MAREA (Multi-source Audit & Risk Engine for Assets)

Water credits are becoming an important tool for companies that want to compensate, restore, or improve their freshwater impact. However, the market is growing faster than its verification systems. Many credits still depend on static models, self-reported data, baseline assumptions, and periodic audits. This creates a serious risk for corporate buyers, utilities, ESG teams, data centers, certifiers, and investors: a water credit may look valid on paper while the real water conditions on the ground have changed.

Our project solves this problem by creating a backend verification and risk engine for water credits. Instead of treating water credits as simple sustainability claims, we treat them as measurable environmental assets. The platform uses European space data, AI, and multimodal analysis to continuously monitor the physical conditions behind each water credit.

The system tracks key indicators that determine the real value of a water credit, including surface water dynamics, soil moisture, irrigation activity, evapotranspiration, vegetation response, and water-quality signals. These indicators are converted into a confidence score, a risk profile, and an auditable verification report for each water asset.

For example, a utility, data center, or corporate ESG buyer could use the platform to verify whether a water-saving project is truly delivering measurable impact. Instead of buying credits based only on trust, the buyer receives satellite-backed evidence showing whether the asset is performing, deteriorating, overvalued, or exposed to environmental and regulatory risk.

Our business model is Verification-as-a-Service and Data-as-a-Service. Customers pay for dashboards, API access, periodic verification reports, risk scoring, and asset-level water intelligence. In simple terms, we help companies stop buying uncertain water claims and start managing verified water assets.

EU Space Technologies

Our solution uses European space technologies as the foundation of the verification system. The main data source is the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, combined with Galileo and EGNOS for accurate georeferencing of validation data.

We use Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar to monitor surface water extent, soil moisture anomalies, irrigation activity, and hydrological changes even under cloud cover or low-light conditions. This is important because water systems often change during storms, floods, drought periods, or cloudy conditions, when optical imagery may be limited.

We use Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery to calculate vegetation and water-related indicators such as NDVI, NDWI, and NDMI. These indicators help us detect vegetation recovery, water stress, wetland conditions, and the visible response of ecosystems to restoration or conservation activities.

We use Sentinel-3 data, especially land surface temperature and ocean/land colour information, to support evapotranspiration proxies and water-quality indicators. This helps estimate whether water is being consumed, stressed, or restored across a wider area.

We also integrate Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products, including water bodies, land cover, soil moisture-related information, and ecosystem monitoring layers. UAV validation flights, georeferenced through Galileo and EGNOS, are used to confirm satellite observations in priority project areas.

The added value of EU space technology is that it allows our platform to move from periodic reporting to continuous monitoring. Instead of relying only on human reports or fragmented ground sensors, we combine multiple satellite sources into one verification engine. This creates stronger evidence, better transparency, and more reliable water-credit valuation.

EU Space for Water

Our project contributes to the EU Space for Water challenge by improving how water resources are protected, monitored, valued, and managed. We focus on the challenge of water monitoring and sustainable water management, especially where water credits, utilities, corporate water stewardship, and data-center water use are concerned.

Water scarcity, over-extraction, leakage, pollution, and inefficient water use are becoming major risks for cities, utilities, industries, and communities. At the same time, companies are under growing pressure to prove that their water claims are real. This is especially relevant for water-intensive sectors such as data centers, food and beverage, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and energy.

Our solution helps protect water resources by making water impact measurable and auditable. It identifies whether a project is actually improving water conditions, whether water use patterns are changing, and whether there are signs of over-extraction, ecosystem stress, or weak project performance.

The platform can also support early adopters such as utilities, water-credit certifiers, ESG auditors, corporates with water stewardship commitments, and data centers facing public scrutiny over water consumption. For utilities, the platform can complement flow meters and ground sensors by adding wider spatial visibility across service areas. For data centers, it can help verify where water comes from, whether offset claims are credible, and whether water risk is increasing around their operations.

The scalable market opportunity is significant. Using the benchmark that one water credit represents 1,000 gallons, or around 3.785 cubic meters, 8.5 billion cubic meters of recoverable water could theoretically correspond to around 2.25 billion water credits. At a public benchmark of 4 USD per credit, this represents a theoretical market value of around 9 billion USD, or approximately 7.7 billion EUR. This is only a theoretical estimate, because real credit value depends on certification, additionality, verification rules, watershed context, and buyer demand. However, it shows the potential scale of the market if credible verification becomes possible.

Our project therefore turns EU space data into a practical water-governance and market-infrastructure tool. It helps make water credits more credible, reduces greenwashing risk, and supports better decision-making for companies, utilities, regulators, and communities.

 Team

Leadership

• Gideon (Project Lead): Academic Researcher and Coordinator. Specialist in Climate Change, Sustainability, and Territorial Development.

• Kayihura Herta Keza (Presenter): Student in Management & Computer Science. Background in Biology and Chemistry.

Technical & Regulatory

• Valentin Niyonshuti (CTO): Software Engineer and Data Scientist.

• Carlos Lougourou (Regulatory Lead): Sustainability Advisor at Assoholding. Expert in Digital Innovation and ESG Regulation.

• Matteo (Field Specialist): Technician in Agricultural Management. Specialist in Precision Agriculture and Aerospace-derived technologies.

Business & Strategy

• Yelnar (Business Development): Student in Business Administration & Marketing. Former Business Development Manager in International Fintech.

• Ruben (Strategy Lead): Student in Management & AI. Tech Startup Founder.

• Felipe (Funding Lead): Founder of Scuders. Specialist in Community Engagement and Sustainable Funding.