Environmental monitoring integrated with a proactive marine information system

In the framework of environmental monitoring, the remote detection and monitoring of oil spills at sea is an important ability due to the high demand of oil based products. This situation causes, that shipping routes are very crowded and the likelihood of oil slicks occurring is also increasing. In this paper we propose a fully integrated and inter-operable information system which can act as a valuable monitoring tool. Such a marine information system is able to monitor ship traffic and marine operators by integrating heterogeneous signals and data through sensing capabilities from a variety of electronic sensors, along with geo-positioning tools, and through a communication infrastructure. This system is able to transfer the integrated data, freely and seamlessly, between different elements of the system itself (and their users). The system also provides a set of decision support services capable of performing functionalities which can act as a support for decision makers.