Vessel Traffic Management Systems: Some Considerations

Extract

When planning the replacement of an existing shore-based radar advice chain, which may have admirably served the port area under consideration for the past fifteen or twenty years, a number of basic elements have to be reviewed. The review and the ensuing process of analysis should be steps towards the adoption of a basic philosophy for the eventual development of a replacement system; this is necessary to judge requirements in relation to the many possible solutions, ranging from a simple shore-based radar advice service to sophisticated vessel traffic management systems. Elements for consideration include:

(i) The area to be served, present and future.

(ii) The traffic pattern, present and future.

(iii) The technology available or under development.

(iv) The other operational and administrative services available to shipping.

(v) The quality of manning and manning scales.

(vi) The economics of the shipping industry.

(vii) The cost of the new system.

(viii) The distribution of this cost over shipping and the community in general.

(ix) Legal aspects.

Besides these factual considerations and their analysis we should develop a philosophy regarding the aims of the system, which could be an improvement in port operation efficiency, in traffic safety, or in vessel turn-around time. The realization of these aims will probably result in economic benefits both for the port and for shipping and these will have to be weighed when investigating the distribution of system cost over shipping and the community in general.