Increasing safety of navigation along the Danube River

Abstract

The rapid development of information technology has mirrored itself also in inland navigation. The technology developments cover all area of interest in inland navigation system, from electronic charts and modern standard of communications to the management of traffic and ports area management. The Danube River is the largest and longest natural waterway of Europe, with a very important and strategic role in the EU policies for expanding a sustainable intermodal transport chain across Europe. Romania started a large scale project for modernization of the Danube navigation waterway in order to provide the needed infrastructure for the featured increase of traffic good between the North Sea and the Black Sea. The working load is focused on a 200 Km section of the Danube River, between Calarasi and Braila towns. A team of researchers from our University had participated at the field inspections and evaluation for establishing the location of the traffic monitoring transponders and priorities of the working stages. The aim of this paper is to present the main technical problems that must be solved in the most difficult for navigation sectors of the Danube in order to increase safety of navigation and eliminate de natural bottlenecks.