commercial validation. The second module offers consulting services to EMSA staff, contributing to the preparation of technical meetings, presentation of technical and scientific documentation, and active participation in discussions and working group sessions.
For the development of this project, work has been organized around five work packages: project management, oil spill modeling, oil spill response operations, oil spill response modeling, and drift simulation for SAR and maritime safety.
IHCantabria’s accumulated experience, especially since the Prestige incident (which occurred in 2002), guarantees its capacity to face complex environmental challenges and to offer effective solutions.
About the entities participating in the project
This project will be coordinated by the Oceanography, Estuaries and Water Quality Group of IHCantabria, which is formed by multidisciplinary research personnel with extensive experience in the analysis of continental and coastal aquatic environments and their interaction with human activities. In addition to EMSA and IHCantabria, representatives of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Inteco Asturias are participating in this project. ORBITAL EOS will also collaborate with land observation solutions, which are essential for the validation of oil spill models and marine pollution response simulators.
From its headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, EMSA is an entity dedicated to ensuring a high level of maritime safety and protection of the marine environment in the European Union. EMSA collaborates with Member States to efficiently support response actions to pollution caused by ships and oil and gas facilities.
The project that has just started marks a significant step in the collaboration between IHCantabria and EMSA, which reinforces the commitment of both entities to maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment.
