River Shipping Research Articles

The Ecological Effect of Ship Canals on Wetlands

Ship canals, which play a crucial role in facilitating transport, exert significant and long-term impacts on wetland ecosystems. For social and economic development, numerous countries have put forward plans for ship canals. This paper reviews the literature on the ecological effect of ship canals on wetland ecosystems, identifies research gaps, and suggests future research directions. Ship canals typically involve high construction intensity, usually including river regulation, ship locks, and water diversion for navigation. The ecological effects of ship canals on wetlands refer to changing wetland hydrological processes, degrading water quality, eliminating wetland botany, disturbing wetland animals, and increasing ecological threats. The cumulative impact can either alter the trend of ecological succession or degrade biodiversity. Thus, there is a need for further research to elucidate the mechanisms by which canals affect wetland ecosystems, enhance the practices for wetland protection associated with canals, and develop a robust evaluation system for green canal projects.

Ship Lock Chamber Arrangement in Xiangjiang River Based on Artificial Bee Colony and Adaptive Genetic Algorithm

Abstract To plan the ship lock chamber arrangement in Xiangjiang river, an artificial bee colony-adaptive genetic algorithm was proposed for the scheduling of the lock chamber, considering that the performance of the basic genetic algorithm relies on the quality of the initial population, the selection of genetic operators, crossover, and mutation operations. Firstly, the artificial bee colony algorithm was used to initialize the population to enhance population diversity. The utilization rate of the lock chamber and the waiting time for the lock were used as evaluation indicators for the fitness function. Then, adaptive strategies were designed to adjust the crossover and mutation operators to improve the convergence speed of the algorithm. Experimental results showed that, in a Xiangjiang river ship lock chamber with a size of 280 m×34 m, the average number of ships selected by the proposed artificial bee colony-adaptive genetic algorithm was 2 more than that of manual scheduling and 1.5 more than that of the genetic algorithm. The utilization rate of the lock chamber scheduling was increased by 13.01% compared to manual scheduling and by 5.4% compared to the genetic algorithm. The average waiting time for the lock was reduced by 1.3 hours compared to manual scheduling and by 0.8 hours compared to the genetic algorithm. It effectively improves the efficiency of ship traffic and optimizes the utilization of the lock chamber, making it practical for real-world applications.

Air Pollutant Emission Factors of Inland River Ships under Compliance

Inland river ships (IRSs) use diesel with a lower sulfur content and emit relatively low emissions, making it challenging to monitor their emissions. Sniffer monitoring equipment was installed from August 2020 to June 2022 at the Gezhou Dam of the Yangtze River and monitored emissions from 8,238 IRSs passing through the lock. We partnered with the maritime department to select 100 ships passing through the lock to extract fuel oil samples for direct fuel sulfur content (FSC) detection, which determined the actual FSC of the passing ships. The monitoring data from these 100 ships indicated that the relative error of the SO2 emission factors (EFs) and FSC results is significant at the 10-parts-per-million level. The monitoring data from the remaining 8,138 ships showed that the EFs of NO, NO2, PM2.5, and PM10 were 24.02 ± 16.92 g kg−1, 10.30 ± 18.08 g kg−1, 0.72 ± 0.60 g kg−1, and 0.92 ± 0.70 g kg−1, respectively. The NOx EFs of container ships are higher than those of other ship types, while the PM EFs for different ship types do not significantly differ. Based on these EFs, we calculated the average emission rates for different types of ships passing through locks, which is a real-time measurement method for estimating ship emissions. In addition, a comparison of ship EF measurements over the past 20 years revealed that EF values for SO2, NOx, and PM exhibited a downward trend, with the calculated results of the current study determined to be the lowest numerical level.

A seafarers’ cognitive error mining model based on IDA and TRACEr and mitigation measures for ship collision accidents

Human factor is the main cause of maritime accidents. However, the in-depth study on the mechanism of cognitive errors in seafarers’ human error needs to be supplemented. This study empirically analyzes 116 collision cargo ships along the Yangtze River trunk line. To explore the relationship between seafarers’ task errors and the cognitive process of accidents, a seafarers’ cognitive error mining model is proposed, which integrates the Information, Decision, and Action (IDA) cognitive model into the Technique for the Retrospective and Predictive Analysis of Cognitive Errors (TRACEr). According to the approach of mining from the outside to the inside, firstly, the error mode in the cognitive stage of seafarer tasks are identified. Then the fine-grained main manifestation of the task errors is mined by K-means, and Apriori algorithm is employed to mine the hidden features between the external and internal error modes. The results show that there are four main problems of Yangtze River ship accidents, and seafarers have four to seven corresponding causal chains from psychological error mechanism to performance shaping factors for each major issue in the cognitive stage. On the basis of the results, this study summarizes the guiding principles of accident prevention and seafarer management measures to provide decision support for water traffic safety.

