A digital twin for the port's waters

Fujitsu and the BCN Port Innovation Foundation have reached an agreement to develop a proof of concept for an ocean digital twin at the Port of Barcelona. In other words, a virtual replica that makes it possible to visualise, simulate and predict everything that happens beneath the surface, as well as to run tests and optimise operations without altering the physical environment.

The Port of Barcelona's digital twin project draws on several technologies. On the one hand, underwater dronesfollow optimised inspection routes and capture high-resolution images of the seabed. Based on these images, artificial intelligence systems identify key elements of the ecosystem, and advanced analytics integrate all the information to build a more complete picture of the marine environment. Thanks to these tools, the BCN Port Innovation Foundation will have a digital platform that centralises all information on port biodiversity and enables long-term monitoring.

"The ocean digital twin offers a very valuable capability to observe, aggregate information and, above all, simulate a complex environment without relying solely on one-off campaigns. It allows us to test scenarios, anticipate risks and pressures, spot trends, prioritise areas for action and validate measures before deploying them — something especially useful in an operational environment like the Port of Barcelona", explains Albert Martínez, Blue Economy consultant at the BCN Port Innovation Foundation.

"The real value lies in helping to reduce those pressures, in line with the Port Authority's work, while at the same time reinforcing active renaturalisation interventions. It also makes it possible to centralise and standardise a range of variables — both environmental and related to port activity itself — in a single platform, integrate new monitoring data and turn all of that information into an objective basis for making better-informed, faster and higher-impact decisions", adds Martínez.

Understanding and protecting the marine ecosystem

With the aim of anticipating potential impacts and simulating hypothetical what if scenarios, the ocean digital twin will be used to visualise and quantify the port's biodiversity, estimate biomass based on vegetation cover and calculate the blue carbon absorption capacity associated with marine algae. This makes it possible to build a solid empirical basis for the design and evaluation of more targeted conservation and restoration projects — something of vital importance in a port located in a major Mediterranean city, a region that is warming 20 % faster than the global average.

"The ocean digital twin will make it possible to analyse how marine habitats and communities evolve and to study their response to combined pressures such as the effects of climate change, sea-level rise, the greater intensity and frequency of storms, acidification or the tropicalisation of the Mediterranean, among others, as well as more local factors such as port activity, the Llobregat river discharges or the urban influence of the city. As new variables are added, the system will gain robustness and predictive capacity", Martínez explains.

"In a Mediterranean port like Barcelona, this value is especially high because we are talking about an urban, highly exposed port where logistics activity, operations, citizens and biodiversity coexist in a very small space", adds the Blue Economy consultant. "Having a tool like this can improve coexistence between those activities and communities. What's more, because the port is directly integrated into the city, any improvement in knowledge and capacity for action has an effect not only on the port facility itself, but also on its relationship and connectivity with the urban seafront".

The initial proof of concept will last an estimated six months and will focus on collecting and processing data from the underwater environment. This first phase will not cover the entire port or its full water surface; instead, work will focus on three areas chosen for their biological relevance, their compatibility with port operations and their capacity to deliver useful, scalable results for a future broader rollout.

Towards a smart port

The ocean digital twin is conceived as a key tool to improve strategic decision-making at the Port of Barcelona. The BCN Port Innovation Foundation expects the greatest impact to come in projects and programmes dedicated to natural capital regeneration, such as RegenPorts, but also in operational and investment decisions linked to the coexistence between commercial activity and environmental preservation.

"It can help prioritise interventions, assess their effectiveness, identify sensitivities and design actions more compatible with port operations — for future economic activities linked to the blue economy and to the port's transition towards more sustainable models", Martínez notes.

All of this fits within the Port of Barcelona's Energy Transition Plan, which sets out digitalisation as a key route to analyse information in real time, optimise decisions and support the port's transformation into a more sustainable, resilient and competitive model. "Tools like digital twins have to be part of this evolution. Although this project focuses on the marine environment, it shares the same logic: turning multiple data sources into simplified interpretations and useful knowledge to guide investment, reduce impacts and contribute to the transition towards a smart port", Martínez concludes.

Synergies with marine innovation projects

The Port of Barcelona's ocean digital twin also connects with other marine innovation initiatives driven by the port itself and by other Spanish ports.

Locally, the Port of Barcelona supports the STRAIGHT project, developed by the companies Subdron and Bluematt and selected in the latest call of the Ports 4.0 fund run by Puertos del Estado. STRAIGHT is an autonomous underwater inspection system that, through autonomous navigation and the generation of digital twins, makes it possible to inspect submerged port structures — such as gravity walls and sheet piles — traditionally hard to reach and expensive to inspect. Although its focus is infrastructure integrity, it shares with the Fujitsu project the same underlying logic: translating the seabed into a manageable digital representation without the need for direct physical intervention.

On a complementary track, since 2021 the Port of Vigo has been developing the Living Ports project, which has turned the A Laxe quay into a laboratory for port infrastructure integrated with nature. Its most visible element is Nautilus, an underwater observatory designed by the Cardama shipyard that allows any visitor to look out onto marine life without having to dive.

A technology already proven in the field

Another of the clearest precedents in the use of this technology can be found off the coast of Japan, where Fujitsu— the Port of Barcelona's technology partner in this project — has already applied similar solutions. There, the company collaborated with the Uwakai Institute for Environmental Biology, the Ehime Prefectural Fisheries Cooperative Association and the city of Uwajima to quantify blue carbon in the Uwa Sea. As a result, the project received J-Blue Credit certification with a top-tier 95 % accreditation rate, supported by AI technology capable of identifying species and vegetation cover with over 85 % accuracy, even in turbid waters.

"That's one of the reasons this proposal generated so much interest: it didn't start from scratch, but built on a technology already successfully tested in real-world contexts. In that sense, Barcelona could become one of the first major European ports to adapt this kind of digital tool to the port environment, with its own operational and environmental complexities", Martínez concludes.