Future IONAS projects
Introduction
Objective 3 of the IONAS project makes provision for cooperation between port authorities and cities on the basis of a network designed to facilitate the exchange of experience and ideas on problems common to the Adriatic - Ionian area in order to find remedial arrangements thereby creating a synergy of intentions to solve the problems that characterise the social and economic conditions of these areas.
The cities by virtue of their essential role as an institutional, administrative and organisational support for the economies in their municipal areas are required to propose and develop the policy choices necessary to sustain an economic development that is both compatible and sustainable, as indicated by the policies of the European Union.
On this basis an indispensable, proactive and ongoing dialogue should be initiated with the ports, which, in the area considered by the project, represent not only an important local, economic factor but also a not negligible stimulus for the development of entire regions. The port authorities in IONAS are committed to participating with a spirit of cooperation in order to improve the communication between ports and between ports and their respective cities by creating a synergetic system that guarantees the possibility of developing additional shared projects within the framework of community policies.
Therefore, the clear need emerges of identifying common challenges that both these institutions, i.e. cities and ports, must face in the Adriatic - Ionian area from the point of view of the environmental sustainability and equilibrated social and economic development with respect to which the future Interreg projects can be developed.
RELATION TO IONAS OBJECTIVES
The IONAS project has developed three main objectives for the area it refers to which can be summarised as:
- transport/logistics
- the environment
- city-port cooperation and the dissemination of the project's results.
Consequently, it is held that the future projects that IONAS may initiate or promote, can be characterised as projects of the following type:
- technical and operational;
- divulgatory and educational
- participatory and extensive.
The top priority is the identification of a series of practical projects, with reference to the three main IONAS objectives. And when the former are defined the creation of special working groups would be necessary and desirable; a group which would be widely representative but not excessively staffed, to pursue the development of each single project.
It will be useful to determine if similar and/ or analogous projects are being carried out in some area of the IONAS partners and in that case it would be appropriate that the partner in question become, if possible, the party responsible and/or the reference for additional development.
In addition, for the purpose of carrying out the projects it would be expedient to take account of additional analogous projects in existence, either completed or in course of completion, in similar contexts as well as those completed in other regions and hence with different requirements and needs, from which to extract useful inputs and change the arrangements and approaches for the development and/or the application in the more specific City/Port context and area in which IONAS is currently operating.
The projects to be identified could be included among the objectives envisaged in the reform proposals of the structural funds for the period 2007-2013 defined as:
Objective 1 Convergence and competitiveness
Objective 2 Regional competitiveness
Objective 3 Territorial cooperation
Objective 1, to which 78% of the financial resources has been assigned, includes measures for improving infrastructure and transport, as well as for the protection of the environment, and, therefore, is in line with two of IONAS objectives.
This objective provides for the inclusion of only the southern regions of our peninsula, Slovenia and Greece.
Objective 2 stimulates competitiveness by promoting economic changes in industrial areas with principal measures, as far as we are concerned, in the sector of sustainable development that can give rise to development projects compatible with port activities.
Objective 3 provides support to trans-border, transnational and interregional cooperation activities, and is the most interesting from the point of view of cooperation in the Adriatic – Ionian area insofar as it derives from 2000-2006 Interreg planning.
As the INTERACT community programme, which finances the IONAS project, gives particular stress to the importance attaching to the dissemination of the project's results in order to divulge knowledge of Interreg and the structural funds at the grassroots level throughout the EU, provision for and, if necessary, the proposing of, a network of info-points that transversally link up various existing projects on the basis of the analogous themes dealt with, is regarded as fundamentally important. This solution would, moreover, optimise the analysis, developed with IONAS, of the difficulties encountered in the design phase and the successive community project development and management phases: The idea is to produce a simpler instrument for research and consultation in terms of projects, subjects dealt with, themes handled with the relative compendium of solutions, proposals etc. All the material produced through the exchange of information could be published on an ad hoc web page, and from this it would be possible to commence research and successive access to all the specific information on the subject matter.
An additional consideration on which we would like to dwell concerns the possibility of involving EUROMED country partners (included in the Barcelona declaration) in new projects. In other words all the countries within the area of the Mediterranean basin and with which the EU is commencing negotiations for the purpose of creating an area of free trade within the Mediterranean. This zone, therefore, provides for an enforcement of existing or future economic and trade relations which mainly take place over the sea, and which entail the need for the divulgation of information in order to reinforce the concepts of maritime security and environmental management in these countries too, as a support to subsequent applications 2e) and 2f).
