Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

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1 RISING is co-financed by the European Commission (DG-MOVE) within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

2 Editorial RISING in its decisive phase We are now in the middle of the third year of the RISING project, and the most exciting phase started a few months ago: the demonstration period. In Phase 1, the modules to be developed to bridge the gap between existing River Information Services and the logistics world including their architecture and functionalities were specified with a special focus on harmonised procedures and interfaces. This approach ensured that the information services and subscription mechanisms would behave the same way all over Europe one that is independent from the underlying national systems. Intensive talks with the European RIS expert groups and related projects such as PLATINA and IRIS Europe II took place periodially in order to integrate their experience and solutions in the best possible way and to give feedback on their specifications. The RISING modules focus on several phases of the inland waterway and intermodal transport: concepts have been developed describing details such as potential operators (public or private) and payment structures (free of charge flat rate pay per use). Since data ownership issues are essential in using RIS data for logistics optimization, dedicated agreements on this issue are in place. In parallel, our different dissemination actions shall ensure spreading of the RISING results to potential users and clients. These actions range from presenting the project at international conferences (such as the Smart Rivers 21 in New Orleans), publishing articles in the specialized press, hosting the joint Final Event of RISING and IRIS Europe II in Duisburg on December 1st, to producing a promotion film explaining the benefits of RISING to a broad audience. The accompanying bodies, a central Advisory Committee and regional Industry Forums, assisted the project development and validated the RISING approach in order to obtain the largest possible consensus. This last phase will continue until 2012 and the whole RISING group is eager to see the results of the operational process and economic analysis which will be reported on in the next edition of our RISING newsletter. Frank Arendt, Rising Project Coordinator transport planning: from checking if a specific transport is possible using inland waterway transport to the actual voyage planning process berths & terminals: bilateral adjustment of operation plans between inland waterway transport operator and inland or sea terminal exchanging ETAs and RTAs transport monitoring: comparing plan data with actual status information (such as vessel position, NtS messages) detecting possible problems and deviations as early as possible. Phase 2 dealt with implementing and testing for the RISING modules themselves and their integration into the business environment of the industrial demonstration partners. The current Phase 3 - so-called demonstration phase - collects experience from applying the RISING modules to real-life scenarios: containers, bulk, steel coils, etc. on major European rivers such as the Rhine, Scheldt, Danube, Elbe, Weser and adjacent canals. By performing before&after evaluations, the specific benefits will be assessed for all these demonstration scenarios. For all RISING services, operational and business 2 Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

3 RISING at Work: Demonstrator Cases 1.ARA-Ports 2.Voyage Plan 3.Rhine Port 4.Weser-ARA Danube Rhine case The case has its focus on the Danube/Rhine area. Cargo from Industrie-Logistik-Linz is shipped from the port of Linz to the Netherlands. The design of a new management process is necessary in order to increase transparency and improve planning and information exchange in the waterway section. Complementary the total supply chain costs should be reduced. RIS traffic information distributed by RIS services will be integrated into in-house transport logistics ICT tools and 5.Elbe 6.Danube-Rhine 7.Danube-East 8.Euroports applications. A seamless flow of information will be demonstrated. Partners involved: ILL, via donau Area of activity covered by this case: Transport Monitoring Contact: Gerhard Schilk, via donau: gerhard.schilk@via-donau.org +43 (5) Rhine Port case The case has its focus on container terminals at the Rhine river Newsletter No. 5 - November

