Technology consortium completes field work for ‘Carbon Wave Gauge’
The technology consortium made up of the Spanish firms VTI SL (Vázquez y Torres Ingeniería) and ADECUA has announced the completion of the fieldwork for the ‘Carbon Wave Gauge’ project, after concluding the final proof-of-concept tests at Puerto de Las Palmas. The initiative, funded by the Ports 4.0 sectoral innovation fund of Puertos del Estado, is now positioned as a solution ready to be commercialised for the portable monitoring of critical marine variables in the fields of civil engineering and port operations.
Portable tide and wave sensor system
At the core of the development is a system of portable measurement sensors for tides and wave conditions, designed to optimise safety margins during berthing manoeuvres and the planning of coastal works. The practical experimentation phase has been structured to confirm the reliability of the equipment in geographical conditions with radically different hydrodynamic dynamics. Companies in the consortium have subjected the device to three consecutive deployment phases in key ports of the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary archipelago.
First trials at Puerto de Tarifa
The first phase of tests was carried out at Puerto de Tarifa, under the jurisdiction of the Bahía de Algeciras Port Authority. The location stands out for having a tide regime with large amplitude and constant exposure to strong currents and the characteristic wave conditions of the Strait of Gibraltar. The sensor’s performance at this logistics node enabled validation of the hardware’s physical response under conditions of high hydrodynamic energy and strong surface currents.
Technical validation at Puerto de Barcelona
Technical validation continued at Puerto de Barcelona to test how the equipment responds to small-scale phenomena. The waters of the Catalan basin, shaped by the Mediterranean tide with low oscillation, served as an optimal test bench for calibrating the sensor algorithms’ sensitivity to millimetre-level changes in water level. This phase was key to ensuring the device’s accuracy in inner port basins where local wave signals are weak and difficult to isolate from background oscillations.
Final stage completed at Puerto de Las Palmas
The closure of the validation programme took place at facilities at Puerto de Las Palmas. The Gran Canaria basin provided the oceanographic parameters of the mid-Atlantic, characterised by oceanic-type tide dynamics and the presence of long-period bottom wave fronts. The conclusion of this third deployment closes the cycle of physical testing and certifies the technology’s operational viability for commercialisation across different international maritime fronts.
Results cross-checked with official REDMAR data
The data collected by the sensors from VTI and ADECUA during measurement campaigns have been checked against the official data series of the REDMAR network of measurement stations, owned by Puertos del Estado. The comparisons confirm a high correlation between readings obtained by the new portable sensor and fixed national reference systems, validating the accuracy of the model against the standards of the maritime administration.
Port authority collaboration enables technical permits and access
Collaboration with the port authorities of the Bahía de Algeciras, Barcelona and Las Palmas has been a key outcome for obtaining the necessary technical permits and access to the berthing infrastructure required for deploying the measurement equipment. The ‘Carbon Wave Gauge’ project is now entering its commercial operations phase within the port digitalisation market, offering an alternative for rapid deployment and lower maintenance costs compared with traditional fixed oceanographic stations.
The technology ‘made in Ports 4.0’ validates the ‘Carbon Wave Gauge’ sensor after completing its tests in the Canary Islands was published first on canarymaritime.com.
