ALMACEN Combating environmental crime using maritime big data from satellites

The ALMACEN project will develop a new service to combat environmental crime and particularly illegal trafficking involving the maritime sector.

The project will rely on using maritime big data sourced essentially from satellites to characterise ship behaviour.

ALMACEN will develop a pioneering numerical service based on spatial data to combat illegal trafficking that exploits maritime routes and means. The project will bring together expertise in advanced processing chains, big data and satellite data processing.

In particular, the project plans to use data from the Copernicus programme via VIGISAT, the first collaborative French station of the SENTINEL-1 satellite.

The overall developments achieved as part of ALMACEN will mark significant progress for environmental monitoring aimed at safeguarding resources and biodiversity.

By studying vessel trajectories via a combination of various satellite data sources (radar imaging, AIS and VMS), ALMACEN should enable any abnormal ship behaviour to be detected and characterised.  

The use of satellite data is a major advantage in the fight to combat illegal trafficking, as it provides global geographical coverage and virtually real-time delivery of services.

The development of this service will help significantly reduce land-based surveillance work and hence the cost and environmental impact of mobilising vessels.