4 RISING at Work: Demonstrator Cases ports of CTS. The case will improve the information exchange and optimisation between terminal management and inland transport management. Better process integration of main ports, hinterland terminals as well as barge operator is to be achieved. Terminal Planning will be enhanced through availability and higher accuracy of prediction of requested time of arrival including deviations. As a result vessels will have reduced waiting times at terminals. Partners involved: CTS, ISL Area of activity covered by this case: Berth & Terminal Planning Contact: Oliver Klein, ISL: klein@isl.org tel. +49 (421) Weser ARA case Within this case, a web based IWT transport monitoring application will be introduced at NWL who provide container transports between German seaports, the ARA ports and hinterland destinations. The core of this system is an event management component which makes use of reliable AIS-based positions of the vessels as well as waterway information provided by RIS/ NtS. Faster and more reliable information exchange between skippers and planning staff will be achieved. Partners involved: NWL, ISL Area of activity covered by this case: Transport Monitoring Contact: Oliver Klein, ISL: klein@isl.org tel. +49 (421) Danube East cases The Danube case covers different geographical regions on the Danube. The development of RIS Transport and Logistics Service (RIS-TLS) will be used. The 4 sub-demonstration cases are: Ore supply chain: RIS-TLS will support logistics-logistics processes as transport execution information and tracking of cargo. Fleet management: RIS-TLS will support transport planning and monitoring from the viewpoint of an IWT operating company. eport: RIS-TLS will be applied in and for inland ports and terminals. Lock reservation service: RIS-TLS provided by locks for IWT operators. Partners involved: via donau, RSOE, Plovput, CRUP, Helogistics Area of activities: Berth & Terminal Planning, Transport Monitoring contact: Gerhard Schilk, via donau: gerhard.schilk@via-donau.org tel. +43 (5) Elbe case The case will demonstrate a pre-planning tool for heavy and oversized cargo on the Czech and German Labe/Elbe and its side canal. The tool offers a feasibility check for a specific cargo with its dimensions and weight from location A to B on request. It provides a feasible transport solution stating a travel time from port to port and an appropriate ship type. The tool will be implemented on the ElbPro Elbe Promotion Center ( elbpro.com). The availability and accessibility to information on the feasibility of such transports will be improved for cargo owners and forwarders as well as administrations. Partners involved: DBR, SBO, Logit, MARLO Area of activity covered by this case: Transport Planning Contact: Roland Frindik, MARLO: roland.frindik@marlo.no tel ARA-Ports case The background for the new Portbase service is the strong need for optimisation of terminal planning for inland vessels in the seaports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The aim is to extend the information exchange between vessel operators and terminal operators with real-time position and ETA information so that the planning of terminal operations can be updated until the start of terminal operations. The objective is to show that making this real-time information available to terminals via a function of the Port Community System of Portbase will improve the planning of terminal operations for inland shipping. Partners involved: Portbase, Mobycon Area of activity covered by this case: Berth & Terminal Planning Contact: Ronald Jorna, Mobycon: r.jorna@mobycon.nl tel. +31 (38) Voyage plan case The main components of the voyage planner are the route planner and the calculation of the estimated time of arrival (ETA) at designated points along the route, as well as the time windows for each point which enable the vessel s arrival at its destination at the agreed point of time. The voyage planner consists of a planning module that can advise a forwarder, a module capable to make a voyage plan for a given vessel with a given draft and a module to indicate the revenue of the vessel for each water depth, draft and speed of the vessel. Partners involved: CETLE, PBV, Periskal, MARIN Area of activity covered by this case: Transport Planning Contact: Cees C. Glansdorp, CETLE: cees.glansdorp@cetle.org tel. +31 (10) Euroports case This case will focus on the integration of RIS data into the inhouse barge planning software. This includes position data from the vessels received via the European Position Information System (EPIS) a prototype developed within the Platina project as well as lock operation status information. Partners involved: Flexit Solutions Area of activity covered by this case: Transport Monitoring Contact: Pascal Verlinden, IT Bizz bvba: pascal@it-bizz.be tel. +32 (488) Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

