Activity 1: Pilot Implementation Fairway Information Services
Countries involved: AT, BE, BG, CZ, FR, HU, NL, RO, SK
Fairway Information Services (FIS) are defined in the EU Directive 2005/44/EC and contain geographical, hydrological and administrative data that are used by skippers and fleet managers to plan and monitor a journey. These services provide dynamic as well as static information about the use and status of the inland waterway infrastructure to support tactical and strategic navigation decision-making. FIS contains data on the waterway infrastructure only and therefore consists on one-way information from shore to ship/office.
Traditionally these services are provided through nautical paper charts and through other media such as TV and radio broadcasts, internet, VHF nautical information radio. RIS provide standardised Inland Electronic Navigational Charts (IENC) and standardised Notices to Skippers, the latter in a machine readable format and in 24 languages.
The specific objectives within activity 1 are:
- SuAc 1.1: Actual depth data provision for fairway users
Provide actual depth data of inland waterways, especially free flowing rivers, within IENC in order to optimize the use of the waterways and ensure safe navigation. (SuAc leader: Virginie Taffin, VNF, France, virginie.taffin(at)vnf.fr)
- SuAc 1.2: Provision of water level information based on water level models and presentation on IENCs
Provide information about the actual available water depth for each section of the fairway, which are calculated by using highly sophisticated water level models, within IENC to fairway users. (SuAc leader: Christoph Amlacher, via donau, Austria, christoph.amlacher(at)via-donau.org)
- SuAc 1.3. Enhanced Notices to Skippers
Provide additional information to the fairway users via the Notices to Skippers (NtS) and exchange relevant NtS on international level. (SuAc leader: Vaclav Sladek, RVCCR, Czech Republic, sladek(at)rvccr.cz)
- SuAc 1.4: Wireless RIS Services for fairway users based upon wireless broadband technologies such as WiFi or WiMAX
Introduce wireless broadcast technologies to provide access to the Internet for fairway users on specific hot spots in order to grant optimized access to the provided RIS Services and thus to increase the acceptance and usage of RIS services by the users. (SuAc leader: Alaric Blakeway, VNF, France, alaric.blakeway(at)vnf.fr)
- SuAc 1.5: National reference data management systems
Implement national pilot infrastructure for sophisticated management and maintenance procedures in order to ensure the provision of reliable reference data and to be prepared for the interconnection with the European reference data management system (implemented within PLATINA). (SuAc leader: Robert Rafael, RSOE, Hungary, robert.rafael(at)rsoe.hu)
