Smart Waterways Berlin

Premise:

Berlin-Brandenburg’s vast network of rivers and lakes is one of the region’s greatest treasures. But also one of its biggest challenges. With more visitors taking to the water each year, the fragile ecosystem is under heavy strain, pollution is increasing, and congestion zones are forming. There is an increasing urge to find sustainable ways to use and enjoy Berlin-Brandenburg’s water landscape. Currently, there are no effective monitoring systems to manage the effects that tourism and water traffic have on the ecosystem.

Idea:

The Smart Waterways Berlin aims to create a data-driven solution using satellite imagery from the Copernicus Sentinel Mission and Galileo positioning data to monitor Berlin-Brandenburg’s water ecosystems. Careful analysis can help detect congestion zones, track ecological stress, predict risks, identify sensitive habitats, and support nature-friendly visitor management in real-time.

Use of EU space technologies and public data:

The Smart Waterways Berlin uses EU space data to intelligently monitor and coordinate the activity on Berlin-Brandenburg’s rivers and lakes. Copernicus imagery helps detect environmental changes such as shoreline erosion and water quality shifts, while Galileo(EGNOS) and AIS vessel tracking provide precise positioning to track boat movements and identify congestion.

Combined with local data, like boat rentals, protected zones, and tourism patterns, these insights could allow Destination Management and Marketing Organizations to make data-driven decisions and adjust business strategy based on real-time status mapping, early warnings, and route recommendations for sustainable water activities.

How we do it?

1. The B2B Product: Management Dashboard

The Dashboard is the analytical backbone of our solution, providing Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and waterway authorities with the data they need to transition from reactive management to proactive, sustainable governance.

This secure, web-based platform fuses real-time traffic data with Copernicus-derived environmental intelligence to deliver a comprehensive operational picture:

•Predictive Conflict Heatmaps: Visualizes current and predicted congestion zones by analyzing AIS (motorized) and aggregated user-shared GNSS (muscle-powered) traffic patterns. This allows authorities to pre-emptively deploy resources or issue advisories.

•Ecological Strain Index: Overlays dynamic data layers derived from Copernicus Sentinel imagery, including Water Quality Alerts (e.g., algae blooms, turbidity) and Shoreline Erosion Risk. This enables DMOs to identify and protect sensitive habitats in real-time.

•Tourism Trend Analytics: Provides aggregated, anonymized data on visitor flow, route popularity, and dwell times, allowing Visit Berlin to make data-driven marketing and investment decisions that distribute tourism more evenly and sustainably across the region.

•Infrastructure Optimization: Uses historical traffic data to identify optimal locations for new infrastructure, such as kayak launch points or low-impact mooring zones, ensuring public investment is targeted where demand is highest.

2. The B2C Product:  App

The App is the consumer-facing application that empowers water users to become part of the solution by providing a safer, calmer, and more enjoyable experience.

The app uses Galileo's high-accuracy positioning to deliver precise, real-time guidance, ensuring users stay safe and minimize their environmental footprint:

•Conflict Avoidance Routing: Users input their destination, and the app calculates the optimal route that actively avoids predicted congestion zones and high-speed motorized traffic, ensuring a peaceful experience for muscle-powered users.

•Real-Time Safety Overlay: Displays the predicted routes of large motorized vessels (via AIS) and the locations of other muscle-powered users (via shared GNSS data), turning the waterway into a transparent, low-conflict environment.

•Gamified Data Sharing: Users who opt-in to share their high-accuracy GNSS position data are rewarded with Aqua-Flow Points. These points can be redeemed for discounts at local partner businesses (e.g., rentals, cafes), creating a powerful, self-sustaining data loop that benefits the entire ecosystem.

•Ecological Alerts: Provides real-time notifications when approaching a Copernicus-identified sensitive zone or an area with poor water quality, promoting responsible and nature-friendly behavior.

Code repository and demo videos:

https://github.com/InesZenkri/Smart-Waterways