6.2 VRES for Aquaculture Production
Two identified VREs have been examined within the BlueBRIDGE scope. The first
includes performance evaluation, benchmarking, and decision-making in aquaculture VRE. This approach focuses on capturing and confronting the dual challenge of
understanding (a) the performance of an aqua-farming operation, allowing on one
hand investors and entrepreneurs to conform to environmental rules and optimize the
use of resources (monetary and nonmonetary ones), and (b) the pressure on investment and on environment produced by such operations, so that scientists and policy
makers can craft guidelines or even regulations, taking into account the economic
interest and socio-economic impact of those operations. To achieve the goal, a VRE
is provided, granting aqua-farming sector entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, and
decision-makers with access to (a) open data combining performance, environment,
regional, and socio-economic datasets, (b) a framework to support performance
analysis and benchmarking, and (c) a fundamental baseline set of indicators and
models that provide the performance metrics in question.
In order to accomplish the goals, the provided services consist of three main
components, namely, site management, model management, and What-If Analysis.
In site management, aqua farmers set up the profiles of their sites (thermal and
environmental characteristics) to provide useful information to the model’s creation.
In model management, the supplied historical production data in combination with
environmental and thermal site profile are analyzed to create models which are
capable to evaluate the production performance. The What-If Analysis service
(discussed in more detail in Sect. 6.4 of this chapter) provides to fish farm managers
the opportunity to determine what-if scenarios, evaluate the vital key performance
indicators for the fish growth, and make efficient and accurate production plans. The
service is developed with the intention to allow for future benchmarking analysis,
comparing one’s company key performance indicators (KPIs) against other aquacultures which operate under “similar” circumstances.
The second VREs option examined within the BlueBRIDGE scope regards
Strategic Investment Analysis and Scientific Planning and Alerting. This alternative
aims to satisfy the need for intelligent identification of locations of interest under an
open-ended set of criteria, as required by both investors seeking optimization of
intended investments and by scientists seeking areas that are becoming of environmental importance. Building on the products of the previous as other VRE offerings
(services, models, and datasets) and extending those with techniques of computational intelligence, more algorithms/indicators/datasets, this VRE delivers a cuttingedge geospatial multifactor optimization and alerting platform of unprecedented
value tool for scientists and the aqua-farming industry and vast opportunities for
interdisciplinary exploitation beyond its definition.
This VRE is based on a cost-driven techno-economic evaluation model for
aquaculture investment analysis. Breaking down the costs of building and running
an aqua farm while estimating sales from its’ main business activities, the model can
provide a 10-year estimation for the cash flows of the specific aqua farm. This model
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G. Antzoulatos et al.
Two identified VREs have been examined within the BlueBRIDGE scope. The first
includes performance evaluation, benchmarking, and decision-making in aquaculture VRE. This approach focuses on capturing and confronting the dual challenge of
understanding (a) the performance of an aqua-farming operation, allowing on one
hand investors and entrepreneurs to conform to environmental rules and optimize the
use of resources (monetary and nonmonetary ones), and (b) the pressure on investment and on environment produced by such operations, so that scientists and policy
makers can craft guidelines or even regulations, taking into account the economic
interest and socio-economic impact of those operations. To achieve the goal, a VRE
is provided, granting aqua-farming sector entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, and
decision-makers with access to (a) open data combining performance, environment,
regional, and socio-economic datasets, (b) a framework to support performance
analysis and benchmarking, and (c) a fundamental baseline set of indicators and
models that provide the performance metrics in question.
In order to accomplish the goals, the provided services consist of three main
components, namely, site management, model management, and What-If Analysis.
In site management, aqua farmers set up the profiles of their sites (thermal and
environmental characteristics) to provide useful information to the model’s creation.
In model management, the supplied historical production data in combination with
environmental and thermal site profile are analyzed to create models which are
capable to evaluate the production performance. The What-If Analysis service
(discussed in more detail in Sect. 6.4 of this chapter) provides to fish farm managers
the opportunity to determine what-if scenarios, evaluate the vital key performance
indicators for the fish growth, and make efficient and accurate production plans. The
service is developed with the intention to allow for future benchmarking analysis,
comparing one’s company key performance indicators (KPIs) against other aquacultures which operate under “similar” circumstances.
The second VREs option examined within the BlueBRIDGE scope regards
Strategic Investment Analysis and Scientific Planning and Alerting. This alternative
aims to satisfy the need for intelligent identification of locations of interest under an
open-ended set of criteria, as required by both investors seeking optimization of
intended investments and by scientists seeking areas that are becoming of environmental importance. Building on the products of the previous as other VRE offerings
(services, models, and datasets) and extending those with techniques of computational intelligence, more algorithms/indicators/datasets, this VRE delivers a cuttingedge geospatial multifactor optimization and alerting platform of unprecedented
value tool for scientists and the aqua-farming industry and vast opportunities for
interdisciplinary exploitation beyond its definition.
This VRE is based on a cost-driven techno-economic evaluation model for
aquaculture investment analysis. Breaking down the costs of building and running
an aqua farm while estimating sales from its’ main business activities, the model can
provide a 10-year estimation for the cash flows of the specific aqua farm. This model
98
G. Antzoulatos et al.