Hydraulic and Environmental Impacts as well as Operational Benefits of High Speed Inland Ships for Cargo Transport

Economy is growing and cargo transport is growing in parallel even faster. Therefore alternatives to truck transport and congested railways are necessary. Cargo transport on inland waterways provides space, capacities, safety, environmental friendliness, less energy consumption and high efficiency, whereas speed is a major disadvantage of present inland ships for cargo transport. Investigations upon operation of high speed inland ships for cargo transport showed, that they can be integrated in transport chains. Simulations showed, that driving durations can be provided as known from cargo transport by truck and railway, depending on size, amount of locks, and traffic density of inland waterway. Therefore accelerating ships' speed of present inland ships for cargo transport, would increase attractivity for cargo transport on inland waterways. This increases hydraulic impacts because of restrictions and shallowness of inland waterways, resulting in increased ship-generated water level variations and reverse flow velocities compared to present inland ships for cargo transport. This might affect stability of inland waterways' banks and bottoms, and also the navigational safety.