Interreg 5B: Priority 4, objective 4.2.: Stimulate the take-up and application of green transport solutions for regional freight and personal transport.

 Project Description

• Inland Waterway Transport is competitive in both economic and sustainable perspectives. Sustainable and competitive transportation through less used, never used and or forgotten “smaller” waterways is the focus of the #IWS partnership.
• #IWS develops demonstrations that; identify, assess, improve and implement competitive smaller waterway, (both freight and passenger) transport solutions, in triple helix cooperation with SMEs, GO’s and Academies.

Work streams/activities

1. Joined development and local implementation of digital full mission simulation and other tools for planning processes.
   
   
2. Identify and deal with legislative drivers and barriers.

1. Local safety, damage avoidance and training of crew, joined development of courses, also by using full mission simulation.
   
   
2. Alliance building with freight owners and administrations, analysis of transport streams, identify smaller inland waterway business solutions for freight and passenger transport and promote them.
   
   
3. Implement, demonstrate and promote smaller waterway solutions from SMEs perspectives.

Central Aim, click here!

Rationale

Inland waterway shipping offers green transport and helps to remove bottlenecks in blue and black transport. Smaller waterways are in decline, if we do not use them we lose them. The North Sea Region has relevant blue road opportunities; less used, forgotten or never used waterways offer new potentials where inland waterway transport can be increased. Players in smaller “urbal”, urban/rural waterway areas face similar challenges and aim at competitive sustainable waterways solutions to be used by NSR transportation SMEs.

 Aim

#IWS aims at greening transport by optimal use of inland smaller, both urban and rural waterways (blue road) transport potentials. Therefore #IWS involves alliance building with freight owners, scenario planning and awareness raising processes, facilitated by digital full mission simulations of inland waterways, (dry)ports, bridges, locks, traffic separation schemes, navigation ship bridges and their interrelated logistics. 

Envisaged Output 

1. Applied digital assessment methods for greening, improving inland waterway transport.
2. Showcases like better situated and built, restored canals, locks, bridges, ports etc, by new developed digital assessment methods.
3. Solved legislative issues, impairing use of waterways, legislative recommendations.
4. Implemented planning processes, lessons learned and improved planning methods using digital simulations in multi-level approaches.
5. Alliances with freight owners and new transport arrangements for transport via smaller waterways.
6. Increased safety, trained crew, involved insurance companies, certification bodies, developed trainings.
7. End users, ship owners, crews better using better smaller waterways, less black road congestions.
8. Pooled expertise for a wide range of full mission simulation applications.
9. Empowerment of smaller waterways players in NSR regions, strengthening each other’s waterway potentials, lasting links.
10. Safer and less congested travel in smaller waterways and black roads.
11. NSR connected full mission simulators by servers.
12. Digital North Sea Region competence center smaller waterways.

• Lead Beneficiary: Dunamare Maritime Academy Harlingen, Netherlands click here.
• Province of Fryslan, Netherlands, click here.
• Partners in UK, Germany and Sweden consider participation.

Partners Searched in the NSR: 

• Players connected to smaller waterway North Sea Regions.
• Launching customers, end users, ship owners, freight owners.
• Training centres.
• Developers of full mission simulation applications.
• Representatives of inland waterway ship owners.
• Inland water way ports.
• Inland water way logistic manager players.
• Applied education organisations.
• Universities.
• Public bodies like provinces, municipalities, inland water way managing authorities.
• Insurance companies.
• Legislative bodies, IMO, IWT regulating bodies.