Voyage charterparty arrangement for river tramp shipping: Green and traditional vessels comparison

Voyage charterparty arrangement (VCA) for river shipping is a common agreement between a shipowner and a charterer regarding the transportation of specific cargoes from one port to another via a tramp vessel. Optimizing VCA with the essential terms such as laytime and sailing speed of the vessel, is a crucial task for both parties to reduce potential disputes and achieve win-win outcomes. This paper models the problem from two perspectives: the VCA negotiation stage and execution stage. Firstly, according to the given probability distribution of port time, the theoretically optimal laytime is obtained by using textbook formulation of newsvendor problems (NVP). On this basis, considering the concerns about the inaccuracy of the given probability distribution and the adjustment measures taken by charterers and shipowners in reality, an integrated adjustment model is constructed to determine the optimal laytime in the VCA negotiation stage. Secondly, taking into account the vessel's uncertain lock crossing time, an operations coordination model with information sharing of the berth plan is established to obtain the optimal sailing speed under a certain confidence level in the VCA execution stage. Finally, a case study of chartering tramp vessels on the Yangtze River validates the applicability and effectiveness of the models proposed in this paper, and some important management insights are derived. The results show that establishing lower optimal speed limits and relatively shorter laytime when signing a contract with the shipowner of green river vessels is reasonable for the charterer. By notifying the shipowner of the berth plan after the green river vessel crosses through the lock, the charterer can avoid higher demurrage costs due to speeding-up. Operations coordination would be mutually beneficial without abusing the contract terms. Compared to traditional river vessels, it's more reasonable to reduce the benefits allocated to charterers from the deceleration of green river vessels by shipowners.

Advancing river cruise product design: insights from cross-quality elasticity of river cruises to ocean cruises

ABSTRACT This paper puts forward the concept of cross-quality elasticity, leveraging the commonalities of river and ocean cruise tourism, and develops a cross-quality elasticity equation with price, quality, and popularity as independent variables, while market share as dependent variable, calculating the cross-quality elasticity for river cruise tourism relative to ocean one. A model is developed for optimising river cruise itinerary and ship choice based on the cross-quality elasticity and the constraints of river channel capacity and itinerary type, to maximise the increased profits for river cruise operators. In the case study on the segments of Chongqing-Wuhan, Wuhan-Shanghai and Nanjing-Zhoushan along the Yangtze River, the home ports, ports of call, order of call, days of cruise travel, adoptions of cruise ships, and the number of tourists shifting from ocean cruise market have been determined. The results indicate that well-designed river cruises can expand the market of river cruise tourism; popularity exerts a moderating influence on the relationship between cruise quality and consumer demand; river cruise of high quality may serve as a viable alternative for consumers accustomed to ocean cruises.

Ship deployment problem with green technology adoption for an inland river carrier under non-identical streamflow and speed limits

The maritime industry is currently experiencing a shift towards green corridors. The inland waterway is the main transportation corridor with a relatively low adoption of green technologies, which produces heavy air pollution in inland cities. This paper investigates the ship deployment problem for an inland river carrier considering the adoption of green fuel and green technologies for a given ship fleet. A non-linear programming (NLP) model is proposed to jointly optimize green technology adoption, sailing speed, and routing problems while considering two unique characteristics of inland river shipping, including the non-identical streamflow and the speed limits on each shipping leg. The analytical propositions reveal the optimal operation strategy of the inland river ship fleet, and a column generation-based algorithm is further designed to solve the proposed model. By jointly investigating the ship operation strategy and sulphur emissions, we find the following management insights: Firstly, the ship would have a lower willingness to invest in shore power (scrubber) if it installed scrubber (shore power). The higher streamflow and looser speed limits would reduce the spillover effect of green technology adoption. Secondly, emissions will spillover from ports to river legs if only shore power is provided. Our findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to promote complete green technology adoption to achieve comprehensive abatement of the entire inland river.

