Search

Banjarmasin, the ‘City of a Thousand Rivers’ in the South Kalimantan province of Indonesia, offers a unique empirical context for this PhD thesis. The city’s vibrant inland waterway transport (IWT), particularly the kelotoks –the city’s traditional riverboats– provides a rich case study for exploring transport beyond its mere economic and utilitarian functionalities. Kelotoks are not just modes of transport; they serve as the city’s source of cultural vitality, which is deeply rooted in Banjarmasin’s urban fabric and socio-economic life. This study investigates why kelotok drivers persist in Banjarmasin’s IWT sector amidst the challenges imposed by urbanisation and modernisation. This thesis offers a critical examination of the prevalent dualistic framework in transport literature, wherein traditional transport systems such as Banjarmasin’s kelotoks are often relegated to the ‘informal’ category, primarily based on the metrics of efficiency and formality. Challenging this paradigm, the study expands the conventional boundaries of instrumental rationality, a foundational concept in transport analysis, to encompass the socio-cultural dimensions intrinsic to kelotok transport. Departing from traditional quantitative methodologies, this research employs a qualitative approach, employing storytelling as an interview strategy with 22 kelotok drivers. This method facilitates a richer, more nuanced exploration of the socio-cultural complexities within Banjarmasin’s IWT sector, aspects that are often sidelined in mainstream transport discourse. As a result, this thesis broadens the traditional confines of instrumental rationality, typically preoccupied with economic-centric measures, to unpack a more comprehensive understanding of traditional transport systems. In extending the confines of instrumental rationality, this thesis integrates the theories of ‘satisficing,’ ‘access,’ and ‘transport indigeneity.’ These theoretical lenses facilitate the examination of the multifacet

Ensuring the accuracy of the estimated time of arrival (ETA) information for ships approaching ports and inland terminals is increasingly critical today. Waterway transportation plays a vital role in freight transportation and has a significant ecological impact. Improving the accuracy of ETA predictions can enhance the reliability of inland waterway shipping, increasing the acceptance of this eco-friendly mode of transportation. This study compares the industry-standard approach for predicting the ETA based on average travel times with a neural network (NN) trained using real-world historical data. This study generates and trains two NN models using historical ship position data. These models are then assessed and contrasted with the conventional method of calculating average travel times for two specific areas in the Netherlands and Germany. The results indicate by using specific input features, the quality of ETA predictions can improve by an average of 20.6% for short trips, 4.8% for medium-length trips, and 13.4% for long-haul journeys when compared to the average calculation., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Transport Engineering and Logistics

Several measures have been developed to prevent emissions from inland water transportation. However, it is challenging to weigh all the aspects to identify the pathway that will ultimately result in zero-emission inland shipping. A data-driven virtual representation of the inland shipping system can be used to evaluate zero-emission strategies, effectiveness of policies and technologies, and consequences of their implementation. This multi-level digital twin can realistically represent the system with all relevant components, which needs to be validated using real-world data. Subsequently, future scenarios can be imposed on the digital twin, and the proposed intervention measures can be applied, based on which their efficiency can be assessed together with the inland shipping sector. This study discusses the essential aspects of designing a digital twin for an IWT. Three aspects are considered essential: individual ships, logistics chains, and infrastructure. As these research topics span various scales, ranging from a single vessel to an entire infrastructure network, an agent-based approach is suitable for forming the basis of the digital twin. Consequently, potential interventions can be considered, ranging from the application of new technologies to individual vessels to policy measures implemented for an entire shipping corridor or various bunker infrastructure strategies in the network. Additionally, the impact of the implemented interventions can be evaluated at any desired scale, ranging from the individual ship level and its emissions to the network level and aggregated emissions in an entire area, or the impact on the logistics chain., Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering, Ship Design, Production and Operations, Transport Engineering and Logistics, Transport and Logistics

Gedurende de periode juni 2022 - april 2023 heeft Panteia een groep stakeholders rondom de binnenvaart- en brandstofsectoren mogen ondersteunen bij de discussies over de wijze waarop biobrandstoffen op een veilige, betaalbare en leveringszekere wijze geïntroduceerd kunnen worden in de binnenvaartsector. Dit rapport beschrijft de bevindingen bij deze zogenaamde 'regisseursrol'.

