Projects
Innovation driven Collaborative European Inland Waterways Transport Network KU Leuven
IW-NET will deliver a multimodal optimisation process across the EU Transport System, increasing the modal share of IWT and supporting the EC’s ambitions to reduce transport GHG emissions by two thirds by 2050. Enablers for sustainable infrastructure management and innovative vessels will support an efficient and competitive IWT sector addressing infrastructure bottlenecks, insufficient IT integration along the chain and slow adoption of ...
Inland Waterways in the Roman Transport Network of the Gallic and German Provinces (c. 50 BC – c. AD 400) Ghent University
Scholars agree that transport by rivers and lakes greatly stimulated the development of trade in the Roman empire. Waterways, however, are as much man-made as roads are. They require investment, regulation and control. Without tow-paths, canals, locks, connecting roads, ports and warehouses rivers offer only a marginal contribution to trade. Yet, the contribution of rivers and lakes to Roman transport networks is usually treated in a matter ...
Towards dynamic navigational charts for highly automated inland waterway transport KU Leuven
Current inland navigational charts, and by extent the Inland Electronic Chart Display Information System (Inland ECDIS) that adds additional sensor information on top of these charts and subsequently visualizes them, are not dynamically updated. Moreover, the data layered on top of charts, e.g. from Radar sensors, is not shared between various assets. This, together with the absence of an xy-accuracy indication for chart objects, severely ...
Novel inland waterway transport concepts for moving freight effectively (NOVIMOVE). University of Antwerp
Research in the field of 'Inland waterway transport innovation' University of Antwerp
ESR 1 – Online identification of vessel dynamics in confined inland waterways KU Leuven
According to the European Commission, freight transport is projected to increase 60% by 2050, and this certainly demands the transportation system to enhance its capacity. Among all transportation modes, inland waterway transportation is characterized by reliability, energy efficiency and a capacity for increased use. Not to mention that more than 37,000 km of waterways connect hundreds of cities and industrial regions in Europe, there is ...
Whaleboats in the Forest: Subaltern Technologies of Transportation on Congo’s Inland Waterways KU Leuven
Congo’s wooden baleinières (Fr. whaleboats) are locally developed and crafted socio-technical assemblages that account for up to 50% of all transportation of goods and people on the waterways of the Congo Basin. Despite the vital role of these subaltern technologies of transportation for the livelihoods of millions, the socio-technical complexities responsible for their success have never been studied. Rooted in older boat building traditions ...
Perception for Autonomous Inland Waterways Navigation KU Leuven
Shipping on inland waterways can be a critical contributor in handling increasing transportation volumes. However, it is faced with a lack of ship crews, which could be alleviated by increased vessel automation, or deployment of unmanned ships. To realise autonomous shipping, prior conceptual research suggests the combined use of several sensor types. While conceptually similar to autonomous road vehicles, unmanned shipping differs in key ...
Towards Autonomous Inland Shipping. KU Leuven
Road transport dominates the European and Belgian hinterland freight transport
sector. Over the last decades, approximately three quarters of the cargo
streams passed by road, whilst inland waterway transport seems to offer a more
sustainable alternative. Moreover, the larger inland vessels suffer from an excess
of supply over demand, and the amount of smaller inland vessels is diminishing.
This negative evolution in ...