Digital twin technology streamlines port management

In 2021 Ireland’s largest port published a tender for an ambitious digital mapping system to manage all assets, complementing administrative, operational, and engineering requirements.

Finland-headquartered former survey industry company GISGRO has now fulfilled the requirements, providing a complete system for managing Dublin Port Company’s GIS and asset-related data, which was formerly shared to several data storages.

GISGRO’s background in survey has played an important part in delivering a system to visualise the port’s quarterly hydrographic survey data in 2D and 3D, monitoring depths, scouring and dredging aspects.

In addition to the original tender, GISGRO is providing other functionalities such as berth planning and 3D modelling information with specifically built tools for the harbourmaster’s department. GISGRO says the new system delivers significant business benefits to Dublin Port, including efficiency, increased safety, and better communications.

A starting point

GISGRO’s port digitisation projects start with the creation of a comprehensive map view of the port area with assets, their information and history, covering buildings, bollards, utilities, and quays.

Dublin Port Company’s digitalisation began by uploading the selected asset data and survey datasets. The port saved time and human resources by including the data migration within the tender, and therefore most of the digitisation was performed by GISGRO.

The company says this does not mean the port cannot control some or all of its future data uploads. Indeed, the port can easily bring new datasets, assets and asset-related information to the platform independently when necessary.

In this case, Dublin contracted a drone survey for the whole port, which brings orthoimages and 3D models within a centimetre accuracy into the platform. A combination of the 2D and 3D data and asset information creates the base of the port’s digital twin and enableshighly accurate digital mapping.

‘’Ports work with several different types of data and having all that data at your fingertips in a visual cloud-based GIS platform creates a significant value for different stakeholders around the port,” said Ville Mäkeläinen, CBDO at GISGRO. “GISGRO offers the customer a single reference source – one place for port data, available 24/7. Whether you need to visualise bathymetry and access berth and bollard information for berth planning purposes or find key holder information for a building, everything is just few clicks away.”

Learning and support

According to GISGRO, training port staff takes only a couple of hours. In tricky situations, a named customer support person and live chat option with a GISGRO support person can be provided.

Support for most of the common data formats allows the port to use the platform for 2D files and all kinds of 3D data, such as hydrographic survey data, LiDAR scans and BIM models.

As a next step towards improved situational awareness for port operations and asset management, IoT (Internet of Things) and other live sensors have been connected to the central GISGRO package. This can include, for example, the integration of AIS, tidal and weather stations. The cloud-based solution enables easy access to a real-time view of port conditions from any location at any time.

One important criterion in the Dublin tender was the intuitive nature of the solution, which is one of the main principles of GISGRO’s design. The user interface was optimised for conducting tasks such as berth planning, asset management, maintenance, project management and use of hydrographic survey data.

Tristan Murphy, Assistant Harbour Master at Dublin Port Company, said: “GISGRO includes all of the tools for the safe, efficient and effective management of the port including asset management, bathymetry and vessel planning. The ability to visualise the port environment and information is of great benefit for our marine teams and key stakeholders creating a shared mental model.”

The contract for digitising work and tailored port management solutions by GISGRO runs for five years.