PIANC provides guidance and technical advice for sustainable waterborne transport infrastructure. To address the challenge of making inland navigation infrastructure sustainable, a Task Group “Infrastructure for the decarbonisation of Inland Water Transport” (TG234) was set up in January2021. The objective of the TG was to identify knowledge gaps and major challenges that need to be urgently addressed and advise PIANC on further actions, such as setting up a working group. A report was to be delivered in early2022. The TG involved a range of international experts who met every three months on-line. They jointly participated in the following activities: sharing experiences in their area of expertise; gathering, organising, and discussing literature; discussing the perspective to be taken while reporting; contributing an overview of the developments either in their country or organisations and of course in the various discussions. A final report was produced that took the perspective of the waterway manager, highlighting a number of key questions that need to be answered in the transition to reduced/zero emissions. With the state-of-art knowledge gathered by the group, it became possible to identify the existing knowledge gaps and the major challenges that need to be addressed. The report can guide PIANC in evaluating the best way forward to address the decarbonisation of IWT infrastructure., Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering

The availability of supporting bunker infrastructure for zero-emission energy sources will be key to accommodate zero-emission inland waterway transport (IWT). However, it remains unclear which (mix of) zero-emission energy sources to prepare for, and how to plan the bunker infrastructure in relative positions and required capacity at corridor scale. To provide insight into the positioning and dimensions of bunkering infrastructure we propose a bottom-up energy consumption method combined with agent based network simulation. In the method, we first produce a two-way traffic energy consumption map, aggregated from the energy footprint of individual vessels on the transport network. Next we investigate the potential sailing range of the vessels on the network if they would sail the same routes, but with alternative energy carriers. Based on the sailing range of the vessels for different energy carriers, the maximum inter-distance between refuelling points can be estimated. By aggregating the energy consumptions of all the vessels on the network, we can estimate the required capacity of a given refuelling point. To demonstrate the basic functionality we implement the method to four representative corridor scale inland shipping examples using zero-emission energy sources including hydrogen, batteries, e-NH3, e-methanol and e-LNG. The application in this paper is limited to four abstract cases. A recommended next step is to apply this approach to a more realistic network., Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering, Ship Design, Production and Operations

Hydrogen offers opportunities to develop a sustainable energy system and is essential to support the EU’s commitment to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Hydrogen is a solution for heavy transport sectors that struggle to reduce emissions by direct electrification, such as the Dutch inland waterway transport (IWT) sector. However, the lack of economic viability is one of the most dominant challenges for hydrogen, which calls for a tailored and sectoral policy approach that considers the dynamics involved in the IWT sector. This study simulates the decision-making process of active ships in the Netherlands based on the economic trade-off between diesel- and hydrogenpowered drivetrains to identify policy measures that would catalyze the sector’s hydrogen transition. In the simulated base scenario, NOx, PM, and CO2 emission targets are not met. Economic policies must contribute to the realization of these emission targets. Here, quantity-based economic instruments are preferred over price-based economic. Quantity-based economic instruments ensure that emission targets are realized virtually, while the effect of price-based economic instruments is subject to uncertainties related to cost developments, for instance. The introduction of a Renewable Energy (HBE) obligation and the inclusion of the IWT sector in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) are effective quantity-based economic instruments. When implementing both these instruments, policymakers must prevent double burdening of the IWT sector. When introducing an HBE obligation, obligation levels must be set in accordance with the emission goals and a multiplier for hydrogen is recommended to create a level playing field with other renewable fuels. To include the IWT sector in the ETS, the minimum tonnage condition for ships must be removed. In addition to these policies, subsidies must be provided on the large capital investments for hydrogen to compensate for the higher marginal abatement cost in t, Industrial Ecology

