MEDUSE
Marine park Enhanced applications based on Use of integrated GNSS Services

Marine parks are areas which require extremely accurate care of the ecosystem and are subject to severe restrictions applied to their end users: leisure boats and local operators.

Users are usually are forced to request a permit (free of charge or not) to access the marine park. Controls are difficult to exercise (park areas are often very wide and control resources are limited). MEDUSE could increase the control capabilities of park managers and provide LBS services to the visitors.

Why this project is important for EGNOS/GSA/SatNav?

This project aims at providing innovative services, based on the use of EGNOS features, for controlling and monitoring access to marine parks and marine reserve areas.

Objectives

The MEDUSE project aims at developing an advanced IT infrastructure, providing value-added services to marine park users and specific tools and services to the park authorities. A two-way data link will allow park managers track and trace vessels within restricted marine areas, while also allowing park visitors to access location based services.

The following is a preliminary list of services that may be delivered to end users by the MEDUSE system:

Institutional

• Monitoring of restricted area access and access duration, and implementation of a pay-per use policy
• Remote control of permits and management of different access levels (such as entrance, anchorage and fishing)
• Monitoring violations via an analysis of user traces
• Planning and monitoring the itineraries of tourist boat fleets
• Receipt of special information from cooperative users (e.g. wild fauna detection, oil spills).

Private

• Location-based tourist information and services (e.g. POI information)
• Social network
• Fishing rules and hints
• Receipt of special (environmental) location based hints from park managers (e.g. wild fauna location)
• Booking of mooring buoys.

Commercial

• Location based weather alerts and weather routing
• Traffic based routing.

Law Enforcement

• Monitoring for infringements of navigation rules (e.g.: speed limits and illegal anchorage).

How does it work?

The MEDUSE system consists of a Service and Control Centre (SCC), several Marine Apps targeted to different users (park surveillance personnel, local operators providing LBS services at sea, private users) and dedicated Marine Terminal (prototype) equipment for supporting pay-per-use and law enforcement services. Marine Terminals broadcast positioning information through an AIS-B transponder. MEDUSE Apps use a mobile network to report their position to the SCC and access MEDUSE services.

Next Steps

Implement the MEDUSE prototype system and components and perform successful system trials.