Merry ChriSTMas
The year 2020 will most likely go to history for the pandemic that turned the world as we knew it upside down leaving a wet blanket of isolation and worry over “Business as usual”. Things in our everyday life such as going to an office and seeing colleagues, family and friends that we had always been taking for granted were suddenly exotic and out of reach for many of us. Despite all problems the lion’s share of the world fleet still sail our oceans bringing Christmas presents to dear ones near and far and digitalization has been fast forwarded and stress-tested to an extent we could not have imagined. So what have happened during 2020 from an interoperable digital Sea Traffic Management point of view?
Implementation projects, based on the concept of information sharing and sea traffic management, continue in both northern and southern Europe as well as the work on harmonization of international standardization of all S-100 formats and standards for route exchange and secure communication in IEC.
Through the EfficientFlow project, ferries in the narrow Swedish and Finnish archipelagoes can exchange routes in their ECDIS onboard. Based on the routes, ferries can see projected meeting points way in advance and adjust them to increase safety and efficiency. The Swedish and Finnish pilots in the area have the same capability in their pilot units, which means that all ships have the functionality on-board.
VTS Finland is making a Port Activity App available for all Finnish ports. It is an open source solution developed in the EfficientFlow project allowing port actors to have a common situational awareness and real time information regarding timestamps in the port call.
A second eNavigation project in Russia is implementing new services in the VTS in St Petersburg, coordinating their efforts with the STM BALT SAFE project, which is aiming to update the VTS centres in Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
STEAM – STm in the EAstern Mediterranean – continues working in Cyprus. The EUREKA project was granted funds from INTERREG December 1st, allowing STM implementation in VTS centres along the Adriatic and Ionic Seas. The project involves Italy, Slovenia, Albania, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
We wish you a merry and safe Christmas and hope that the year to come will be filled with joy!
Photo by Dana Tentis from Pexels
