SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF WATERWAYS

In the late 1995 shipping and waterway data was made assessable with GIS tools. As a result, it was possible to conduct specific analyses using GIS. The analysis of traffic (cargo) -flows and the consequences of a treaty that deals with cargo residues is one of the component projects of the Spatial Analysis of Waterways project.

INTRODUCTION OF THE DUTCH WATERWAYS AND INLAND SHIPPING

For its size, the Netherlands has more waterways than almost any other country. The Netherlands provides natural access to a large part of continental Europe because of its location at the mouths of several major European rivers. No wonder inland shipping occupies an important position in the transport of freight to and from the hinterland.

The Netherlands has 4800 km of waterways suitable for the transport of goods. Barges are ideally suited for the transport of large quantities of cargo. They have little environmental impact and the infrastructure still has capacity. Approximately 40% of the international freight transport to and from the Netherlands (excluding transport by sea) is by barge. The share of domestic transport is just under 20%. Altogether inland shipping transports 290 million tonnes per year within and through the Netherlands.

The registered Western European inland shipping fleet has more than 11,000 vessels and a total cargo capacity of 11 million tonnes. Almost half this fleet, approximately 5000 vessels with a cargo capacity of 6 million tonnes, sails under the Dutch flag. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the smallest traditional barge of 300 tonnes up to six-unit push convoys carrying 17,000 tonnes. Barges can transport general cargo, bulk goods, and dry and liquid cargoes. There are also vessels that have been equipped for special cargoes, such as cement barges and tankers for liquied gas. An appropriate vessel can be found for any cargo!

THE PROJECT "SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF WATERWAYS"

This project explores the possibilities of integrating and analysing the numerous types of data relating to shipping. In short, the aim of the project is to conduct spatial analyses of shipping and the waterway network, investigate their applicability, and improve our understanding. The analysis of traffic flows and the consequences of unloading of inland vessels in the Netherlands makes use of information from the IVS90 system.

THE IVS90 SYSTEM AND SHIPPING STATISTICS

IVS90 is the Information and Tracking System for Shipping. Its aims include making the circulation of shipping safe and smooth, dealing with shipping accidents effectively, and compiling statistics. When vessels enter the IVS90 area, they report their presence and are tracked as they sail through it. The IVS90 area consists of 90% of the main waterways in the Netherlands. This IVS90-network is made up of a collection of IVS90 "sections" which are linked to the Transport Research Centre's digital waterway network.

Some of these IVS90 sections are locks, where data is recorded on every commercial vessel that passes through. This data relates to the voyage, the cargo, and the vessel itself. Locks in the IVS90 network provide comprehensive information, and have served for many years as an important source of shipping statistics.

As is stated above, a great deal of data is available on transport by water. However, it always relates to one point (a lock) in the network. Collating data from all the IVS90 sections generates information on every voyage's chosen route. This information can be used to obtain shipping statistics on all IVS90 recorded voyages undertaken during a particular period. It is known which IVS90 sections have been passed through on every voyage. Since the IVS90 sections have been placed in a GIS environment, it is possible to represent the voyages on a map.*) By making selections from the total collection of voyages, specific flows of traffic on the IVS90 network can be represented in a visual form.

*) As a spin of of this project VOIR (View of IVS90 Routes) has been developed. VOIR shows the semi actual density on the IVS90network.see: http://voir.iway.nl/voir/ivoir2.htm

VESSELS’ PLACES OF DEPARTURE AND DESTINATIONS ON A MAP

When a vessel reports its presence, it records its place of departure and destination. The locations stated are translated into an IVS90 place code, which is very similar to the CBS municipality code. These CBS codes are also to be found on the digital maps of municipal boundaries in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the codes are not always identical. Such discrepancies came to light in various analysis’s of shipping data, which charted points of departure and destinations. The analysis also uncovered the absence of a European digital map with municipal boundaries (and accompanying place codes). Many voyages have a foreign point of departure or destination, which meant that a solution had to be found. Foreign place codes have been recoded into country codes and then added to the map of Dutch municipal boundaries.

ANALYSIS’S CONCERNING WATERBORNE TRANSPORT AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNLOADING OF INLAND VESSELS

How is the waterway network used? Where do which types of vessel sail, and with what types of cargo or draught? Policymakers have often expressed their wish to know more about flows of goods by water.

In advance of the ratification of a EU treaty which deals with the handling of cargo residue. AVV was asked to make use of this newly developed method and analyse the consequences of the treaty on unloading of inland vessels at discharging-berths in the Netherlands. This treaty gives the members of the EU a choice in taking measures for the handling with various types of cargo residue, like discharging on the waterway, sewer or taking special measures. The number of required.provisions will depend strongly on these choices. The main questions in this project were:

• What are the places of unloading (and which kinds of cargo) in the Netherlands?
• What will be the amount of residue and used flush water ?
• What kinds of residue is permitted to discharge on the waterway? or is it needed to use a sewer or taking special measures?
• Where and how many special provisions will be needed, depending on the treaty interpretation?
• Will there be a consequence in the form of a Modal Shift (choosing another way of transport)?

WORK OUT

To get the result the next steps were taken.

1. First of all some changes were made in the procedures of generating voyages. The voyage-generation-process was added with a module which determines if the cargo of the next voyage of the same ship was of the same type If a ship starts a voyage with the same type of cargo, there will be no need to clean the ship inside and there will be no residues . You could speak of dedicated (waterborne)transport.
2. The next step was collecting raw source data of the IVS90 system. After that, millions of records were converted to a database of 540.000 IVS90-voyages (for the year 1996). After generating the IVS90-voyages, the next step was to select those voyages dealing with inland transport. Sea-vessels, empty barges, barges that transported containers and voyages with a destination abroad are excluded in the study. Several sorts of statistics of the remaining 98.000 voyages had been retrieved. This results in statistics on for instance the types and dimensions of the barges, and of course the number of ships dealing with dedicated transport. This has to been done with the objective to make a general assumption on the amount of residues during one unloading of a ship.
3. Because of the fact that IVS90 is not available on all waterways in the Netherlands it is clear that the statistics are not 100% right. Statistics from the CBS (National Statistics) were used to make corrections for each type of cargo. According to the figures of the CBS a total amount of 136 million tons of cargo have been unloaded in the Netherlands. The IVS90 voyages reported a total amount of 82 million tons of cargo. The difference of about 55 million tons is mainly caused by transport of building materials, transport on local waterways and of course the transport on waterways in areas where the IVS90 system is not installed.
4. Different scenarios of the proposed measures were linked to the unloading figures of those voyages concerning "not dedicated" transport and the amounts of residues were calculated. The pie-chart below shows the different measures (some are choices) as a result of the analysis on about 10.000 tons of "dry" cargo residues.

5. As a last step, the cargo-residues of the "not-dedicated"- voyages were linked to destinations in the boundary map of the Netherlands. By selecting voyages and linking the related information to a map, we make full profit of working with a GIS. The figure below shows the difference between two alternatives interpretations of the treaty: the maps show the difference between a least strict and most strict scenario. It shows an increase in amount of cargo residue where a sewer is to be used, and a significant increase in the number of destinations.

CONCLUSION

GIS tools have proven to be very useful. The IVS90 data have been transformed, using GIS, to voyage information. Furthermore, the maps show very clearly where provisions will be needed and of course, the map can be used to determine where provisions can be clustered for economic reasons.