The river Rhine is one of Europe’s busiest waterways and is part of the Rhine-Alpine corridor. In 2018 the river experienced a severe low discharge extreme. This impacted the river’s transport capacity for a period of several months, causing shortages of source materials and fuels in regions far in-land. Historically, prolonged droughts of this magnitude are not uncommon. Concerns have been raised, however, that climate change may further increase their frequency and severity. Additionally the increased proportion of larger vessels in the overall fleet composition has made the supply of cargo via the river Rhine more vulnerable to reduced water depths. A better understanding of the risks and effects of sustained low water levels for Inland Waterway Transport network performance is therefore essential to enable sensible mitigation. An integral model that explicitly links the state of the river to supply chain performance at the scale of corridors, however, appears to be not yet available. This paper suggests a novel method to explicitly include the cascading effects of low discharge events (and mitigating measures) in climate risk assessments of waterborne supply chain performance, at system level. It is shown that its implementation can describe cascading effects and climate risks for fleet management and terminal operation., Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering, Safety and Security Science

Inland waterways form a natural network infrastructure with the capacity for waterborne transport of people and goods for moving freight from seaports to the hinterland. Recently, Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) has been promoted more extensively by the European Union and various governments as it plays a crucial role in reducing road congestion and CO2 emissions from transport. However, the advantages of IWT are not fully exploited due to inefficiencies in the logistics system, such as long waiting times at locks and sub-optimal navigation on waterways. Currently, no scheduling at infrastructures or routing optimisation of the overall waterway network is happening. The scheduling of vessels through a lock is usually performed on a First In First Out basis, providing an opportunity for improvement. Hence, this thesis aims to design a scheduling strategy for generating an optimal plan for sending inland vessels through a waterway network with minimal delays, yielding a significant positive impact on the modal shift towards IWT. A promising approach to scheduling problems is by using Switching Max-Plus-Linear (SMPL) systems. SMPL systems have proven to be effective in various Discrete-Event Systems and transportation networks. Using SMPL models is convenient since non-linear scheduling problems can be described linearly using Max-Plus operators without compromising on the system dynamics. Moreover, as the SMPL systems can be transformed into Mixed-Integer-Linear-Programming (MILP) problems, it is also possible to use fast optimisers for solving the scheduling problems. This thesis will show how one can describe IWT systems, consisting of; waterways, vessels and locks, as SMPL systems. The optimal schedule for the inland vessels is determined based on multiple input parameters, including waterway network lay-out, the sailing speeds of vessels and arrival deadlines of the vessels. The scheduler will return the individual vessel routing and overall vessel order, Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Control

Purpose: The environmental logistics impact is significant in urban areas, characterised by high receptor den- sities, less accessible sites and limited storage space. With the aim to reduce negative externalities generated by urban construction transport and improve the use of existing inland waterway transport (IWT) infrastructure, the City of Brussels has implemented a water-bound Construction Consolidation Centre ((BCCC). While the concept of a CCC has been implemented in different European cities, limited impact studies are available. This paper assesses the environmental off-site road and IWT’s transport performance of the multimodal BCCC case. Design/methodology/approach: The sustainability impact is evaluated using economic external cost calculations, contextualised with transport planning indicators. Subsequently, findings are compared to business-as-usual (BAU) operations without a CCC as part of a scenario evaluation, for the 24 large construction sites supplied through the CCC between Sep-2019 and Dec-2020. Findings: Improvements in the IWT sector are necessary to tackle local emissions (NOx, PM) which rise signifi- cantly compared to BAU (+257 %), mainly attributable to less performant -yet ubiquitous- vessel engines and their long running life. In contrast, other externalities decrease, most noticeably on congestion costs (-91 %), climate change (-66 %), noise (-79 %) and infrastructure costs (-60 %). Overall, €49,404.67 of external costs are saved annually, a 58.72 % reduction compared to BAU. Additionally, improvements are observed on transport planning and efficiency, with 73 % timely deliveries and 93.32 % delivery compliance, hence respecting the Just- In-Time and Just-In-Place principles. Research limitations/implications: Promising results are shown to incentivize industry and policy makers for adopting a CCC in light of alleviating the impact of urban construction logistics (CL), if the overall external costs and mobility impacts are considered