5 RISING in focus A RISING User Story: ACOS Weser-ARA (Demonstrator Case) The ACOS Group offers inland container transports using and operating three transport modes: truck, barge and rail services. Amongst others ACOS serves the German North Sea ports (Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Bremen) and connects them with the German and neighbouring hinterland destinations (Benelux countries). In 2010, the total volume transported by the ACOS Group was over TEU. Two inland waterway transport services of the ACOS Group complete the multimodal service mix of ACOS: NWL and TRIMODAL. They have increased their transport volume significantly during this period, resulting in a total of over TEU. The User Requirements and Challenges In order to be able to deliver the best solutions in RISING it was inevitable to learn how container hinterland transport is organized by ACOS and other small and medium enterprises in inland navigation. Thus, the following questions were addressed: pwhat kind of information is needed for scheduling transports by barge? pwhich are the sources the relevant information is retrieved from? pwho are the stakeholders involved in the transport process and what are their roles? It is especially important to look at the existing tools that are used in planning, scheduling and operating the transports. For efficient planning up-to-date information from customers, terminals, vessels and infrastructure providers is needed. This includes the container availability in the port, the conditions of the waterways and positions of the vessels and their expected time of arrival at the next terminal. This information is available but not always easily accessible. Gathering and validating this data is time-consuming and work-intensive. Efficient real-time monitoring of processes beyond the manual gathering of vessel positions via phone or commercial websites is still difficult to establish due to missing IT systems. Unfortunately, a full Inland AIS coverage with on shore installations in the main area of operation, i.e. Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, does not exist at the present time. The RISING Solution RISING helps to bridge the identified gaps with adaptable solutions that are fully compliant to existing RIS standards. The RISING Position Event Service, as one of the solutions, supports the existing AIS standard as the basic information originating from the vessels. Since the whole fleet of ACOS is equipped with AIS, commercial mobile communication networks are used to relay the position data to ACOS central server. Gain a time advantage in dealing with deviation In order to effectively react on possible problems, any type of information indicating possible future delays must be received as early as possible. Therefore, a catalogue of RISING services has been implemented in an innovative web-based event management application now used by ACOS IWT departments which supports: Position Event Services p Vessel Tracking p Geofencing p Standstill Detection p Waypoint Crossing completed by RIS-NtS based Event Services for p Water Levels p Obstructions or Limitations at Fairways, Locks and Bridges Newsletter No. 5 - November

6 RISING in focus Separate the relevant information from the loads of data The main advantages of the RISING web-based solution are the integrated filter mechanisms that facilitate the automated selection of the actually interesting information. The user can subscribe to data that is relevant for only those fairway sections where a voyage of a vessel actually takes place, irrespective of national borders. In the execution phase, transport-related information such as delays in terminal handling, waiting times at the locks and railway bridges as well as disturbances, blockages or other limitations relevant for the current voyages can now be provided automatically. when the vessel has arrived at or has left an area of interest (note: this is called geofencing ) p If there is any evidence for longer waiting times in front of a lock, the standstill time of a vessel on a certain stretch of a river can be reported automatically. p Obstructions and limitations that are published via Notices to Skippers as well as water levels are also presented within the central map and the information can be easily limited with regard to the validity period and desired fairway sections. The demonstration period has just recently begun but has already shown that the RISING solution helps to better utilise existing RIS information for logistics purposes. This supports IWT operators to gain more flexibility and to optimise the planning and execution processes. The easy accessibility of information relieves the planners at the office and decreases the manual reporting efforts. Consequently the integration into intermodal transport chains is also improved, due to the accurate and timely available information. The RISING event management web portal solution has been developed by: ISL - Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics Contact: Oliver Klein (Klein@isl.org) Web: Benefits for the User The user has different options in order to make individual use of the RISING event management web portal: p In the Live-Tracking mode the user can follow an individual vessel on a digital map during its voyage. p If the arrivals at or departures from certain places such as loading and unloading terminals or locks are of special interest, individual subscriptions can be placed possibly days in advance and the user will be informed via 6 Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

