Watermode
The SEE (South-East Europe) programme area is crossed by major freight transport flows, which originate both within and outside the region. This transport mainly takes place on roads which have not been dimensioned for these flows - a fact which adversely affects the region's competitiveness, has a negative impact on environmental aspects such as air pollution and noise and also restricts mobility.
For this reason, authorities and operators need to coordinate their activities to increase the efficiency in using the existing transport infrastructure. Particularly the sphere of navigation offers a great potential for improvement. Especially measures to improve port infrastructure require transnational coordination to optimise measures and enhance the competitiveness of the multimodal transport solutions. Moreover, it should be demonstrated under what circumstances multimodal land-water transport solutions are more efficient than road transport. Only then investments will focus on the development of waterways and ports.
The WATERMODE project, which is co-financed under the European Union's SEE Programme, therefore aims at promoting a better coordination of transport policies and a more efficient implementation of multimodal logistics cooperation, particularly the use of land-water connections in competition with road transport. In this context, WATERMODE, which was launched in June 2009, wants to identify above all the potentials of the waterways in the region and contribute to the integration of maritime and inland navigation into the logistics chain.
This will be accomplished by a number of measures:
- Defining indicators to evaluate the potentials and characteristics of maritime and inland ports and of the multimodal facilities within the programme area;
- Establishing a database of multimodal facilities in the project area, geared to operators' requirements (route planners, logistics services providers) and as a decision-making tool for public players;
- Creating a transnational network for coordinating policies to promote multimodal transport and enhance the attractiveness of maritime and inland navigation as an alternative to road transport;
- Analysing the competitiveness of combined transport compared to road transport along three pre-defined routes, also including the external costs in the overall assessment;
- Improving the connections between port infrastructures and their hinterland;
- Comparing current safety training methods in ports and logistics facilities.
The project is implemented by 15 partners from nine countries under the lead of the Venice Port Authority. The partnership comprises a large number of major maritime port facilities in the SEE area as well as representatives of inland navigation stakeholders. Partners include ports, regional and national authorities, research institutions and development agencies.
TINA VIENNA supports the work of the Austrian partner, Forschungsgesellschaft Mobilität (FGM) - Austrian Mobility Research.
Contact
DI Rainer Müller
Tel. +43 1 4000 84267
Fax +43 1 4000 7997
rainer.mueller@tinavienna.at