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K. Haselbauer, M. Hoffmann, R. Blab, T. Hartl, M. Simoner:
"Waterway Asset Management And Optimization Of Maintenance And Engineering Investments";
Talk: 33rd. PIANC WORD CONGRESS, San Francisco (invited); 2014-06-01 - 2014-06-05.

Waterway asset management is a holistic multidisciplinary approach for the development, maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of waterway assets based on a comprehensive life cycle costing approach. According to common practice river navigation is only shut down in times of extreme weather conditions (floods, extensive ice formations) but not at low-water conditions. In comparison to passenger transport which faces almost no further restrictions the goods transport is especially sensitive to low water levels and resulting lower fleet utilization. In order to ensure continuous and satisfactory fairway conditions throughout the year, which can be considered as basis for competitive transport prices, a number of recommendations and international agreements (e.g. AGN 1996, DC 1988, DC 2013) were established in the past. However, if available fairway depths are not included in the analysis, possible economic consequences on shipping companies and shippers are neglected. To overcome such setbacks of current approaches the presented asset management is based on the availability of fairway width and depth in days per year. With an infrastructure model of waterways including locks, ports and the navigational fairway the impact of various operational measures (e.g. dredging or shifting of fairway trajectory) or structural measures (e.g. river engineering structures like groyns or training walls) on availability can be simulated. The approach also includes a determination of necessary measure extent and duration of measure impact if selected quality criteria of the affected infrastructure fall below predefined limits. The concept of life cycle costs of waterway infrastructure as a part of the provided asset management approach is integrated as well by considering measure costs per unit together with the duration of measure impact. In order to provide a continuous fairway quality all shallow sections of the entire river have to be considered in the optimization process. As a result of possible measures the availability performance of individual sections is pushed outward beyond predefined fairway target parameters. For a manual maintenance optimization the availability curves are shifted outward starting with the most critical sections until the budget is spent. For an automated optimization the necessary budgets for different combinations of available width and depth have to be calculated leading to a 3D - cost surface. Together with the resulting transport costs it is possible to optimize with regard to recommended fairway parameters, a constrained budget or minimal total costs of inland navigation. The paper provides all necessary theoretical information, formulas and examples for a successful implementation of an LCC - based inland waterway asset management system together with practical references of already achieved results on the Danube.

Inland Waterway Systems, Availability; Asset Management, Dredging, Optimization