The Function of Inland Shipping on Economic Supporting Activities of the South Kalimantan Community 1980-2000

The main problem examined in this research is how the function of inland shipping is to support the economic activities of the people of South Kalimantan in 1950-1970 The results of the research show that the river network has become the economic lifeblood of the population where most of their economic activities are carried out through and on rivers due to shipping activities. Rivers cannot be separated from their role as trade routes. River shipping has an important role in transporting trade goods. Agricultural products and forest products are one of the main commodities transported via river shipping. As a means of traffic, rivers play a role in opening up the isolation of inland areas that cannot be passed by land. The method used in this research uses the historical method through the Heuristic stage (data collection), internal and external criticism of the data obtained, interpretation and historiography of historical writing based on the data that has been obtained according to the researcher's objectives. The novelty of this research is that previous research only revealed the phenomenon of river shipping broadly, then this research focuses on the economic sector. It can be concluded that with the times and the rapid development of technology, the transportation sector has developed. The widespread development of land transportation facilities by creating land roads and bridges to connect between regions can shorten distances and travel times. However, it even has an impact on the economic sector through water transportation routes.

River Ship Monitoring Based on Improved Deep-Sort Algorithm

River Ship Monitoring Based on Improved Deep-Sort Algorithm

Effect of fuel injection pressure on biodiesel blended combustion of Inland River diesel engine

Abstract Compared with ordinary diesel, biodiesel has greater viscosity, density, and flash point, especially under medium and low load, which is easy to cause poor atomization and inadequate combustion. In this paper, an in-line six-cylinder inland river ship diesel engine was used as a model to conduct simulation tests under 50% load of propulsion characteristics to explore the effects of different fuel injection pressures on oil-gas mixing, combustion, and emission of fuel blended with a small percentage of biodiesel. The results show that the increase of fuel injection pressure can enhance the average turbulence intensity in the cylinder as well as increase the relative flow velocity between oil and gas, which is beneficial to the mixture combustion. High fuel injection pressure will promote flame propagation, increasing the maximum burst pressure and the average temperature in the cylinder. Compared to the fuel injection pressure of 24 MPa, NOx emission increases by 5.5% and 15.6% respectively at 27 MPa and 30 MPa, and decreases by 10% and 25% respectively by SOOT.

Design of Transport Organization Schemes for River Shipping Towing Transport

To improve the economic efficiency of ship transportation in the Jialing River section, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the factors affecting tugboat and barge operations during cornering and lockage. Based on a detailed analysis of existing problems, this study proposes the re-adoption of electric tugboat solutions as a keyway to enhance the economic efficiency and transport capacity of Jialing River shipping. By establishing a mathematical model and comparing the cost levels of electric-powered vessels with traditional oil-driven ones, the study further suggests strategies for applying electric-powered tugs to increase the average tonnage per lockage pass and achieve optimization of ship transport organization, including careful adjustment of ship types and lockage vessel combinations. The research results show that under current conditions, the optimal fleet organization scheme is a combination of A motorized ships and B barges with a specific carrying weight (each barge with a load of t), which can significantly enhance the economic efficiency level of Jialing River fleets under specific premises, while also increasing transport volume and reducing costs by approximately.

Decoupling dynamics: Evaluating the relationship between ship emissions and socioeconomic progress in the Yangtze River Basin from 2007 to 2022

To investigate the decoupling relationship between inland ship emissions and regional socioeconomic development in the Yangtze River Basin, this study constructed an emissions inventory for inland ships from 2007 to 2022, based on inland shipping freight statistics and ship carbon pollution emission intensity. Additionally, the Petri-Tapio decoupling model was employed to analyze the relationship between ship carbon pollution emissions and per capita GDP. The study concluded that CO2 emissions from inland ships in the Yangtze River Basin increased from 2.418 million tons in 2007 to 10.801 million tons in 2022. In 2021, the emissions of NOx and SOx from inland ships in the Yangtze River Basin accounted for 2.27% and 0.0021%, respectively, of China's anthropogenic emissions. Despite a year-on-year increasing trend in ship emissions within the basin, significant reductions in PM and SO2 emissions were observed post-2018 due to the implementation of emission reduction policies. Furthermore, we found that economically developed areas such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang had higher emissions compared to other regions, with regional ship emissions positively correlating with the level of economic activity. Decoupling analysis results indicated that most provinces in the Yangtze River Basin have not effectively decoupled ship carbon pollution emissions from GDP growth. The findings of this study provide support for the Chinese government to formulate stricter ship emission control policies while promoting the growth of the Yangtze River shipping economy.