Import facilities of liquefied natural gas at sea ports of EU Member States are well developed. LNG supplies increase energy security. Natural gas causes less air pollution during combustion than oil-based liquid fuels. Extending the use of LNG will improve ecological safety, therefore the considerations has focused on inland liquefied natural gas infrastructure. Two research questions were posed: is the EU pursuing to implement LNG as a motor fuel in inland waterway transport, are LNG refuelling points being built in inland ports? The methods of analysis and synthesis were used to solve the research problems. The article identifies the determinants of the development of the EU alternative fuels infrastructure were presented. The attention was paid to the environmental consequences of the intensive use of transport in various sectors of the economy. The necessity of replacing high-emission means of transport with low-emission ones was demonstrated, which must be accompanied by the creation of a network of LNG refuelling points. The structure of the refuelling point and the liquefied natural gas distribution system were characterized. Presented are the current design requirements for inland waterway vessel power plants and LNG bunkering at river ports. A case study of the implementation of liquefied natural gas for inland transport on the Rhine and Danube has been discussed. In conclusion, it was requested to accelerate the process of creating the EU’s LNG infrastructure, which is a precondition for the development of low-emission inland shipping., Zaplecze importowe skroplonego gazu ziemnego w portach morskich państw członkowskich UE jest dobrze rozwinięte. Dostawy LNG zwiększają bezpieczeństwo energetyczne. Gaz ziemny podczas spalania powoduje mniejsze zanieczyszczenie powietrza atmosferycznego niż ropopochodne paliwa płynne. Rozszerzenie stosowania LNG poprawi bezpieczeństwo ekologiczne, dlatego rozważania skupiono na śródlądowej infrastrukturze skroplonego gazu ziemnego. Postawiono dwa pytania badawcze: czy UE dąży do wdrożenia LNG jako paliwa silnikowego w żegludze śródlądowej, czy buduje się punkty tankowania LNG w portach śródlądowych? Do rozwiązania problemów badawczych zastosowano metodę analizy oraz syntezy. W artykule określono determinanty rozwoju unijnej infrastruktury paliw alternatywnych. Zwrócono uwagę na konsekwencje środowiskowe intensywnego wykorzystywania transportu w różnych działach gospodarki. Wykazano konieczność zastąpienia wysokoemisyjnych środków przewozowych niskoemisyjnymi, któremu musi towarzyszyć tworzenie sieci punktów tankowania LNG. Scharakteryzowano strukturę punktu tankowania i system dystrybucji skroplonego gazu ziemnego. Przybliżono obecne wymagania konstrukcyjne siłowni statków żeglugi śródlądowej oraz bunkrowania LNG w portach rzecznych. Przestudiowano przypadek implementacji ciekłego gazu ziemnego do transportu śródlądowego na Renie i Dunaju. W podsumowaniu wnioskowano o przyspieszenie procesu tworzenia unijnej infrastruktury LNG warunkującej rozwój niskoemisyjnej żeglugi śródlądowej.

The research in this thesis is a viability study of a waterborne platooning concept called the Vessel Train (VT). This manuscript describes the VT characteristics. It explains how the VT’s advantages are reaped, as well as the VT’s challenges that need to be considered and dealt with. To assess the potential of the platooning concept an inland navigation and a short sea shipping case are studied. They elaborated upon detailed information on viable operating requirements for different vessel types and operating conditions. A general outlook regarding geographical application differences is considered by analysing the difference between European inland corridors, bridge interaction in urban areas and the global application potential., Ship Design, Production and Operations

