Sea Traffic Management Ready for Next Step
The Swedish Maritime Administration has announced it is leading the largest European e-navigation project, MONALISA 2.0. The main objective of MONALISA 2.0 is to commercialize the Sea Traffic Management (STM) concept developed by the first phase of the MONALISA project which saw the development of hardware and software that enables real-time exchange of optimized routes from shore to ship and visa versa. Additionally, the systems developed provide the ability to simplify and monitor a ship’s navigation through improved IT and information sharing capabilities.
Sweden, Denmark and South Korea have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement common test beds for future e-navigation solutions developed by the project. A global test bed is seen as essential to be able to demonstrate the concept of Sea Traffic Management in full scale.
“There are initiatives in other countries as well, and we welcome them to join the MoU. Sweden, South Korea and Denmark are all leading nations in the field, and this agreement is a milestone enabling global solutions. Today, there are many regional test environments. However, shipping is global, and we need to ensure that new solutions will work across the oceans,” says Peter Fyrby, director of research and innovation at Swedish Maritime Administration.
The project will look at solutions from the air industry to shorten the time required to set a worldwide standard.
MONALISA 2.0 takes its point of departure in the results and experiences from the MONALISA 1 project, co-financed by TEN-T under the Motorways of the Sea. The project will be taken an important step further towards deployment through joint actions by:
• testing of concrete applications and services which would allow rapid commercial deployment;
• integration of route planning tools with additional environmental information and maritime spatial planning for the purpose of improved maritime safety and environmental protection
• joint private-public action to elaborate better standards for route information exchange through a common interface and common data format allowing equipment from all manufacturers be used for Sea Traffic management;
• demonstrating concrete/hands-on services using new technology to enhance maritime safety, making Search and Rescue and mass-evacuations more efficient than today and by addressing the urgent issue of safety in ports.
• re-using results of previous EU investments in Air Traffic Management as well as from other sectors and their application into the maritime domain.