Ports are vital links in the chain of maritime transportations and have a decisive impact on their quality. Recent reports of marine accidents show that 60% of them are due to the human factor. The majority of accidents could be avoided if appropriate means of support for navigation existed.
The tool to be developed will provide reliable data on prevailing sea states in both real-time and 3-day forecasts every 3 hours. The results will support approaching procedures of vessels to port and harbor basins.
The application will be based on hydrodynamic models and will derive data from open seas forecasts. The implementation of the proposed project will be based on the logical succession presented in the following steps:
Development, validation and application of three hydrodynamic numerical models:
3. Storm surge model(for sea level variations induced by meteorological effects and astronomical tides)
It mainly concerns the integration of models, presented in Step (i), into an electronic operational forecast platform that will provide wind, wave and current data for a 3-hourly 3-day forecast.
Actions will be taken to further exploit the results of the proposed research, as well as to disseminate and communicate the achievements of the project to targeted stakeholder groups.
The proposed project aims at the development of original research and the implementation of its results in order to develop healthy entrepreneurship of a successful SME(i.e. Marine Traffic) through competitive innovation and enhancement of extroversion.
The project will build upon the cooperation of the three key Partners of the proposal:
MarineTraffic is one of the world’s leading platforms of intelligent services for ship tracking. It is an end-to-end service based mainly on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for the location of ships’ position and their real-time representation on an interactive georeferenced map.
N.T.U.A. participates as a collaborating partner (research institution) through the Laboratory of Harbor Works of the School of Civil Engineering.
A.U.Th. participates as a collaborating partner (research institution) through the Laboratory of Maritime Engineering and Maritime Works of the Department of Civil Engineering.
The proposed application will address significant needs such as safe spatial and temporal planning of navigation towards and inside ports, port operations to and from mooring sites, while facilitating the captain (ship pilot) – port navigatorconsultation. This will allow more efficient management of the navigation and towage services. It will also be possible to better document the dredging plans, thus reducing the risk of vessel impact at the bottom, as well as to manage more efficiently the berth positions and ways of mooring according to the weather forecast. Finally, the tool will prove particularly useful in designing projects to modify existing or construct new port facilities.
In addition to the development of innovative ideas in the field of maritime transport through the prediction of sea conditions, the main objective of the project is the economic and commercial exploitation of the research results to be produced. This will directly benefit the key project partners and, indirectly, the national economy and stakeholders as end-users of the research results and products. The project will explore the optimal method of commercializing the results in order to maximize expected revenue streams, wider economic and social development of the country and interested users; it will create new jobs and career opportunities, and improve quality of life through the use of new products and services.
Co-financed by the European Union and Greek National funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE (project code:T1EDK-05111)
