WTMS - Waterway Traffic Management System - A System to Optimize Traffic on Island Waterways

Waterways are well known as an efficient and reliable transport mode for bulk cargo. To enclose inland waterways in modern logistic chain, an information/communication infrastructure needs to be developed to provide higher safety and an efficient traffic flow leading to better market conditions for inland ship operators in comparison to railway and trucking. Hence, a model of a Waterway Traffic Management System (WTMS) is presented as a telematic application for inland waterways aiming at optimization of traffic and safety of both ship operation and waterway management. For ship operators, WTMS would provide a simulation of estimated times of arrival/departure (ETA/ETD). A positioning system is necessary for assessment of traffic densities which largely influences travel duration and ETA. Ship parameters will also be considered. WTMS integrates constructive, hydraulic and hydrologic conditions of waterways and simulates the voyage to minimize waiting times at locks/in harbors and hence optimizes disposition for ship operator and harbor. For the Waterway Authority, WTMS would serve as information system to optimize personnel, e.g. in locks, and to provide higher safety due to traffic surveillance and exact ship positions. This would reduce accidents and ensure quick and easy access to information to provide best possible help. WTMS consists of a distributed database and is separated into static, dynamic and voyage related data, where dynamic data is defined as changing data, e.g. position, draught, speed and hydraulic data like flow velocities, whereas static data consists of geographic information of waterway and buildings (locks/bridges) and voyage related data (origin/destination port, cargo data).WTMS partly acts as a distributed system as different internet data sources like ELWIS (www.elwis.de) of the Waterway and Shipping Authority providing nautical, hydrological and hydraulic information are used to obtain original and relevant data. Traffic flow optimization on inland waterways improves management and maintenance for the authority as well as operation for skippers and finally helps providing a better economical as well as ecological intelligent multimodal transport solution.