• The Port Authority of València (PAV) has begun the procedure for awarding the maintenance service of the air quality and acoustic networks for an amount of 292,578.00 euros 

• With the aim of offering quality information to residents and the port community, Valenciaport has installed three control booths that offer information on eight parameters of polluting gases and particles and meteorological indicators, as opposed to other booths that only measure PM10 and PM2.5 particles 

• As can be consulted on the website of the Regional Ministry, the values taken in the last year with validated records (from 31 May 2022 to 31 May 2023), the air quality index in the Port of Valencia was excellent or good on 98.3% of the days 

• The environmental monitoring service has been in operation since 2005 with innovative solutions for analysing air quality

Valenciaport is putting out to tender the service that guarantees the optimum state of the cabins that measure the quality of the air and other environmental parameters in the installations and in the areas close to the Valencian ports for an amount of 292,578.00 euros. This service is a priority for the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) and is therefore part of the strategic environmental plan developed by Valenciaport to meet the 2030 zero emissions objective.

In total, the Valencian ports have three air quality control booths. The Port of València has two of these environmental control installations – one on the esplanade of the old Turia riverbed and the other on the ‘Transversales de Poniente dock’ – which analyse in real time the quality of the air, the noise in the port installations and the meteorological conditions with the aim of finding out the data on emissions from port activity and to continue with the continuous improvement in environmental matters. Through this monitoring, the PAV can articulate measures in the field of the fight against climate change and improve the planning of port operations if necessary to control emissions. For its part, the Port of Sagunto has another installation with the same characteristics.

These cabins are equipped with the latest technology for monitoring atmospheric pollutants: they have five gas analysers that analyse the concentration of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NO2/NO/NOx), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO) and PM10 and PM2.5 particles. They are also equipped with a weather station for measuring wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure. They are also equipped with sound level meters to measure the noise levels in the harbour. All the data collected by this diversity of equipment is received in real time, which allows the establishment of indicators to control both air quality and noise.

The two facilities of the Port of València are part of the GREEN C PORTS project coordinated by the Valenciaport Foundation and co-financed by the European Union, a development in which several European ports participate to test innovative IoT or Big Data technologies for predictive analysis using artificial intelligence models.

Good air quality in the last year

On the other hand, according to the data published in the PAV’s Environmental Report, the two control cabins installed in the Port of València (both connected to the Generalitat Valenciana’s Monitoring Network) indicate compliance with the regulatory values for air quality throughout the year 2022. In this regard, the Report itself states that “the results obtained show compliance with all air quality immission limit values and correlate with the data from the nearest immission control stations in the city of València”.

Thus, for example, in the case of sulphur dioxide (SO2), according to the average data recorded for the year, the values were 2.9 µg/m3 at the ‘Poniente’ station and 2.1 µg/m3 at the ‘Antiguo Cauce’ station, while the average for the rest of the stations located in the city was 3.55 (all of them exceeding the 3 µg/m3 average).

On the other hand, as can be consulted on the website of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition http://www.agroambient.gva.es/es/web/calidad-ambiental/datos-on-line, the values recorded in the last calendar year in which there are validated records (from 31 May 2022 to 31 May 2023), have always complied with the limit values established in Royal Decree 102/2011, of 28 January, on the improvement of air quality, with the Air Quality Index being Excellent or Good on 98.3% of the days.

Extensive monitoring network: Air, water and noise

The PAV’s environmental monitoring network has been in operation since 2005 with innovative solutions for analysing environmental parameters and has all the tools necessary for environmental control in port facilities. It is made up of three environmental control cabins and also has three meteorological stations, a dozen environmental sensors, predictive and static noise maps, a network of sound level meters, daily water cleaning and periodic studies on water quality, among others. In this sense, the objective of the PAV is to continue reinforcing its commitment to sustainability through innovative solutions to analyse air quality, and to offer information to the port community and the Port’s neighbours in an active and regular manner.