Maritime domain awareness: big data and seamless information sharing
Most IT systems that collect and analyse maritime data cannot process heterogeneous data, leaving gaps in maritime situational awareness. Furthermore, the various IT systems of diverse stakeholders are not interoperable, which is a barrier to information sharing and collaboration. Smugglers acting at European level are often at an advantage. The EU-funded EFFECTOR project, a consortium of 16 partners including government and national authorities, set out to address these critical challenges and unlock the full capabilities of maritime surveillance and data sharing systems for coast guards’ tasks, for more effective operational response in both search-and-rescue and tackling criminal activities at sea.
Big data in a ‘data lake’ and interoperability
EFFECTOR’s solution is based on a multi-layer data lake, a centralised repository able to store and process large amounts of data in its native format, structured or not. “Layers include new concepts and tools for knowledge extraction, semantic data representation, data fusion and analytics supported by AI, and federated querying that can scale to local, regional, national and transnational levels,” explains Linda Bama-Tandia of EFFECTOR’s coordination team at France’s Secretariat General for the Sea (SGMer. In addition, it is integrated with CISE, Europe’s maritime common information sharing environment, and JORA, the joint operation reporting application of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. JORA provides automated behaviour monitoring services (also known as anomaly detection) to Frontex, which operates EUROSUR, the European Border Surveillance system. Alkis Astyakopoulos of the Greek Center for Security Studies and EFFECTOR’s R&D project manager adds: “We developed a CISE JORA adaptor to integrate JORA with the EFFECTOR framework. The adaptor was offered to Frontex after the project for further exploitation.”
Enhanced maritime domain awareness, locally and internationally
EFFECTOR’s solutions enable stakeholders to access many more sources of data in near real-time while ensuring connections with legacy systems. Maritime domain awareness for coast guards currently relies primarily on position information via a vessel’s automatic identification system, radars and unmanned autonomous vehicles. To that, EFFECTOR added a plethora of sources including satellite communications services, satellite observation data and services (for example, Copernicus), and national vessel traffic monitoring and information systems. The team even leveraged a platform allowing sharing of geo-localised images by individuals. This information can be shared at all levels through the interoperability with CISE and EUROSUR to support more effective coordination and collaboration in maritime operations such as countering migrant smuggling, search and rescue, or maritime accidents.
Demonstrating fast detection, activation and resolution
EFFECTOR’s solutions were tested in various scenarios in Greece and France involving cooperation among stakeholders at various levels and across national borders. For example, the Hellenic police, coast guard and navy worked with national and European authorities in a chain of events leading to the apprehension of rogue actors involved in migrant smuggling within a matter of hours – and beginning with a fisherman uploading a picture of an unusual boat in the area. Overall, “the EFFECTOR system allows faster detection of new events, better-informed decision making, and joint understanding and undertaking of a situation across borders. This enables seamless cooperation between operating authorities and on-site intervention forces while ensuring that all existing privacy and data protection rules are fully respected,” summarises Linda Bama-Tandia of EFFECTOR’s coordination team at SGMer. Taken together, this translates to rapid detection, action and resolution – and greater maritime security.
Keywords
EFFECTOR, maritime, JORA, CISE, data lake, EUROSUR, Frontex, maritime domain awareness, AI, big data, migrant smuggling, coast guards
