An Integrated Approach to an Assessment of Bottlenecks for Navigation on Riverine Waterways

Abstract

Water transport, both sea and inland, is the cheapest, least invasive, and safest option for non-standard loads; hence, it is important to increase the percentage share of inland waterway transport on the rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Transporting cargo is particularly difficult on shallow waterways because rivers overloaded with sediment determine the vertical parameters on inland waterways. A ship’s safe manoeuvrability depends on the available water depth of the navigational area concerning the vessel’s draught. The draught is related to channel depth and sediments. The paper presents a model assessment of a new tool for studying limitations for ships carrying oversized cargo and the shallow channel bed inland waterways. Our analysis was carried out on the Vistula River lowland reach for the winter hydrological conditions. The Lower Vistula River in Poland is a clear example of a sedimentation problem. This waterway is also a zone of active sediment transport of sandy material; a massive volume of sediment reaches 1 million cubic meters per year. The results of this research could be helpful for inland transport management, risk assessment of ships entering waterways with shallow channel beds such as the Vistula River, and analysis for a new waterway project.