IRIS Europe II - Introduction
Background
IRIS Europe 1 was a TEN-T co-financed project for the improvement and pilot implementation of River Information Services (RIS) in which 8 countries (AT, BE, BG, FR, HU, NL, RO, SK) participated. It was successfully closed at the end of 2008 after a duration of three years.
Mission
IRIS Europe II continues – from January 2009 until December 2011 – the expansion and enhancement of RIS within an extended geographical and functional scope. IRIS Europe II will contribute to establish safe, secure and efficient transport on the European waterway network bringing advantages to governmental users as well as users in the logistics sector.
Members
The IRIS Europe II project, co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the TEN-T Programme, is commissioned and co-financed by the Ministries of Transport on nine EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Four additional partners – Croatia, Germany, Serbia and the Ukraine – expand the scope of IRIS Europe II to the European main rivers.
Objectives
The emphasis of IRIS Europe II is to facilitate the development of River Information Services in Europe, enabling an international coordinated implementation, provision and enhancement of services as defined in the Directive 2005/44/EC – the so-called European RIS Directive. The Directive defines standards for data communication and required equipment and provides a framework for harmonised and interoperable RIS Systems and Services across Europe.
IRIS Europe II challenges
In order to achieve the objectives of this project, specific technical, legal, organisational and quality of service challenges need to be met.
- Technical challenges
Deployment of onboard equipment and shore-based infrastructure as well as the validation of the technical feasibility, interoperability and compatibility of systems, services and applications
- Legal challenges
Conclusion of administrative agreements for international exchange of RIS data taking into account the European privacy and data protection laws and the responsibilities among authorities
- Organisational challenges
Improvement of work flows from the production of basic data up to the provision of services and improvement of the accessibility of the services for the end users.
- Quality of service standards
Definition, harmonisation and pilot implementation of a minimum European level of Quality of Information Services for RIS
Related projects
IRIS Europe II co-operates with other relevant activities such as the FP7 projects PLATINA – Platform for the implementation of NAIADES and RISING – RIS Services for Improving the Integration on Inland Waterway Transport into Intermodal Chains as well as parallel TEN-T Actions in the field of RIS
