|
|
Future
26 May 2008
In the logical sequence of MACAIS with the installation of the three A.I.S. nets at Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands, enabling the ships sailing around their maritime regions with this powerful radio-position system, and having in mind the strengthening of the transnational cooperation, it had to accomplish the natural technological developments with the following objectives:
- To increase the safety of the A.I.S. nets, having in mind their integrity and availability;
- To increase the A.I.S. system control and reaction capacities;
- To broaden the users universe;
- To optimize and to make it better the output of the communications structure.
The formulation of theses objectives, it is intended to get a better adjust between the A.I.S. nets of each Region, promoting the change of acquired experiences and to build communication channels and information interchange in order to make available a more valuable service, either to the administrations either to the users communities.
These objectives have been presented by the same MACAIS partners, at a new INTERREG III-B Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands project called REDAIS which was approved for co financing.
In order to accomplish these objectives, it is brought to our attention the following REDAIS tasks:
- ”Creation of a common website to the three Regions to divulge the online and historical information collected by the A.I.S. nets, with a common image and a complementary and common interest to a regional community. The resident information at the website will have two outlooks:
- One, in real time with the online transmission of the data collected and transmitted continuously and automatically by the A.I.S. transponders: ship geographical position and speed, ship and carried cargo characteristics, sea state and wind data, pollution spills, corrections to the Differential GPS, Estimated Time of Arrival, etc.
- The second is an historical perspective demanding from the operational system the archive capacity to store the data collected by the A.I.S. nets throughout the time and making possible to analyse trends, to explain occasional phenomena, either conjectural or structural, to know if a ship behaviour denounces a needs
- ”Broadening of the user’s universe making available the data collected by the A.I.S. nets to other user’s universes, which will be divided in the three following categories: institutional, professional and private ones.”
- ”Interconnection with others sources of information, spreading the relevant information to the navigation, namely meteorological, hydrographical and oceanographical information and still data on navigation aids or acknowledgments to navigation with the interconnecting of the A.I.S. nets and the official sources of information, in conformity with the established norms for the service of A.I.S. by IMO, IALA e ITU. It is foreseen the interconnection to regional or national services of meteo-oceanographic information.
But it is unquestionable that the future will pass by the implementation of the VTS (Vessel Traffic System) in the interested Regions. The VTS contains radars, high performance communications systems and mainly the A.I.S., and it monitories the manoeuvres of the ships, transmitting safety alerts as soon as any eventual risk operation is observed.
The coastal Portuguese mainland VTS, which is expected to be operational 2007, will monitorise, control and inspect the navigation along the continental Portuguese coasts. Among the VTS tasks and beyond the access to the National Data Bank of Maritime Navigation, there are still the supervision, the operation with vigilance and management of maritime traffic, simulation, practice and reproduction. The Coordination Centre is located at Paço de Arcos and the secondary centre will be at Portimão.
The installation of a VTS requires enormous resources, impossible to hold at a regional level. However the A.I.S. nets, now installed, will be totally compatible with the future systems, that is to say, a first and fundamental step has been taken with MACAIS project.
|