SIS 39 How maritime ITS approach international consensus in digitalization standards

Session Organiser: Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, ITS Norway, Norway

This session provides insights into how the maritime community addresses consensus and establishment of international digitalization standards, including both inland waterways and international shipping. Digitalization is a prerequisite for automation, which is at the core of ITS. Maritime ITS must support ships and ports in all countries in the world. This requires true international standards. Between 1980 and 1995 the maritime sector was at the forefront of digitalization and automation, and in implementing intelligent transport systems. It has lost ground to other modes after that, but from 2005 the international e-navigation initiative started a new wave of digitalization activities, also triggering ship owners and operators to make better use of digital information from their ships. In the same year, Europe published the RIS (River Information Services) directive for Inland waterways, leveraging the maritime sector's digitalization and automation initiatives. The situation today is that certain parts of the maritime sector may be moving ahead of other modes in developing international standards and an ICT architecture that will support a truly international and intelligent transport system: Maritime ITS. The Inland navigation sector also supports this digital evolution, aiming to provide more mode-agnostic services to facilitate e.g. better planning across all transport modes.