Vessel Traffic Management And Information Systems

The future safety of maritime transportation in the United States-a major factor in the nation's international trade and economic well-being-will depend heavily on the quality of port and waterways information systems. Many U.S. ports and waterways lack adequate information services, although certain elements of advanced systems are now available in some locations. Barriers to improvements in information systems include the division of responsibilities for waterways management among multiple agencies at all levels of government, a lack of coordination among the federal agencies responsible for waterways management, inadequate budgets for some critical maritime programs, the high costs of some specialized technologies, stakeholder opposition to user fees, limited access to certain key data, the incompatibility of many independently developed systems, and the absence of standards for some attractive technologies. In this report, the second phase of a three-year study by the Committee on Maritime Advanced Information Systems of the National Research Council, a strategy is presented for overcoming the major barriers and deficiencies and providing a minimum level of maritime safety information nationwide. In this phase of the study, the committee concentrated on maritime information systems that promote safety, which is the area of greatest need. The committee did not examine in detail the relationship between navigation safety and maritime transportation efficiency or evaluate information systems that promote efficiency; the committee believes, however, that these issues deserve further attention.

The idea of telematics appeared more than a decade ago and it is possible to define it, in a general and simple way, as a communication system for collecting, processing and distributing information. The transport services market is definitely the most important area for telematic applications. Transport-telematics issues constitute a field of knowledge of transport that integrates information technology and telecommunications in applications for managing and controlling traffic in transport systems, stimulating technical and organizational activities that ensure improved effectiveness and safe operation of such systems. Integrated and cooperating telematic applications constitute intelligent transport systems. The basis of such systems is to efficiently collect and process information and to manage its flow within the system. This enables supplying information from almost all areas of transport activities in real time. Intelligent transport––supported by a number of integrated telecommunications, IT measurement and control engineering solutions, and by appropriate tools and software––comprises telematic applications. They have an extensive range of use in many areas of transport, allowing the integration of the means and types of transport, including its infrastructure, business organization and management processes. This monograph is a collection of selected papers presented at the jubilee transport telematics conference, TST 2010, and is the result of the work of many scientists associated with this area of knowledge and who had spent years with the conference.

The future safety of maritime transportation in the United States-a major factor in the nation's international trade and economic well-being-will depend heavily on the quality of port and waterways information systems. Many U.S. ports and waterways lack adequate information services, although certain elements of advanced systems are now available in some locations. Barriers to improvements in information systems include the division of responsibilities for waterways management among multiple agencies at all levels of government, a lack of coordination among the federal agencies responsible for waterways management, inadequate budgets for some critical maritime programs, the high costs of some specialized technologies, stakeholder opposition to user fees, limited access to certain key data, the incompatibility of many independently developed systems, and the absence of standards for some attractive technologies. In this report, the second phase of a three-year study by the Committee on Maritime Advanced Information Systems of the National Research Council, a strategy is presented for overcoming the major barriers and deficiencies and providing a minimum level of maritime safety information nationwide. In this phase of the study, the committee concentrated on maritime information systems that promote safety, which is the area of greatest need. The committee did not examine in detail the relationship between navigation safety and maritime transportation efficiency or evaluate information systems that promote efficiency; the committee believes, however, that these issues deserve further attention.

This annual information bulletin presents a survey of research in hand on the social and economic aspects of transport in over 400 specialised agencies which are mainly European (West and East) but in some cases American, Canadian or Australian.