7 RISING Workpackage 6 WP6: Evaluation and Validation Over the past few months, the RISING project partners have been working hard to get the different RIS services demonstrators up and running. As we are approaching the point where all demonstrators are fully operational, the activities in the area of evaluation and validation are becoming increasingly important. Let us have a look at what has been done over the past few months, and what is still on our to do list for the near future... At the core of the demonstrator evaluation lies the analysis of the results achieved in comparison to the starting values and to be gathered. First, the project partners have been defining (measureable) indicators that will serve as the basis for the evaluation. By measuring the current values for each indicator, hereafter referred to as zero state values, and setting specific targets to be achieved in the demonstrators, a comparative analysis will be performed. This analysis is planned for March In reaction to the observation that implementing RIS services proves to be quite complex and time-consuming, it was decided to substitute a formerly planned mid-term evaluation of the demonstrators for a lessons learned - report. Our expectation is that such a document will provide insight in the causes for delay and will lead to valuable recommendations for the future implementation of RIS services. Starting at the beginning of 2012, we will take up the validation of the business concepts and implementation plans for RIS transport services. The business concepts that were defined over the course of several work packages will now be viewed in an integrated way. For each of the RISING services these concepts will be validated after the demonstration phase checking if the assumptions developed there have been proven. Whereas the evaluation of the demonstrators analyses the RIS services in a pilot environment, the validation phase will focus on the market potential as seen by IWT vessel and fleet operators, inland ports and terminals, logistics service providers and shippers. These parties will be consulted through face to face interviews in the three RISING regions: the Rhine/Scheldt region, the Danube region and the region around the main German waterways (Elbe, Weser, ). Their input will be crucial in order to evaluate the results from the RISING project in terms of market feasibility. the targets that were for each specific demonstrator. While we have encountered some delays due to the complex process of implementing the RIS services, we are glad to report that we have been able to adjust our planning with the aim to maximize the amount of valuable conclusions and recommendations. We will still be able to perform all the necessary activities due to a fourmonths extension of the project. In order to be able to perform the aforementioned comparison, current state information needs And as we enter the last 6 months of the project, we cannot help but be excited and curious as to how the demonstrators have performed with regards to the set targets and how the market will react to the RIS services that were developed over the past 30 months! We will keep you posted! Liesbeth van Alphen Consultant, Mobycon/Rising Contact: rising@mobycon.nl, Newsletter No. 5 - November

8 Final Event RISING und IRIS Europe II opt for a joint final event The final event for the two RIS-oriented projects RISING and IRIS Europe II is a joint event in Duisbug (Germany) where both project teams present the results of their respective projects. Beside presentations on the role and vision of the European Commission for River Information Services (RIS), discussions and live demonstrations of several concete applications developed within the projects are on the progamme. RIS applications in the field of voyage planning, tactical transport monitoring, fleet and lock management, event management, tactical transport, will be at the core of this thrilling event for all those who want to know more about RIS but never dared to ask IRIS Europe II in brief... Since 2002, the establishment of intelligent infrastructure on European rivers is part of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) programme. A new dimension of coordination and cooperation was opened in 2006 with IRIS Europe - Implementation of River Information Services in Europe, the first multinational TEN-T project of its kind, improving and piloting River Information Services (RIS) until December This work is continued in the follow-up project IRIS Europe II from January 2009 until December 2011 with the focus on expansion and enhancement of RIS within an extended geographical and functional scope. IRIS Europe II contributes to establishing safe, secure and efficient transport on the European waterway network, bringing advantages to governmental users as well as users in the logistics sector. The IRIS Europe II project, co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the TEN-T Programme, is commissioned and co-financed by the Ministries of Transport of nine EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Four additional cooperation partners Croatia, Germany, Serbia and the Ukraine expand the scope of IRIS Europe II to the European main rivers. IRIS Europe II aims at enabling an internationally coordinated implementation, provision and enhancement of services as defined in the Directive 2005/44/EC - also called the European RIS Directive. 8 Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

9 RISING on tour: Smart Rivers 11 RISING News: Smart Rivers 11 in New Orleans, September 2011 The project s mission, the areas of application and first results of RISING have been presented at Smart Rivers 2011 by the project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Frank Arendt of ISL (Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics). The conference which took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 15th is an annual gathering of international experts discussing how to help bringing inland river transportation into the global logistics system of the 21st century. This is the second time after 2009 in Vienna that RISING has contributed to these discussions. First promising talks about opportunities to exploit the RISING thinking using RIS for stronger support of logistics actors in the transport chain and the specific RISING solutions and modules in other geographical areas e.g. the US inland waterways, have been initiated during the networking part of the conference. Furthermore, RISING was presented at the exhibition stand of via donau. Newsletter No. 5 - November

