By nature port planning is a multidisciplinary activity. It involves expertise in the field of transport economics, shipping, nautical matters, safety and logistics. But also knowledge of waves and currents, sediment transport and coastal morphology, dredging and land reclamation, and design of breakwaters and quays. Hence port planning is teamwork. But within this team the port planner plays a central role in developing the concepts and obtaining the required expertise at the right time. Most port planners are civil engineers with hydraulic engineering training and experience. The first part of this book (Chapter 1 through 6) is aimed at providing the basic elements to perform this planning process. In Chapter 7 the detailed planning of container terminals is treated, including the logistic process. Further attention is paid to design aspects, typical for such terminals. The objective is to provide the basis for an all-round port engineer, somebody who can participate in the design of any given type of port or terminal. Chapters 8-14 present the planning aspects of other types of terminals.@en

The Vessel Maneuvering Prediction (VMP) model, which was developed in a previous work with the aim of predicting the interaction between vessels in ports and waterways, is optimized in this paper by considering the relative position and vessel size (length and beam). The calibration is carried out using AIS data of overtaking vessels in the port of Rotterdam. The sensitivity analysis of the optimal parameters shows the robustness of the calibrated VMP model. For the validation, the optimal parameters are used to simulate the whole path of overtaken vessels and vessels in head-on encounters. Compared to the AIS data, the validation results show that the different deviations in longitudinal direction range from 33 m to 112 m, which is less than 5% of the waterway stretch. Both the calibration and validation show that the VMP model has the potential to simulate vessel traffic in ports and waterways.

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The impact of many external factors, such as wind, visibility and current, on the behavior of vessels in ports and waterways has not been investigated systematically in existing maritime traffic models. In order to fill the current knowledge gap and provide a basis for developing a new model to effectively simulate maritime traffic, the influences of wind, visibility and current as well as vessel encounters on vessel behavior (vessel speed, course and relative distance to starboard bank) have been investigated in this study by analyzing Automatic Identification System data collected from the port of Rotterdam. It is found that wind, visibility, current and encounters have significant impact on the vessel speed and relative distance to starboard bank, while vessel course is mainly affected by current and encounters. The results also showed that the vessels would adapt their speed, course and relative distance to starboard bank during encounters. These findings showed the importance of considering external factors and encounters in simulating vessel behavior in restricted waterways and provide a starting point for building up more comprehensive maritime traffic models.@en

Because of ever-increasing economic globalization, it is necessary to simulate vessel behavior for investigating safety and capacity in ports and inland waterways. A new maritime traffic model was developed; it comprises two parts: the route choice model and the operational model. This paper presents the operational model, which describes vessel sailing behavior by optimal control. In the operational model, the main behavioral assumption is that all actions of the bridge team, such as accelerating and turning, are executed to force the vessel to sail with the desired speed and course. In the proposed theory, deviating from the desired speed and course, accelerating, decelerating, and turning will provide disutility (cost) to the vessel. Through prediction and minimization of this disutility, the longitudinal and angular acceleration can be optimized and predict individual vessel sailing behavior. To verify the route choice model and the operational model, a case study was carried out; it applied the models to predict individual vessel behavior (path, speed, and course) in the entrance channel to Maasvlakte I at the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands. The simulation results show a good prediction of the vessel path and vessel course. As no other model has been built specifically to predict vessel behavior in the port area, the current methods provide a fundamental basis for investigating vessel behavior in restricted waterways. In addition, this research showed the potential of the model to increase the safety and capacity of ports and inland waterways.@en