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1 INTRODUCTION

Due to the simultaneous increase in the operational

parameters of ships and the specialization in

handling units specific to a given port, their operation

for many ports becomes more difficult (Matczak M.

2017, Krośnicka K. 2016, Kaizer A. 2013). Therefore,

the selection of the appropriate variant of the

safety risk assessment (D’Angremond K. 1998,

Dhillon B.S. 2011, Rausand M. 2011), including the

Polish method of dimensioning the width of the safe

maneuvering area of waterways using the

navigational risk models developed at the Maritime

University in Szczecin (Gucma S. 2013). These

methods, however, require detailed statistical or

simulation studies, which are not always used when

designing waterways or determining the conditions

of their safe operation, or are used too generally.

In this paper, the author describes and analyzes

Navigational safety can be defined in a number of

ways (Formela K., Neumann T., Weintrit A. 2019). In

terms of marine traffic engineering, a waterway is a

restricted body of water, adapted and used for the

movement of various types of marine vessels. Marine

traffic engineering deals with the qualitative and

quantitative description of ship traffic in restricted

areas in terms of navigation safety (Gucma S. 2015).

The safety of navigation in relation to the sea route

is the state of the maritime traffic engineering system

ABSTRACT: The assessment of navigational safety for various variants of waterways, due to the multiplicity of

entities involved in the decision-making process, is a complex and difficult task. Multiple methodologies can be

used to select and arrange projects. A review of the literature leads to the conclusion that the CBA and MCDA

methodologies are most often used. The article presents, the general characteristics of the proposed multi-

criteria methodology assessment of waterway at the design stage.

Factors that may cause accidents on waterways are

THE WATERWAY

variants / projects of various nature,

before their implementation, and above all, as a

support for the discussion preceding the approval

of the investor's budget,

− the possibility of using modern and currently

available computational methods, tools and

computer techniques.

the project that has the best impact (has the highest

usability) for navigational safety, to the project that

has the lowest impact on achieving the goal.

The assessment of projects related to the design of

variants of waterways is particularly difficult. The

cause of the difficulties of this issue is due to in

properly defined criteria, for each of the proposed

elements of variants assessed quantitatively or

qualitatively. As a rule, different types of assessment

criteria are used to evaluate different types of

the location of the investment and the final form of

the elements of the waterway, characterized by

specific technical and operational features. Despite

the fact that some of these criteria are difficult to

determine objectively (quantitatively), there is a need

to find a synthetic measure of the technical and utility

values of the facility. The right selection of criteria is

as important as the correct assessment of the level of

their fulfillment, both for the aforementioned

investor, client and a potential user of the waterway.

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conclusions from this analysis make it possible to

confidently and consciously choose the variant that

best meets the criteria specified in the survey. Figure

4.1 presents a general procedure for assessing

decision variants under the proposed methodology.

Taking into account the time during which the

simulation takes place, these methods are divided

into (Gucma S. 2015):

− real Time Simulation (RTS) methods,

− fast Time Simulation (FTS) methods.

The simulation methods in the aspect of ship

traffic management are divided into (Gucma S. 2015):

− methods using autonomous models,

− methods using non-autonomous models.

The use of a simulation tool is able to provide

realistic and accurate results as input for the study

and evaluation of newly constructed waterway

designs. The purpose of design, planning and

evaluation simulations is to identify and reduce

(quantitatively) the risk to the future user operating

Simulations can provide a high level of realism as

long as the purpose of the simulation is consistent

with the accuracy of the models. Hence, the accuracy

of ship models, environments and related

navigational aids, along with appropriate planning

and configuration of simulated scenarios, should be

carefully considered by the end user (NRC, 1996).