Earth observation data at the service of integrated maritime surveillance: The EUCISE2020 project

The sea around Europe is expected to become increasingly safer also thanks to the surveillance performed from space by the Earth Observation satellites of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the framework of the EUCISE2020 project. EUCISE2020 is a Security Research project of the European Seventh Framework Program aiming to achieve the pre-operational Information Sharing between the maritime authorities of the European States. EUCISE2020 is an important milestone in the accomplishment of the European CISE (Common Information Sharing Environment), which is the widest possible experimental environment of innovative and collaborative processes between European maritime institutions. It implements its pre-operational validation as provided in the Action Plan of the European Maritime Security Strategy and the CISE Roadmap. The aim of the project is to achieve an Integrated Maritime Surveillance and to provide public authorities with an instrument for exchanging data and information that will make maritime surveillance less expensive and more effective. Started on December 2014, EUCISE2020 aims to remove barriers among the different actors involved in the maritime surveillance, in order to allow information exchange among public authorities in sectors such as environment, pollution prevention, fishery, transport, customs, border control, law enforcement, defence, according to their respective access rights. Accessing information upon request or in real time or, 39 European organizations responsible for different aspects of maritime surveillance, on behalf of more than 40 maritime authorities and 16 Member States, will be able to save time and money, as well as to enhance maritime awareness. Italy, by means of Italian Space Agency, has been entrusted with the role of coordinator involving in the project several National administrations such as Italian Navy, port authorities, financial police, Ministry of Infrastructure and transport, Ministry of Interior, and others. In line with its original vision as the pillar of the Integrated Maritime Policy, with a genuine approach to neutral cross-sector and cross-border interoperability between national systems, the EUCISE2020 project progresses rapidly towards the demonstration phase, the information sharing platform being operational in mid-2018. At that stage, a number of satellite services of the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation will be made available as added value services, in order to test the enhanced level of integration among maritime surveillance and in-situ systems. This paper will provide a comprehensive overview of the EUCISE2020 project as a major space of opportunity for national and European maritime Institutions to collaboratively innovate their processes and systems, and will illustrate the advantages and the capabilities that can be reached with the use of currently in-orbit Earth Observation Systems (e.g. COSMO-SkyMed) for the specific application of Maritime Surveillance. © 2018 FGM Events LLC. All rights reserved.