Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Integrated Environmental Monitoring

The Port of Antwerp-Bruges has implemented APICA (Advanced Port Information & Control Assistant), the platform behind a real time 2D/3D digital twin of the port area. It integrates data from sensors, drones, smart cameras and digital air quality monitoring devices (iNoses) to give port staff a live picture of shipping movements, infrastructure, energy production and environmental conditions.

The digital twin filters data and triggers alerts for defined events, and the port is moving from situational awareness towards predictive insight using artificial intelligence and data science. The port reports that APICA won an IAPH Sustainability Award in the Digitalization category in 2025.

Supporting systems reported for 2025 include 460 AI-enabled cameras and 22 radars linked to the Antwerp Coordination Centre, monitoring a port area of more than 120 km2 with 11,000 hectares of waterways and quays and around 300,000 vessel movements a year, and a growing network of autonomous drones used for infrastructure inspection, surveillance, berth management and detection of oil spills and floating waste. The digital twin also displays live output from the port wind farms: 80 turbines and 200 MW at Antwerp, 50 turbines and 130 MW at Zeebrugge.

Air quality monitoring in the port is carried out in collaboration with the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM), which operates 16 monitoring stations across the Antwerp and Zeebrugge port areas. Results are published annually in the report "Air Quality in the Port of Antwerp", benchmarked against current and future European legislation and WHO guideline values, with a first provisional report for the Zeebrugge port area published in 2025. The port supplements this network with lower cost iNose sensors, currently deployed in Antwerp only, used to help trace sources of odour and nuisance and to improve situational awareness during incidents. The port states that the effectiveness of the iNose network is still being evaluated. From 2026, VMM must assess each air quality measurement against the limit values in the new EU Ambient Air Quality Directive, with a roadmap required where limits are exceeded.

Water quality in the docks is monitored using smart digital meters that continuously log temperature, pressure, salinity and pH, supplemented by monthly sampling of nutrients, heavy metals and other parameters at four measurement points in the Antwerp docks, two on each bank of the Scheldt. The port's water strategy programme is aligned with the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC), and the port works with industry and the Flemish government (VMM) on an area-based approach to improving water quality. Soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water are handled together under an internal strategic program on PFAS that includes a 3D model of the subsurface and surface water, called "APICA of the subsurface".

The port publishes a single integrated Annual Report prepared in line with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), covering environment, climate, social and governance performance with an ESRS content index. A double materiality assessment was conducted in October 2023 and April 2024, identifying 116 material impacts, risks and opportunities across 14 material sustainability topics, validated by the CSRD steering group and the Audit Committee. The report's contents page marks selected chapters (the double materiality assessment, the climate transition plan, its implementation, the 2025 carbon footprint, and the annual financial report and taxonomy) as audited by the statutory auditor, with the auditor's report referenced as an annex; other chapters are not marked as audited. The port also reported voluntarily against the EU Taxonomy for the first time in 2025, ahead of what the report describes as a requirement to include the taxonomy assessment in the annual report for financial year 2027. Public disclosure at this level supports stakeholder engagement and regulatory compliance verification.