Overview
Following a number of maritime accidents within the coastal zones of European Union countries, the European Commission issued calls to evaluate the Galileo contribution to improving monitoring and surveillance of the transport of hazardous goods.
NAUPLIOS aimed at demonstrating Galileo improvements for maritime navigation security and hazardous goods transport, and at evaluating new services made possible by the return link to be used for search and rescue (SAR), doing much more than a simple positioning system.
These services respond to the needs of coastal states to have at their disposal information about maritime traffic toward harbours located in an EC country and to detect rapidly any abnormal situation.
The architecture permitting such new services combines three main elements:
- A positioning system;
- satellite communications; and
- specific long-range messages based on the Automatic Identification System (AIS).
Funding
Results
NAUPLIOS has evaluated new long range maritime surveillance services that could benefit from the implementation of the Galileo satellite services. It's extensive, six-month demonstration campaign involved six different types of vessel in order to effectively evaluate anticipated new services under various in-service scenarios.
The demonstration fleet comprised:
- The high-speed ferry Condor Express, operating passenger and freight services between the UK, the Channel Islands and the French port of St. Malo;
- the chemical/oil tanker Chassiron, operating mainly off the French Atlantic coast with occasional voyages in the Channel;
- the fishing vessel Villon, operating mainly off the French and Irish Atlantic coasts;
- the container carrier Elisa-B, operating from Barcelona and Valencia through the Mediterranean Sea to Canaries Islands in the Atlantic;
- the standard ferry Pride of Bilbao, operating the Channel service Portsmouth-Le Havre several times a day and a Portsmouth-Bilbao link at least once a week; and
- the patrol vessel Iris, operating on all French coasts.
NAUPLIOS has:
- Specified advanced traffic surveillance services including:
- global surveillance from open sea up to coastal zones,
- flexible reporting rates according to navigation zone, from 4 hours in open sea to high rates in TSS navigation zones,
- active surveillance (officers assisted by new surveillance means, reporting rate modification, on-demand reports, TSS automatic warning messages, and message exchange with vessels),
- extension of the existing Automatic Identification System (AIS; automatic identification as soon as vessels are in the global surveillance zone),
- additional data on ship, dangerous goods and voyage (hazardous cargo description, more precise voyage and cargo data),
- information sharing with harbours and commercial companies (entry and exit of harbours, ship positions, cargo and technical data gathered on-board vessels); - set up a control centre featuring GNSS-based surveillance and search and rescue (SAR) capabilities, linked to maritime surveillance centres;
- launched a website (www.novacom-services.com), configured with restricted access to guarantee the confidentiality of vessel and voyage data;
- performed a cost/benefit analysis for the implementation of the NAUPLIOS architecture based on the assumption that by 2008 all vessels in European waters will be eq
Policy implications
An essential conclusion is that a concept like NAUPLIOS, based on satellite communications, should be considered an improved long range Automatic Identification System (AIS), complementing VHF AIS coverage. Satellite and VHF could be associated to provide similar services for short range and long range. Yet, distance is not the only criterion to compare VHF and satellite. Satellite communications, in comparison with VHF will always face two main drawbacks, being costs and time delivery delays, but also provide the main advantage of confidentiality in data exchanges. Thus, under VHF AIS coverage, satellite use is limited but it may however be used for redundancy and to provide specific services not available in standard AIS though important in crisis management.
Freight
Key Findings
No results directly relevant to this theme. However, please note that some findings relevant to the project's key theme (Safety and Security) are generically applicable.
Policy Implications
No policy implications directly relevant to this theme. However, please note that implications for the project's key theme (Safety and Security) are generically applicable.
Waterborne
Key Findings