Operational and technical projects
These projects envisage the use of IT technology and “remote sensing” satellite technology. For the development and application of these projects the involvement of universities and/or technical institutes, with varying levels of competence, would be desirable in order to produce the methods and instruments in cooperation with private entrepreneurs.
a -the NEMIAS project – remote sensing satellite for environmental marine monitoring
b -standardised common projects for detecting and measuring acoustic, air and water pollution etc. in a port environment
The definition and successive installation of homogenous measurement systems to obtain data in port areas or areas of access to port terminals. These instruments can assist the port authorities in monitoring and controlling given environmental parameters in order to avoid violating pre-established thresholds.
c -Logistics – Study and definition of common RFID applications on containers/goods including the definition of a common "labelling standard using RFID technology to trace the goods in a container, by defining its use, label type, points and gates for en route reading.
This technology can also be used for access control as concerns the persons within the port area and thus may also have security applications.
d -Logistics – the extension of an IT system in the area
On the basis of the feasibility study of Adriatic - Ionian corridor the project GILDA defined and put in place the Teleporto Adriatic system in the ports of Venice, Ravenna and Bari.
Project ideas:
1. Perform a survey to ascertain if other functioning and functional IT systems exist and where they are.
2. Analyse the possibility of organizing exchanges of data between the various existing systems by defining communication protocols for the purpose of extending IT applications to the entire area, including the possibility of traffic management (see the PRUSST system presented in the Ancona Workshop).
2- Dissemination and educational projects
These projects concern divulgation but also, and more importantly, instruction and training, which can involve various types of transnational and trans-border cooperation.
Project ideas:
1. Provision of courses/workshop for territorial management in relation to the joint requirements of cities and ports
2. defining the utility of producing courses, structured in various degrees and at different levels, with the possible involvement of the academic community - faculties of architecture/town planning (indicated leader partner Città d'Acqua), faculties of environmental sciences and schools for the management of existing EMS/EMAS.
3. implementation of courses-workshops-masters to produce professional roles or to re-qualify personnel for the purpose of managing environmental problems regarding port traffic - as well as nautical tourism.
4. divulgation over the internet and the press, and evaluating the feasibility of a set of thematic publications on the subject matter (booklets – monographs - studies etc.) of which a first volume could be a handbook setting out a list of best practices for EMS/EMAS and the relative basic “guidelines” to be drawn up in the light of the experience of IONAS.
3. Involvement / enlargement project
Extension of projects like DAMAC, on the Adriatic and Ionian area after a collection of information with regard to the ones already implemented.
Creation of a information point related to the environmental secutrity of the Adriatic and Ionian area
Involvement and cooperation with REMPEC, European Agency of Maritime Security, other bodies and institutions together with technical partners as Castalia Ecolmar – ENI environment division, etc.
Creation of a database that collects the hazardous traffics in the Adriatic and Ionian seas, arrival and departure terminals, paths, map of protected zones, risk areas, list of available means for security and their placements, etc.
The realization can start from the port security plans or regional or local plans: on the base of the transported goods (information coming from the ports) the database can include information on their provenience, their destination and so on.
Links :
Flyby srl DAMAC
Starlab PRUSST
Teleporto Adriatico Internazionale Città d’ Acqua
REMPEC Europea per la Sicurezza Marittima
Project ideas:
- NEMIAS remote sensing satellite project [ Y ][ N]
- Surveying systems
for acoustic-environmental pollution in ports[ Y ][ N]
- Definition and development of the use of RFID systems[ Y ][ N]
- Extension of IT systems to the Adriatic - Ionian area[ Y ][ N]
- Implementation courses/workshops for territorial and environmental
management and EMS/EMAS[ Y ][ N]
- Coordination of existing projects and their extension[ Y ][ N]
- Setting up an environmental security information centre[ Y ][ N]
- Creation of a database on hazardous traffic and goods in the Adriatic-Ionian area [ Y ] [ N]
IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL IDEAS AND PROJECTS TO SUGGEST PLEASE STATE THEM CONCISELY BELOW
City of Venice City of Thessaloniki Gioia Tauro Port Authority
Inter. Centre Cities on Water City of Koper Thessaloniki Port Authority SA
Eurosportello Veneto City of Split Corfu Port Authority
OkoB. Plan Wien City of Bar Dubrovnik Port Authority
City of Ancona City of Durres Split Port Authority
City of Bari Venice Port Authority Bar Port Authority
City of Brindisi Bari Port Authority Durres Port Authority
City of Pescara Brindisi Port Authority Euro Info Centre Koper