Assessment of commuters’ perception of water transportation safety and patronage in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Water transport being among the oldest mode of transport is crucial to the development of any nation. It provides means of transportation for both rural and urban dwellers, particularly along the coastal areas and inland waterways. It is a known fact that water transportation has been neglected for a long period by both the government and the private sector, particularly in the area of safety of passengers on Lagos waters. This paper examines the perception of safety and the use of water transportation among passengers within Lagos metropolis. The jetties were purposively determined. Using a random sampling technique, a structured questionnaire focusing on socio-economic characteristics of passengers, use of water transport, reasons for the use of water transport, perception on safety and frequency of water transportation usage were administered to 1050 passengers across the selected four jetties (Liverpool, Falomo, Bayeku, and Ijegun Egba) within the metropolis with a response rate of 86.3%. The step-wise multiple regression results show that passengers’ perception of poor safety of water transportation predicted a significant 78.1% of reluctance to travel by water within Lagos metropolis (F = 27990.685, p<0.05). This study, therefore, recommends that the state government should provide adequate safety measures that could repose confidence in passengers in order to increase patronage of water transportation. This singular act could help to reduce the incessant traffic congestions on Lagos roads.

Plastic ‘Highways’ to the Sea: The Problem of Litter in English Inland Waterways

There is a conspicuous lacuna in the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 because it imposes no legal duty on statutory bodies to clear litter from aquatic environments (rivers, canals and lakes) in England and Wales. This paper identifies a significant gap in the law on aquatic environmental protection by undertaking doctrinal research, including contextual analysis of references to rivers in ‘soft’ law (e.g., policy documents such as the Conservative Government’s Litter Strategy) and ‘hard law’ (e.g., legislation including the EPA 1990); an examination of the problems with existing legal frameworks in this sphere and an exploration of legislative and practical measures which could protect our rivers and other inland waterways from litter. A legislative amendment to the EPA is proposed with discussion of whether imposing a duty on an existing body or a new, specialised body to clear litter from rivers will ameliorate these problems. The intention behind this paper is to initiate an informed debate on how to protect aquatic environments from the harmful effects of litter.

Ship operation in brash ice: results of investigations

The paper gives a review of the studies concerned with operation of vessels in brash ice. Recently, the ice conditions have received an ever increasing attention of the researchers related to the fact that shipping in the Arctic regions and freezing seas, as well as in inland waterways has been scaled up. One of the important fields of brash ice studies is specifics of sailing under these conditions and primarily determination of the ship ice resistance. The paper shows that theoretical methods combined with physical modeling in ice basins are used for determination of the ship ice resistance under brash ice conditions. The paper traces the evolution of theoretical models utilized for calculations. It is mentioned that the models are mainly based on loose material mechanics. A rapidly developing computer modeling of ship motion in brash ice based on discrete element method is considered. Physical modeling techniques used for modeling brash ice in ice basin are described, and challenges of experimental investigations are discussed. It is pointed out that experimental studies in ice basin can provide valuable data not only about ship ice resistance but also about the mechanisms giving rise to ice channels filled with brash ice. The paper describes the methods for studying operation of ship propellers in brash ice conditions. It is concluded that further research into brash ice is needed.

Improvement of the procedure for issuing a permit for sailing vessels under a foreign flag by inland waterways of the Russian Federation

The article deals with the organization of navigation of vessels under the flags of foreign countries on the inland waterways of the Russian Federation. The article considers the relevance and problems of international shipping on inland waterways of the Russian Federation. Eurasian economic integration, international cargo flow "North-South". The most important inland waterways of international importance (IWWP), E-50 main waterways. It is proposed to improve the procedure for obtaining permission for navigation of vessels under the flags of foreign countries on inland waterways of the Russian Federation. A set of measures for the development of this type of activity is recommended. The analysis of receiving revenues from passage of vessels under flags of foreign states on inland waterways of the Russian Federation is carried out.

Digital information system for inland water transport vessels based on AIS

The most important role in ensuring navigation safety on inland waterways is played by the timely provision of navigators with timely and reliable navigational, meteorological and track information, as well as safety information. To solve this problem, the complexes of automatic identification stations’ coastal and ship networks deployed currently can be used. This communication channel (with free traffic for inland waterway transport) is currently used extremely ineffectively due to a small number of serviced vessels. The article substantiates the structure of a digital information system based on deployed networks of automatic identification stations for inland navigation vessels and its functional purpose. The issues of algorithmic and software support development for the process of preparation, transmission, reception and processing of transmitted information are considered. The structure of the database and algorithms for the formalized information packets’ formation in the direction of bank-to-ship are proposed. The formats of address and broadcast messages are presented. A variant of transmitting differential corrections to ships from control-correcting stations via networks of automatic identification stations without using the currently used radio channel is considered. The options for the dialog boxes of the digital information system for the dispatcher and the navigator are given.

Creation of a cartographic geoinformation system of the river basin with plotted riverbed quarries

Information and geoinformation technologies can be widely used on inland waterways and water transport facilities. Solving problems related to monitoring the state of water quality, its changes as a result of anthropogenic impact, forecasting the quality of water resources, analyzing water consumption and wastewater disposal – this is not the whole list of opportunities that open up to the user when creating a cartographic basis for the geoinformation system of a river basin. Mathematical and cartographic modeling of content and conventional signs is the basis of the method for creating electronic maps. Basin maps of large and small rivers represent models of the studied objects and intermediate links between the objects and the researcher. Information about the situation in the river basin is constantly changing. Electronic maps have an indisputable advantage over paper ones in their ability to transmit this information in real time, constantly making any changes that occur in the study area. Various analytical operations can be performed with information that is entered into the GIS and applied to an electronic map of the river basin. The possibilities of GIS technologies in creating a cartographic basis for the river catchment area will affect the ability to transfer the assessment and management system of water resources and water quality to a more modern and high-quality information level, taking into account the real capabilities of the current control system in the field of environmental management.

Design of Small Unmanned Surface Vehicle with Autonomous Navigation System

Maintaining ecosystems is one of the current leading public concerns. Some of the pressing problems that threaten water resources are pollution of water bodies with floating debris, illegal extraction of water resources, wear and tear of underwater communications. Therefore, the creation of special technical solutions is urgent. This paper reports a model-based design of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), purposed to control and maintain the oxygen level and parameters such as acidity and the water temperature in rivers, lakes, inland waterways, and coastal waters. The developed USV navigation autopilot is described as a system with two inputs and one output. The autopilot selected is an adaptive controller based on the concept of proportional, integral, and derivative (PID). The autopilot is implemented on the STM32 microcontroller and allows precisely maintaining a given course, adjusting the speed and angle of rotation during wind drift and other influences. The new technique for sensor calibration and data acquisition is described. Simulation results are given, showing the performance of the autopilot algorithm in response to variations in the environment. The numerical experiments of the model have presented the result of confirming the sufficient correspondence between prototype characteristics and simulation results. Finally, thorough field trials were performed to verify the reliability and precision of the proposed solutions. The developed unmanned surface vehicle can be used for environmental monitoring (water sampling, hydrography, patrolling water areas). In turn, the solutions obtained will be suitable for the design of other USV of different sizes.