The National Vessel
Traffic Management & Information System aims to improve
the security, safety and efficiency of maritime transport
and also the protection of the marine environment. The first
phase of this major and ambitious project was awarded to INTRACOM
by the Ministry of Merchant Marine and it is completed.
The system monitors and manages vessel traffic
in real-time covering the needs of waterborne transport in
its territory. It is responsible for data collection from
local VTS centers, processing and distribution to authorized
and interested parties at regional, national or transnational
level . The enlarged EU's
encouragement and efforts to increase the "share" of commerce
carried by sea go hand-in-hand with the need for such a system,
which shall protect and safeguard its southeastern borders
and eliminate major marine transport issues, namely maritime
accidents, pollution of the marine environment, congestion
of sea routes, inadequate exploitation of ship service resources,
illegal trade and terrorism. Considering Greek geography, one can easily
characterize it as a particularly "sensitive" region: an extensive
coastline of 16.000 km, 3.000 islands and dense local and
international shipping traffic. With the aim to enhance safety
of navigation in the sea area and port waters, the VTS centers,
are installed in areas under Coast Guard responsibility and
are charged with enforcing sea traffic management regulations,
in a manner similar to the one applied by air traffic management
centers. The VTMIS center plays an important strategic
and administrative role, providing a valuable tool for both
sea traffic data analysis and strategic planning, and cooperating
closely with other national information collection/distribution
centers, as well as the corresponding centers established
by other EU countries. The first phase of the project, awarded in early
2000 to INTRACOM, covers the greater Piraeus area and selected
areas of the Ionian Sea. The central VTMIS node is located
at the Ministry of Merchant Marine and is connected to the
regional VTS centers, each of which handles the processing
of sea traffic data collected by the local sensor stations.
Four (4) VTS centers, three (3) Regional Traffic Services
(RTS) centers and thirteen (13) Remote Sensor Sites (RSS)
were installed. The VTS and RTS centers are in effect local
operation centers that handle sea traffic management in their
area of responsibility. All data collected by the RSS sites
are processed, correlated with historical data from local
databases and displayed on traffic screens. The VTS operators/supervisors track, organize
and manage sea traffic in their area of responsibility by
means of a user-friendly environment, which includes state
of the art computers with double screen displays and advanced
voice communication systems. All actions and communications
are continuously recorded by modern digital recording media.
Additionally, as part of the project's initial
phase, automatic systems for communicating two-way sea traffic
imag ing e systems were installed in five (5) Coast Guard
patrol boats, linking them with the VTMIS center. Finally, seven (7) additional regional Coast
Guard Stations were appropriately equipped to both receive
and input VTMIS-related traffic information data . The national VTMIS' features may be highlighted
in the following:
- Compatibility with international standards
(IMO, IALA, IEC, ITU)
- Capability to disseminate information
to interested third parties (e.g. maritime agencies, pilot
services, customs, port authorities, etc.).
- Display of data collected by different
types of sensors on an integrated work environment.
- Remote diagnostics and control of RSS equipment.
- Distributed and synchronous information
processing
- High reliability and availability
- Considerable local added value
- Open architecture
The successful completion of the
first phase of the National VTMIS led Ministry of Merchant
Marine to plan its expansion that will improve the surveillance
of the country's eastern and southern sea borders. In this
way, the country's extensive sea borders will be fully covered
and safeguarded, ensuring vessel security and protecting human
life at sea. Brochure
is attached |
