Race_Publica

The Problem

European waterways are living public spaces. Yet they’re managed with outdated, industrial-era models of regulation and tourism. Congestion, wake noise and ecological strain increasingly clash with the needs of logistics, tourism and leisure. Travellers and operators rarely see how their routes impact sustainability — or how smarter movement could benefit everyone.

The Solution — enter Race_Publica:

Race_Publica turns waterway management into a participatory game powered by EU Space data. It visualises congestion, environmental sensitivity and vessel movement in real time — then rewards eco-efficient navigation.

Participants earn Civic Credits, a proof-of-impact token, by choosing green routes, respecting no-wake zones and avoiding sensitive corridors. Cities and harbour authorities can later redeem or monetise these credits through toll discounts, tourism incentives or even carbon-offset programs.

The result: a new open-source, commons economy for urban waterways, where sustainability, movement and reward coexist.

Use of EU Space Technologies

Race_Publica fuses Copernicus and Galileo data streams into a live environmental scoring engine:

• Galileo GNSS → Provides high-precision vessel geolocation for congestion and flow mapping.

• Copernicus Sentinel-2 → Supplies NDWI (water quality) and NDVI imagery to classify eco-zones by environmental sensitivity.

• Copernicus Climate Data Store → Adds contextual layers (water levels, temperature, precipitation) to adjust scoring dynamically.

Optional: AIS (Automatic Identification System) and crowdsourced telemetry enrich the dataset for predictive routing and behavioural insights.

Together, these make EU space infrastructure the backbone of a civic game where every route decision contributes to collective sustainability.

Link with the Challenge

Challenge 3 — Beyond Horizons: Redefining Travel with Space Innovation

Race_Publica reimagines travel as a live, participatory eco-experience. Instead of passively following GPS routes, travellers interact with space-based feedback, seeing how their movement affects the local ecosystem — and earning tangible rewards for acting sustainably.

Team Members

Race_Publica (Berlin Track)

• Jeremy Chan — Project Lead, Data/Solutions Architect & Narrative

• Pavlo Sviatushenko — Data Scientist, Sentinel-2 Simulation Engine

• Sahand Azizi — Developer, NDWI Scoring Engine & Streamlit Frontend

• Ivan Yablunivskyy — UI/UX Design & Figma Prototype

 Hackathon Deliverables

During the hackathon, the team built a full technical prototype connecting Sentinel-2 data, OpenStreetMap waterways and a live dashboard:

•  Simulation Engine (Pavlo) — Processes Sentinel-2 NDWI imagery and classifies water quality zones.

•  NDWI + Speed Scoring Engine (Sahand) — Computes eco-scores per vessel route and outputs GeoJSON layers.

•  Streamlit MVP (Jeremy & Sahand) — Visualises scored zones and routes on an interactive Berlin map.

•  simulation_engine.html — Reproducible proof-of-concept notebook showing data pipeline and visual analytics.

•  DevContainer Setup — Enables instant one-click deployment of the app for judges via VS Code / GitHub Codespaces.

GitHub Repository: github.com/JWLZGG/Race_Publica

 Impact & Next Steps

• Extend to Venice, Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava and Belgrade using Copernicus data and AIS telemetry.

• Pilot Civic Credits with tourism boards or city authorities.

• Open APIs for route scoring and environmental forecasting.

By merging space data, gamification, and civic participation, Race_Publica shows how sustainability can be measurable, rewarding and fun. We believe in a philosophy where the Earth is our mother whose waterways are her arteries and our wealth, material and spiritual, moves through them.