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Description
Marine biofouling is one of the main barriers to efficient and sustainable aquaculture production. The improper management of biofouling increases substantially the costs of biofouling management and treatment, and poses operational challenges for industries working in the marine environment. The iMAq project embraces this need and aims at developing a data analytics platform (an operational digital water solution) that will facilitate the development of cost-effective, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable strategies for the management of biofouling in aquaculture operations. The promoter, EMVIS, will partner with NTNU and Sintef Ocean. Through the collaboration with the 2 Donor Partners, EMVIS will have access to in-depth knowledge related to marine aquaculture operations and biofouling, as well as resources (ocean reanalysis data of high accuracy and resolution for Norwegian coasts) that are not readily available in Greece. The project will increase EMVIS'' competitiveness and profitability. In addition, the project will reduce costs for aquaculture operators.
Summary of project results
Marine biofouling generates extensive operational challenges for industries working in the marine environment worldwide. Many of those industries, such as for example aquaculture, include installations and submerged equipment which are deployed at sea for extensive periods of time. For those industries, the improper management of biofouling (a) increases substantially (direct and indirect) costs, (b) questions the environmental integrity of the operations, and (c) threatens the public perception of the industry.
The cost and logistic barriers to managing fouling species after they have been established on aquaculture installations are considerable. Therefore, there is increasing interest in preventive
strategies that minimize the proliferation of fouling species. The "iMAq" project was a response to this need; it offers a data analytics platform that facilitates the development of cost-effective, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable strategies for the control and mitigation of biofouling in marine aquaculture.
The project consisted in developing a digital water service through a data analytics platform to facilitate informed decision-making on the management of biofouling issues in marine aquaculture operations.
The platform transforms readily available data on ocean and meteorological variables into actionable intelligence using theory-guided machine learning techniques.
The platform is based on theory-guided data analysis (machine learning) algorithms to (a) detect frequent spatiotemporal patterns related to the pressure of marine biofouling in
aquaculture operations, and to (b) detect potential “cause-and-effect” relationships between ocean and meteorological drivers and the probability of biofouling pressures in the marine
environment.
The project implemented several key activities. An expert knowledge panel conducted an extensive literature review on biofouling phenomena in the North Sea. Biofouling indicators were collected from different case studies and datasets with simulated environmental variables were compiled. These datasets were then evaluated and a methodology for training and validating machine learning algorithms was developed.
Machine learning algorithms were leveraged in order to understand the relationships between environmental factors, biofouling species occurrence, and ecosystem dynamics and were integrated into the web-based platform, which was developed, in order to facilitate informed decisions on biofouling-related issues, in aquaculture operations.
The data analytics platform offers maps of all the relevant environmental variables for selected areas of interest and visualisations of the indicators of biofouling pressures in marine environments.
Marine biofouling is one of the main barriers to efficient and sustainable aquaculture production. This project offers preventative strategies that minimize the proliferation of fouling species promptly; it will guide aquaculture managers in making data informed decisions increasing their understanding and providing operational analytics that combine past and current data to inform complex operational and business decisions. The project will thus result in the reduction of operational costs for aquaculture operators, generating both more revenue and higher profit margin, and facilitate environmentally sustainable management of biofouling that can result in savings that generate direct economic benefits to the consumers. Simultaneously, the project will be profitable for the promoter in terms of financial results but also enable it to expand its operations to global markets and establish leadership in the field of digital water solutions.
Summary of bilateral results
SINTEF Ocean withdrew from the partnership but provided contractual research to the project. Through the collaboration with the 2 Donor Partners, EMVIS got access to in-depth knowledge related to marine aquaculture operations and biofouling, as well as resources (ocean reanalysis data of high accuracy and resolution for Norwegian coasts) that are not readily available in Greece.