New guidelines for inland waterways in the Netherlands

Waterway guidelines are key to safe, reliable, and efficient navigation in the Dutch waterways network. The present waterway guidelines are restricted to canals. In recent years, Deltares, MARIN and Rijkswaterstaat have been developing a set of rules that will allow the guidelines to be applied to the complete waterway network, including the river systems. These rules are based on the in-depth analysis of the hydrodynamic and morphological conditions, and the manoeuvrability of inland vessels. A unique combination of numerical simulations and statistical data analysis models that uses heterogeneous sources of information (about factors such as ship manoeuvring, experience from the field or physical models) ensures the best possible assessment of waterway guidelines (which include factors such as the cross-sectional profile of navigation channels, bend radius and port entrances).