Reasons for stagnation in river transport in Poland at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries

The aim of the study was to identify the causes of the progressive stagnation in Polish river shipping (Polish inland navigation) since the middle of the 20th century. The methodology used, due to the type of research, was of a complex, eclectic nature. It was based on the analysis of empirical data, desktop research studies, a systemic analysis of relations and cause-and-effect relationships in the sphere of river transportation, and a critical interpretation of the goals contained in program documents on the development of river shipping. The studies focused on the macroeconomic level. The results obtained not only identified the causes of stagnation, but also indicated the most urgent directions for research in this area. Their implementation may allow to design such a strategy for the development of river shipping in Poland, thanks to which it will become an important part of the economy and sustainable transport. The research is original and unknown in this form in the Polish literature.

Aspects of Ammonia as Green Fuel for Propulsion Systems of Inland Water Vessels

Ships are a crucial backbone of the transport system for goods and people. However, the currently utilized fossil fuels require a green replacement. Ammonia produced from green hydrogen is an interesting, carbon‐free green fuel, which has been demonstrated to be promising for maritime applications. Its application under the specific boundary conditions of river ships and other inland water vessels still deserves a closer evaluation. In this work, ammonia as a green fuel for propulsion systems of inland water vessels is evaluated regarding several technological aspects. These include onboard decomposition for hydrogen release, combustion of ammonia–hydrogen mixtures in internal combustion engines and the thermal integration of the different components. To achieve favorable combustion properties of the fuel, a certain share of the ammonia has to be decomposed in an ammonia cracker to produce a mixture of hydrogen and ammonia. First single‐cylinder engine tests show that the combined combustion of ammonia and hydrogen allow an efficient and reliable process for the investigated high‐speed engine concept. Efficiency values of nearly 40% at part load already are achieved. With proper system integration, it is possible to reasonably operate small‐ and medium‐sized ships with ammonia as a green fuel.

Analysis of the organization of sulfur export transportation in mixed river-sea traffic

Sulfur is one of the export cargoes and occupies a significant share in the volume of water transport. The article analyzes the route from a sulfur production plant in the Astrakhan region to the seaport of Kavkaz, which involves motor transport, the specialized river port of Buzan, river fleet, a road transshipment complex in the seaport of Kavkaz, and sea vessels. It has been established that when transporting sulfur by water, mainly self-propelled fleets are used. The elements of the circular voyage of river ships, the technology and performance indicators of the ports were studied, the statistics of the supply of sea vessels to the port of Kavkaz for sulfur transshipment, the productivity of the fleet taking into account the actual duration of the circular voyage were analyzed. An option has been proposed for transporting sulfur on the analyzed route using pushed trains, which will allow, with an optimal ratio of the number of barges and pushers, to reduce energy costs with corresponding fuel savings and the number of crew.

Optimization of river container port-access transport based on the innovatively designed electric ship in the Yangtze River Delta

In order to increase the share of the container port-access transport of river shipping and reduce the carbon emissions of container transportation, this study innovates the design of wide and shallow draft river ship and its electric power system based on the navigation condition of the rivers in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) with the objective of raising the advantage in river shipping to truck transport. To validate the ship's practicability, we incorporate the carbon quota of container port-access transport as a constraint and build a model to optimize the river liner service for container port-access transport. The case study reveals that the adoption of innovative 48 TEU electric river ship for container port-access transport will be associated with a rise in the mode share of river liner shipping from 16.1% to 20.0%, a decrease in carbon emission by 0.124 million tons and a decrease of 0.358 billion CNY in container port-access transport in the YRD, while the higher the carbon tax price the more the modal shift will be, however, since the carbon emission cost is a part of the total transport cost, the total transport cost exhibits an upward trend.

