Remote and optical monitoring techniques applied to the maritime sector

A rising global attention to the environmental impact of anthropogenic activities pushes towards a continuous reduction of such impact and a control, through monitoring techniques, of the main sources of pollution. The transport sector is involved, as all other field of anthropogenic activities in the efforts towards a drastic abatement of emissions. Shipping activities generate greenhouse effect gases (GHGs), affecting the environment on a global scale, and other pollutants harmful for human health and the ecosystem on a local scale. These latter aspects are particularly relevant in ports where berths are close to densely inhabited areas. Many efforts have been and will be spent to predict and quantify these emissions with the aim of controlling them but direct measurements aimed at the identification and quantification of particularly polluting substances are to be considered a key point to achieve an effective control of emissions. In the context of ports, as in any transportation infrastructure, an identification of polluting vehicles and a quantification in an objective way of their emissions is crucial to implement any control activity of the polluting emissions. The development of optical remote sensing techniques appears to be particularly promising. This work provides a state of the art of the main techniques based on optical sensors (LIDAR, LIDAR DIAL, DOAS, camera UV) possibly applied in the maritime sector, highlighting advantages and potentialities. Results of a preliminary measurement campaign are reported to show the first encouraging feedback for the feasibility of the application.