Tracasa signs a contract for 6.4 million euros with the European Environment Agency and the European Commission

Between 2020 and 2024 the public company of the Government of Navarra will render services involving environmental data consulting, compilation, design and dissemination, with information from 38 European states

Tracasa recently signed a contract for 6.4 million euros with the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment. Between 2020 and 2024 the public company of the Government of Navarra will carry out environmental data consulting, compilation, design and dissemination services with information from 38 European states.

Among the tasks to be carried out by Tracasa, which also carried out this work between 2013 and 2020, is the maintenance and updating of the Discomap infrastructure (the EEA’s map service platform) and the standardization, design and dissemination, through interactive maps and graphics, of about 100 data streams covering different topics related to the environment, such as air, water, emissions, the climate and biodiversity.

_{Image of a virtual meeting of the project team. From left to right, in the top row, Iratxe Orbe Fernández (Tracasa), Víctor Villar Etxeondo (Tracasa), Ion Ruiz Iragi (Tracasa), Josu Ramírez Mariezcurrena (Tracasa) and Irune Badiola Uriarte (GIS Studies). In the second row, Sara Domínguez Serrano (Tracasa), David Rivero Ramos (Tracasa), Amaia Martínez Echeverría (Tracasa), David Ramírez Domínguez (Tracasa) and Álvaro Martínez de Lagos Espinosa (GIS Studies). In the third row, Naroa Iriarte Cárdenas (Tracasa), Esther Mata Pérez (Ibertech), Rubén Razquin Hernández (Ibertech), Mikel Rodríguez Manderson (Tracasa) and Mikel González Gainza (Tracasa). In the fourth row, José Alfredo Aznar Montesinos (Ibertech), Koldo Goñi Iza (Tracasa), Lander Uzquiano Valle (GIS Studies), Igor Trébol Araiz (Tracasa) and Miguel Villafranca Artieda (Tracasa). Finally, in the bottom row, Susana Guevara Arenas (GIS Studies) and Vicente Urdánoz Melado (Tracasa). Enrique Muro Arbizu (Tracasa Instrumental) is missing from the image.}

Numbers, examples and relevance of the project

This work entails managing massive quantities of data. In this regard, Tracasa has been developing, as part of this framework agreement with the EEA and the European Commission, numerous computer solutions, including the European Air Quality Index map, with the data collected by 4,500 stations in Europe, the maps of the Noise Observation and Information Service for Europe, maps and dashboards tracking emissions from more than 30,000 industrial facilities on the continent, and ecosystem maps for European countries.

_{Image of the European Air Quality Index map, with its access link.}

Department of Territorial Information Systems Director Moisés Zalba Almandoz highlighted the importance of this contract for the company, with 23 people assigned to the project full time: 15 from Tracasa, 1 from Tracasa Instrumental and 7 from two supplier companies; of these 4 are from GIS Studies and 3 from Ibertech: “Working for four more years for the EEA and the European Commission is gratifying, since it is the third consecutive time that we have won this contract, competing with the best European consultancies, and also a challenge, as it forces us to use very advanced technologies, such as machine learning in air quality time series”.

The EEA: facts and functions

Founded in 1990 and based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the EEA is a European Union body whose main task is to provide robust and independent information on the environment. Thus, the AEMA is the main source of information for those overseeing the development, approval, execution and evaluation of environmental policies, and also for the public at large. Data processing within the EEA is highly automated and, for this purpose, software packages feature FME (Safe Software), ArcGIS Server/Desktop/Online (Esri), Tableau, Microsoft SQL Server, Python and C#. In addition, for certain data processing, more and more Cloud computing systems (Microsoft Azure) are being used, and expert support is required to develop robust and automated computing solutions that can support the entire workflow.