AIRIS Synchro, a European project to promote synchromodality at the Port of Seville

In August, the AIRIS Synchro project came to a close. Led by the Seville Port Authority (APS) and based on technology pilot programs, it integrates synchromodality between maritime and land transport (ship, railway and truck) with monitoring of the waterway and the management of operations on the docks. As an inland seaport, the Port of Seville has excellent connections between ships, trains and trucks, making it a multimodal port and a fundamental link in logistics chains.

AIRIS Synchro integrates synchromodality between maritime, land and rail transport with monitoring of the waterway and operations at the docks. It does so through pilot programs and technology solutions to optimize the control and coordination of different modes of transportation in real time, and to develop multimodal planning. To this end, it integrates systems and databases extracted from the digitization of the waterway, from Smart Transport Systems (STS) and port terminals, and provides the Port of Seville with tools for managing and planning land traffic, and also to conduct navigation studies to optimize speeds and maximize the use of the channel; as well as to learn more about tides and better plan mooring times.

In this innovative project, Sener was responsible for the technical management, working together with the universities of Seville and Málaga and the technology companies Serviport and Siport21.

On the technological side, Sener contributed its experience in digitization, as well as in the field of designing and integrating STS systems, both road and rail, but, above all, its knowledge of port operations. Notable among the pilot programs proposed as part of the project are:

• A truck slot system. A mobile app that allows carriers to reserve the time slot when they plan to arrive at the terminal.
• A railway operations planner. This system plans the optimal route on the rail-port network, taking into account all the operations during the journey.
• A system to monitor the daily planning of transportation modes that collects and displays data to synchronize processes throughout the logistics chain.
• A module that can work with the travel planner developed in AIRIS I, which integrates tide predictions due to weather phenomena and external factors along the Guadalquivir River.
• A module related to ship navigation and optimal entrance and exit slots. The solution consists of updating the table with maximum allowable drafts for port entry and exit based on ship length.

With AIRIS Synchro, the port of Seville is further digitizing with better coordinated operations, lower logistics costs and shorter freight movement times. It is also making progress in sustainability and energy savings.

This modernization is the result of long-term planning by the Port of Seville, which previously launched initiatives such as AIRIS-PS (Advanced Implementation of RIS in the Port of Seville). In this project, the Seville Port Authority awarded Sener the design and supervision of pilot projects to implement the European RIS (River Information Services) standard, and thus expand its knowledge of the waterway and improve its management.

AIRIS Synchro has a budget of 1.7 million euros, 50% of which is provided by the European CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) mechanism, announced in 2018. The European program “Connecting Europe” prioritizes initiatives that help digitize maritime transportation and reduce carbon emissions within the Trans-European Transportation Network.