Conceptual Risk Assessment of Navigational Safety on Inland Waterways Using the Automatic Identification System (AIS)

Navigational safety on inland waterways depends on the ability to identify sections with an increased level of risk. Traditional risk assessment approaches are often based on empirical experience and do not fully reflect current operational conditions. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides data that enable the analysis of real vessel behaviour and the identification of hazardous sections based on collected operational data. A conceptual approach to the use of AIS data for navigational safety risk assessment through computational analysis may potentially be applied within vessel traffic management systems.