Although inland waterways (IWW) are considered one of the most reliable transport modes, it is very vulnerable to climate change, more than other transport modes such as rail and road transport. The inland waterway transport (IWT) performance strongly depends on the available water depth in the waterway, which is related to the river discharge. Due to climate change, it is expected that the number of days with low and extremely low discharges will occur more often during summer and autumn and that the absolute values of these low discharges will reduce. It is essential to maintain the current inland waterway transport capacity and promote a modal shift of transport by road and rail to IWT. The Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathway (DAPP) approach is used as a starting point for this research because the structure and steps cover objectives similar to the objective of this thesis. The essence of the DAPP approach is to develop an adaptive planning that can cope with deep uncertainties that a decision-maker has when the concerned time frame consists of many years in the future. In step I of the DAPP approach, the objective of the inland waterway transport of dry-bulk and liquid-bulk is defined as performing better than railway transport during periods of low flow. This study considers the inland waterway transport of dry-bulk from Rotterdam to Duisburg and liquid-bulk transport from Rotterdam to Wesseling. To assess if the objective is met, the transportation costs per ton kilometre of IWT are compared with the transportation costs per ton kilometre of railway transport. The condition for which the IWT value exceeds the railway transport value is called a tipping point. To determine tipping points in steps II and III of the DAPP approach, a simulation model has been set up in the form of a stress test. The model concept chosen for the simulation is based on the OpenCLSim software package, a rule-based planning tool for cyclic activities.

Inland waterway transport is becoming attractive due to its minimum environmental impact in comparison with other transportation modes. Fixed timetables and routes are adopted by most barge operators, avoiding the full utilization of the available resources. Therefore a flexible model is adopted to reduce the transportation cost and environmental impacts. This paper regards the route optimization of barges as a pickup and delivery problem (PDP). A Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model is proposed to formulate the PDP with transshipment of barges, and an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) is developed to solve the problem efficiently. The approach is evaluated based on a case study in the Rhine Alpine corridor and it is shown that ALNS is able to find good solutions in reasonable computation times. The results show that the cost is lower when there is more flexibility. Moreover, the cost comparison shows that transshipment terminals can reduce the cost for barge companies., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Transport Engineering and Logistics

The inland waterways are an important part of the freight transport system of the Netherlands. In the coming years, a lot of maintenance and construction works are needed to keep the network operational. This can temporarily impact the availability of the waterways section which can have negative effects on the performance of inland vessels and the waiting time for locks at alternative routes. In this research a method was developed that can be used to study these effects. In the method AIS data is used to analyze several aspects the inland waterways transport system. Additionally, a simulation model was developed in which the results of the AIS analysis are used to create an accurate representation of the system. The method was applied to case study to determine the applicability. It was concluded that the developed method can be applied when studying the effects of planned maintenance and construction works, but it is best used to estimate where the impacts are expected to be high rather than to calculate exact results., Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics

This research focuses on the impact of extreme low river discharges, meaning discharges below 1200 m2/s at Lobith. In 2018 extreme low river discharges in the river Rhine led to congestions in the main Dutch part, called the river Waal. The river Waal is an important river for inland navigation, but during low discharges the vessel draught reduces and consequently the transported cargo volume per shipment reduces. To compensate the loss of transport volume, the total number of shipments increases, leading to an increased traffic intensity on the river Waal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of extreme low discharges on the traffic flow and traffic capacity in the river Waal. The study consisted of two elements: a study combining fleet data and hydraulic information and a traffic simulation study. During this research IVS90 data was used as the source for inland waterway transport data. Based on literature and previous river Waal studies the river section between the Pannerdensche Kop and the Maas-Waal canal was selected as the river section to investigate in more detail. Multi-beam measurements in combination with water level data were used to generate cross-sectional profiles in order to carry out the simulations. The cross-sectional profiles were highly variable. From these cross-sectional profiles the navigable river width was determined. It was found that a river depth of 2.80 m was no longer available at all cross-sections from a discharge of 900 m2/s and lower. Therefore, the navigable width was determined at a river depth of 2.0 m for the discharges 1020, 900, 800, 700 and 600 m2/s. Also, it was found that with reducing discharge the navigable width of the cross-sections reduced. The fleet composition was determined in detail for four weeks representing the drought of 2018. These four weeks in 2018 represented weeks with average discharges around 1020(2x), 800 and 700 m2/s. The river Waal fleet composition was de, Civil Engineering | Hydraulic Engineering