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Full-Text Articles in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Modelling Vessel Traffic Service To Understand Resilience In Everyday Operations, Gesa Praetorius, Erik Hollnagel, Joakim Dahlman Aug 2015

Modelling Vessel Traffic Service To Understand Resilience In Everyday Operations, Gesa Praetorius, Erik Hollnagel, Joakim Dahlman

Gesa Praetorius

Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is a service to promote traffic fluency and safety in the entrance to ports. This article׳s purpose has been to explore everyday operations of the VTS system to gain insights in how it contributes to safe and efficient traffic movements. Interviews, focus groups and an observation have been conducted to collect data about everyday operations, as well as to grasp how the VTS system adapts to changing operational conditions. The results show that work within the VTS domain is highly complex and that the two systems modelled realise their services vastly differently, which in turn affects …


Control And Resilience Within The Maritime Traffic Management Domain, Gesa Praetorius Nov 2014

Control And Resilience Within The Maritime Traffic Management Domain, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

This article presents research conducted within the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) domain. VTS is a service that is provided close to ports and geographically challenging areas to support merchant vessels in their navigation. Although VTS is legally an advice and assistance service, applying concepts from Cognitive Systems Engineering and Resilience Engineering can highlight how the joint human-machine system works to promote safe and efficient traffic movements. The VTS is a Joint Cognitive System that maintains control through a mixture of opportunistic and tactical control. Strategic control is only partially supported by the higher levels of system aggregation that provide the …


Vessel Traffic Service (Vts): A Maritime Information Service Or Traffic Control System? Understanding Everyday Performance And Resilience In A Socio-Technical System Under Change, Gesa Praetorius Aug 2014

Vessel Traffic Service (Vts): A Maritime Information Service Or Traffic Control System? Understanding Everyday Performance And Resilience In A Socio-Technical System Under Change, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is a shore-side maritime assistance service that supports bridge teams in their safe navigation of port approaches and other areas that present navigational difficulties. The VTS is implemented in national waters and provides vessels with information through transmissions and broadcasts on Very High Frequency (VHF) radio. With a continued growth in the number, size and cargo volumes of merchant vessels, the role of the VTS has recently become a matter of discussion, and it has been argued that changes, such as implementing an aviation-like control system, would be of an enormous benefit for stakeholders and guarantee …


Maritime Traffic Management: A Need For Central Coordination?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius Jan 2014

Maritime Traffic Management: A Need For Central Coordination?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Traffic management is not formally organised in the maritime domain. Ships are autonomous and find their own way. Traffic is organised through rules, regulations, and “good seamanship”; it is a distributed system. In areas of high traffic-density support is proved by vessel traffic service (VTS) to promote traffic safety and fluency. VTS does not take control. This organisational structure has proven itself in situations with sufficient resources. When resources become insufficient (e.g. not enough sailing space), the traffic needs an organising mechanism. In this article, the authors argue that the most promising way to do this is by organising centralised …


Situation Awareness And Maritime Traffic: Having Awareness Or Being In Control?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius Dec 2013

Situation Awareness And Maritime Traffic: Having Awareness Or Being In Control?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Situation awareness (SA) is generally seen as a mental representation of the system state, an objective measure of the ‘situation out there’. In this article, the authors make an argument that SA can only have a meaning in relation to the task of the user and characteristics of the system. This will be argued with the help of a specific environment: vessel traffic monitoring. The long-time constants and the complex constraints imposed on the ship require that the operator monitoring the traffic has a good SA: the operator must make long-term predictions about possible traffic developments. For this, being in …


Learning Lessons In Resilient Traffic Management: A Cross-Domain Study Of Vessel Traffic Service (Vts) And Air Traffic Control (Atc), Gesa Praetorius, Fulko Van Westrenen, Deborah Mitchell, Erik Hollnagel Dec 2011

Learning Lessons In Resilient Traffic Management: A Cross-Domain Study Of Vessel Traffic Service (Vts) And Air Traffic Control (Atc), Gesa Praetorius, Fulko Van Westrenen, Deborah Mitchell, Erik Hollnagel

Gesa Praetorius

Although younger than the maritime domain, aviation has had a huge impact on the system design and development within shipping. Stakeholders often look towards aviation to make shipping, and the way that traffic is handled and organised, safer, more efficient and more effective. Although legally not the same, Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is frequently compared to Air Traffic Control (ATC). In this article the area of traffic management within the maritime and aviation domains is addressed from a Resilience Engineering perspective. Focus is placed on the arrival part of a mission. The comparison is based on information collected during two …


What Is Your Intention? Communicating Routes In Electronic Nautical Charts, Thomas Porathe, Margareta Lützhöft, Gesa Praetorius Dec 2011

What Is Your Intention? Communicating Routes In Electronic Nautical Charts, Thomas Porathe, Margareta Lützhöft, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

This paper reports preliminary findings on a simulator study looking for unintended consequences of letting ships exchange routs by use of the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). In a prototype system tested ship's intended routes are visible to other ships, and the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) has the ability to send suggested routes to addressed ships. Preliminary findings show positive response from professional participants in the study although some concerns were also raised.


Safety Within The Vessel Traffic Service (Vts) Domain. Understanding The Role Of The Vts For Safety Within Maritime Traffic Management, Gesa Praetorius Dec 2011

Safety Within The Vessel Traffic Service (Vts) Domain. Understanding The Role Of The Vts For Safety Within Maritime Traffic Management, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is a shore-sided service implemented to promote the safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, and the protection of the marine environment. Its purpose is to work for safe and fluent traffic movements within a determined area, a VTS area. VTS is provided by VTS operators, skilled experts that provide vessels with information and advice, and work for the overall traffic organisation. Although VTS is regulated on an international level there are differences in how the service is provided in between countries, and even VTS centres. This licentiate thesis focuses on understanding the role of …