Previous RIS implementation projects mainly focused on the realisation of national RIS infrastructure with some pilot activities related to the international exchange of RIS data.

Building on the results of the projects IRIS Europe 3 and CoRISMa, the systems and services crucial for an efficient RIS Corridor Management are being identified and implemented in the course of the project. Corridor Management as a concept aims at improving and linking existing RIS services on a route or a corridor in order to supply RIS not just locally, but on regional, national and international level. It thereby supports route and voyage planning, transport management and traffic management.

Main intention of the RIS COMEX project is to realise these Corridor RIS Services for authorities and logistics users within inland navigation and to transfer the Corridor Services into sustainable operation.
The priorities to be achieved are the removal of administrative barriers (cross-border electronic reporting), efficiency improvements in inland navigation (cross-border exchange of information for logistics stakeholders) as well as better planning reliability of waterway transports and the reduction of travelling times (cross-border travel planning).
Additionally, the evolution of RIS standards, an acceptable quality level of inland navigation information services and the operational safety of the RIS infrastructures shall be secured.  

Additional information is available on the project website: http://www.riscomex.eu/

Milestones

1. Elaboration of, and commitment to the RIS COMEX Master Plan (Corridor Service List)
     to be defined and implemented within the project

 2. Definition of the individual Corridor Services

 3. Agreement on the Corridor RIS Concept (system architecture) enabling the realisation
      of the defined Corridor Services

 4. Specification, implementation, test and evaluation of the defined Corridor Services
      based on the agreed concept

 5. Establishment of legal, organisational and financial frameworks for sustainable
      operation of the implemented Corridor Services beyond the project end date

Stakeholder involvement

During the execution of the project the stakeholders are constantly involved at two levels in order to identify the needs and requirements of the future users:

 1. Industry Reference Group
      Representatives of European branch organisations (e.g. Inland Navigation Europe,
      European Barge Union, Association for European Inland Navigation and Waterways, 
      European Federation of Inland Ports) are regularly informed about the project´s
      progress and provide valuable inputs for the definition and implementation of the
      services. 

 2. National stakeholders
      The individual project partners get in direct contact with their national stakeholders for
      the definition and specification process (e.g. via online surveys, personal interviews,
      etc.).

RIS COMEX Corridors

As the key focus of the project is put on the realisation of Corridor Services, the following RIS COMEX Corridors were defined:

  • Danube Corridor: Germany-Austria-Slovakia-Hungary-Croatia-Serbia-Bulgaria-Romania
  • Rhine Corridor: Germany-Netherlands-France
  • Amsterdam-Antwerp-Liege Corridor: Netherlands-Belgium
  • Amsterdam-Antwerp-Brussels Corridor: Netherlands-Belgium
  • Mosel Corridor: Germany-France-Luxemburg
  • Elbe Corridor: Germany-Czech Republic
  • Dunquerke-Scheldt Corridor: France-Belgium

Partners

  • Austria (viadonau, project coordinator)
  • Netherlands (Rijkswaterstaat)
  • Germany (Ministry of Transport)
  • Slovakia (Ministry of Transport)
  • Hungary (RSOE)
  • Romania (Romanian Naval Authority)
  • Bulgaria (BPI)
  • Croatia (Ministry of Transport)
  • Serbia (Ministry of Transport)
  • Czech Republic (Ministry of Transport and Waterway Directorate)
  • Belgium (De Vlaamse Waterweg)
  • France (VNF and EDF)
  • Luxembourg (Ministry of Transport)

Duration and budget

February 2016 – December 2021

An extension of the project duration by 6 months is in preparation.

AT Budget: EUR 3,500,000, thereof ca. EUR 1,318,000 EU funding (Connecting Europe Facilities Programme)
Total project budget (all partners): EUR 26,500,000 

News and project status

In 2018 the intended Corridor Services and the so-called Support Services were defined in coordination with the stakeholders. In 2019, various workshops dealing with specification and implementation of those Support Services were held. A first service, namely the route planning function of the RIS system, was successfully tested with a route from Belgium to the Black Sea. All 13 project partner countries agreed on terms of better communication of national infrastructure data (vessel positions, estimated time of arrival, bridge clearances, blockages, water depths, transport information and the like). The year 2020 was focused on the implementation of the systems. A new demo version of VisuRIS COMEX was presented in September 2020 and will subsequently be tested and optimized by the partners. The majority of the partner countries already continuously provide fairway and infrastructure data as well as vessel position data to VisuRIS COMEX.

In 2020, project partners from 8 countries have commissioned a common electronic reporting system by means of joint procurement. This system enables the efficient fulfillment of reporting obligations in inland navigation with flexible delivery options for the respective national authorities.

In the further course, the systems and the corresponding services are to be finalized and transferred to sustainable operation in the course of 2021, including a corresponding test and evaluation phase involving the future users of the systems.

One of the biggest challenges of the project is not the technical implementation of the planned services, but the (data protection) legal basis for transnational data exchange, the joint procurement of the systems and, last but not least, the agreements for the future joint operation of the system (organizational and financial). These legal foundations have been developed within the first half of 2021.

Futher information is to be found under: www.riscomex.eu.



The project makes a substantial contribution to the implementation of measure
09. Develop River Information Services further of the Action Programme for the Danube 2022.