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Sea Traffic Management: The Challenge Of Standardising Sea Traffic Management Globally

The maritime-port industry is poised to overcome the challenges of security, environment and efficiency that it is facing. The Sea Traffic Management (STM) project is here to revolutionise the current conception of this industry and propose not just a technological solution but a veritable paradigm shift.

Posted on 09.04.2018
El proyecto STM busca estandarizar la gestión del tráfico marítimo a escala mundial. La imagen es de Skitterphoto.com The STM project seeks to standardize the management of the maritime traffic on a global scale. [Image: skitterphoto.com]

The successor of the MONALISA 2.0 (2013-2015) project and inspired by Air Traffic Management systems, it was created within the European STM framework, an ambitious project that “seeks to standardise sea traffic management worldwide similar to the way air traffic is currently standardised”, says Albert González, Head of IT Services at the Port of Barcelona.

The STM initiative suggests establishing a standardised information exchange using open interfaces accessible to all the industry stakeholders. In this way, routes can be designed in real time, adjusting departures and arrivals, eliminating wait times, lowering the use of fuel and reducing the number of accidents. This new conception breaks with “the historical way of doing things, which was quite different” says Albert González, a more conservative way of operating which was not used to working in collaborative environments.

Clearly defined objectives

The main goals of the STM project work towards efficiency from all perspectives.

  1. Maritime safety: This system manages to prevent all kinds of incidents, especially those that involve human lives.
  2. Environmental impact: By optimising ships’ routes, they can adjust their cruising speed with the minimum fuel consumption and lower emissions of pollutants. “Ninety percent of goods worldwide are transported by sea traffic. The number of ships operating in the seas and oceans is enormous. If we can lower the fuel consumption, even just by 1%, we will save many tonnes per year”, says Albert González.
  3. Efficiency: By making ports operate with the Just-in-Time (JIT) model. “As soon as a ship arrives at the entrance to the port, it won’t have to wait in the anchoring spot but will enter, load, unload and as soon as it’s finished, it can leave and the next one can enter. This is more efficient for ports, it means more income and it makes them more appealing to shipping companies and terminals”, says Albert González.

The STM initiative suggests establishing a standardised information exchange using open interfaces: routes can be designed in real time, adjusting departures and arrivals, eliminating wait times, lowering the use of fuel and reducing the number of accidents.

The Blockchain technology can facilitate the future development of the STM. [Image: Mali Maeder]

The Blockchain technology can facilitate the future development of the STM. [Image: Mali Maeder]

Technology serving the revolution

The architecture of the STM application will mean that the stakeholders in port systems will be connected to a digital cloud where information available to everyone will be shared. In this sense, blockchain technology is a major facilitator of the STM project. The information will be decomposed at the exit point, will flow over the Internet and will reach the recipient, where it will be “recomposed”. “At the start of the STM project, there wasn’t even talk of blockchain technology, but now we are seeing how it may be one of the key technologies in the STM operation”, says Albert González. Regarding the highly technological profile of this project, the Port of Barcelona “has gotten actively involved in the ICT”, González continues. “We have worked hard to develop applications that allow this system to be tested and to connect our own systems to the platform”, notes the Head of ICT Services in the Catalan port. Specifically, the Department of Information Systems and the Department of Maritime Operations are participating in the Port Collaborative Decision Making (Port CDM) sub-project (the project requires the ports to be extremely mature in terms of IT and technology); the latter is in charge of managing stopovers, which provides the functional and operative part. The barriers to change are unquestionably quite high, and there is still a long road ahead, but with the change in mindset we can achieve “more efficient, deliberate operations following the Just-in-Time model”, concludes Albert González.