10 Merry Christmas The RISING team wishes you and your dear ones a happy holiday season! 10 Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

11 RISING cinema RISING film brings project results to life As the results of RISING are ready and the end of the project is in reach, a film about the project has been produced in cooperation with Berlin-based company Kinomaton. It features instructive animations, footage showing the RISING services for Transport Planning, Transport Monitoring/Event Management and Terminal Planning in practice. A number of interviews with project partners, especially those involved in the demonstration cases, give testimony to the value of the project s results. By joining an audiovisual trip through RISING, IWT stakeholders can vividly experience the objectives, solutions and results of the project within roughly seven minutes. They will get an insight into the potential commercial benefits of River Information Services and gain inspiration about how the use of RIS and services like those developed in RISING can support them in their daily operations and enhance the efficiency of their business. Check for more... In cooperation with Anna-Sarah Hennig, ISL Newsletter No. 5 - November

12 e-learning RISING e-learning portal goes online Learn more about River Information Services (RIS) for Transport & Logistics by using our informative RISING e-learning portal, which is embedded in the official RISING website at To invest in human capital is one of the major principles to gain success in every economical sector; this also applies to the inland waterway transport (IWT) sector. Skilled workers in inland waterway transport or in the logistics sector are essential for the improvement of economic development. For that purpose, an e-learning portal with general information about RIS including information about event management, fleet management and voyage planning was developed within the European project RISING. E-learning here is used in order to provide an adequate instrument for our target groups which are the inland ports, the users of waterways, the skippers, the shippers as well as logistics and forwarding companies and to achieve developments in inland waterway transport. In theory, the unifying term e-learning is used for learning measures that provide learning content by using computer technology; it can be translated to electronic learning. The term e-learning describes the fields of learning, especially the fields of online learning, web-based learning or other forms of learning where electronic media are used. There, the learning content can be presented in different ways, depending on several factors such as learning aim, learning setting, learning theory, target group but also many other elements. Since learning approaches can be different, the availability of learning content may differ from the level of interactivity. The level of interactivity can range from merely informing about one topic by reading the content to actively interact with the aid of electronic media, i.e. ticking the correct answer in a multiple choice quiz, writing short texts for an online e-learning forum to communicate with other learners, writing for a wiki, a blog, etc. passing receptive information to the learners. With the aid of the navigation elements, the learners can select the chapters they feel are more relevant to their information needs on RIS-related topics. Beside informative texts and graphs, photos and tables support the learning process. In relation of these RISING e-learning portal, especially in regard to practitioners and transport companies, the e-learning platform INeS Danube must be mentioned here. The INeS Danube platform is free of charge and available in three languages German, English and Romanian under Relevant information about RIS is also available at the INeS Danube platform. Basis knowledge of RIS can be found at the basic course of INeS where general introduction in the field of IWT are described with more multimedia elements and modern learning technologies (e.g. animations, interactive elements, streaming video and sound). More specific knowledge of RIS is available under the targetgroup-based access and the topic list. Further more a glossary about RIS is also available in order to provide clear definitions of various terms that are used. In cooperation with Sabine Jung, e-learning expert, via donau The RISING e-learning portal offers very little interactivity space and mainly provides an e-learning course that focuses on 12 Newsletter No. 5 - November 2011

13 Contact Dissemination: Annick Javor Promotie Binnenvaart Vlaanderen Armand Hertzstraat Hasselt BELGIUM Tel.: Fax: Web: Project Coordinator: Arne Gehlhaar Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik Universitätsallee Bremen GERMANY Tel.: Fax: Web: This is the fifth issue of the newsletter of the RISING project. This newsletter can be downloaded on the RISING website at: Photo credits: istockphoto Finish Line Ahead/DNY59 Checkered Flag/gunnarAssmy Newsletter No. 5 - November

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