Effect of Daily Regulation on Navigation Conditions in Deep Reservoirs

The daily regulation and anti-regulation of upstream and downstream power stations, respectively, frequently alter the river flow regime, velocity, and surface gradient, thus resulting in unsteady flow characteristics of the river and hindering shipping, waterway maintenance, and wharf operations. This study investigated the influence of daily regulation on the navigation conditions in the deep reservoir by taking the rivers between the Three Gorges Dam and the Gezhouba Dam as the research object. Prototype observations and a depth-averaged 2-D model were used to determine the main factors affecting the propagation law of unsteady flow. The propagation pattern of unsteady flow and channel navigational conditions and measures of the power station were analyzed systematically. The results showed that the water level amplitude was affected primarily by the peak amplitude and duration of the peak shaving. Additionally, the base flow significantly influenced time spatial distributions of the water level amplitude. Impacted by the reservoir storage capacity, a threshold for the duration of peak shaving was noted; this may result in maximum water level variation. As the peak shaving duration increased, the amplitude of the water level decreased. The research results can provide theoretical support for the optimization of hub shipping.

Ufa ladies’ fashion (formation of provincial fashion industry in post-reform Russia)

The process of formation of one of the branches of commercial and industrial activity – the fashion industry, which included the sale and production of goods for women in the Russian province in the 1860s–1880s – is considered. The subject of study is gender history, raising the status of a woman who becomes an independent owner or manager of a business. In the post-reform period, the rapid development of trade in women’s goods began for representatives of the "middle" and "upper" classes of Ufa, the capital of a separate province that emerged in 1865. Due to the transport isolation of the region, only during the summer navigation period the river shipping company operated, the delivery of "fashionable" goods from the capitals and abroad through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan sharply increased the cost of products. Therefore, an independent system for the production of women’s clothing, hats, shoes and even jewelry is being developed in Ufa. It was practically the only purely female business in the city, covering about a third to a quarter of all establishments. Either the owners or managers who actually managed the business were women. Initially, the fashion industry of Ufa as an entertainment for wealthy officials and merchants who dreamed of breaking out of everyday life, quickly transformed into a serious business, acquiring the features of small-scale production with a considerable number of employees. Women’s entrepreneurship in the fashion industry was distinguished by a higher socio-cultural level; noblewomen (officials) and merchant women made up 2/3 of the owners of establishments, while the production of men’s clothing and shoes was dominated by the bourgeoisie. This situation persisted for about 30 years, until the railroad arrived in Ufa in 1888. The influx of cheaper imports has dramatically changed the situation.
 For citation: Rodnov M.I. Ufa ladies’ fashion (formation of provincial fashion industry in post-reform Russia). From History and Culture of Peoples of the Middle Volga Region. 2023. vol.13, no.4, pp.49–68. https://doi.org/10.22378/2410-0765.2023-13-4.49-68 (In Russian)

A Grid-Based Gradient Descent Extended Target Clustering Method and Ship Target Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging for UHF Radar

Inland shipping is of great significance in economic development, and ship surveillance and classification are of great importance for ship management and dispatch. For river ship detection, ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radar is an effective equipment owing to its wide coverage and easy deployment. The extension in range, Doppler, and azimuth and target recognition are two main problems in UHF ship detection. Clustering is a necessary step to get the center of an extended target. However, it is difficult to distinguish between different target echoes when they overlap each other in range, Doppler, and azimuth and so far practical methods for extended target recognition with UHF radar have been rarely discussed. In this study, a two-stage target classification method is proposed for UHF radar ship detection. In the first stage, grid-based gradient descent (GBGD) clustering is proposed to distinguish targets with three-dimensional (3D) information. Then in the second stage, the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging algorithm is employed to differentiate ships of different types. The simulation results show that the proposed method achieves a 20% higher clustering accuracy than other methods when the targets have close 3D information. The feasibility of ISAR imaging for target classification using UHF radar is also validated via simulation. Some experimental results are also given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Experimental Study on Ship Squat in Intermediate Channel

<div>The sinking and trimming of the hull in the channel would directly affect the handling and navigation safety of the ship. In view of the ship sinking, a series of empirical formulas to estimate the subsidence have been put forward for vessel in spacious shallow water areas. However, most of the equations are based on seagoing vessels. They are not suitable for inland ships with small scales, shallow drafts, and narrow navigation width. Till now, research on ship squat in intermediate channel has not yielded more practical results. Here, a generalized physical model is used to study the sinking of 500t class ships in restricted intermediate channel under different channel widths, water depths, and speeds. The main factors affecting the squat are analyzed, the empirical relation is compared with the measured squat. The <i>Barrass</i> equation is modified, and the calculation relation of the settlement suitable for inland river ships is proposed. The correlation coefficient <i>R</i><sup>2</sup> of the modified equation is 0.818, the standard error is 0.046, and the maximum error is 0.14 m, which can be used as a reference for inland waterway design research.</div>