International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 2
Number 2
June 2008
127
New Development of Ships Routeing in
Chinese Navigable Waterways
Hui Ma, Zhaolin Wu & Zhengjiang Liu
Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China
ABSTRACT: After entering 21 century Chinese waterborne transportation keep high speed development,
mmarine traffic order and marine traffic safety become more important issues. In order to enhance marine
traffic safety and efficiency, ships routeing systems were implemented in important navigable waters in recent
years. After implementation of these ships routeing systems, evaluations on the effects are carried and prove
that these ships routeing systems have got obvious effects both on safety and economic efficiency.
1 INTRODUCTION
Ships Routeing is an effective measure to enhance
maritime traffic safety and to promote traffic
efficiency and to protect marine environment. Up to
now, more than two hundreds of ships routeings
systems have been developed by national maritime
safety administrations, some of them were adopted
by IMO. With high speed development of
international and national waterborne transportation
and other waterborne activities, serious lost of lives
and properties as well as serious damages to the
marine environment resulting from marine traffic
accidents caused more and more public attentions, in
resent years Chinese government have taken all
kinds of measures to solve such problems, including
establishment of ships routeing systems in important
Chinese navigable waterways to keep good order of
waterborne traffic and to improve maritime safety
and to prevent marine pollutions from ships. This
paper is aimed to give outlines of new developments
of ships routeing in China.
2 HISTRICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPS
ROUTEING IN CHINA
As a marine country, China has very good resources
for shipping. There are coastline navigable waters,
from the north to the south, including Baohai Sea,
Yellow Sea, Donghai Sea and Nanhai Sea, and
inland navigable waters, including Helongjiang
River, Changjiang River and the Zhujiang River. In
these Chinese navigable waters, there are five key
areas, in which, ships density is high, sea routes are
crossing, traffic is contested, and marine accidents
occur frequently. They are named as Baohai Straight
(Liaotieshang Channel), Chengshanjiao waters,
Changjiangkou waters, Zhujiangkou waters and
Qongzhou Straight.
The earliest ships routeing measure introduced on
basis of option in 1970s was recommending route
measure, named South-North Route, between
Changjiangkou waters and Baohai Sea, which was
established to separate optional traffic flow so as to
avoid collisions. South-North Route was on basis of
rich navigation experiences and good seamanship,
reference to traffic separate scheme implemented in
Dover Straight. The first ships routeing system
developed refer to IMO standard of ships routeing
128
was implemented in Dalian Harbour in 1984, which
consist of traffic separate scheme, precautionary area
and inshore traffic zones, to separate entering traffic
and leaving traffic, and to separate through traffic
and inshore traffic see Figure 1.
Fig. 1. The first ships routeing system in Dalian Harbour
Both ships routeing measure have got predicted
achievements on preventing collisions between
ships. Chengshanjiao waters is a very important
passage in Chinese coaster navigable waters, ships
entering and leaving ports and harbours located in
Baohai Sea and Yellow Sea must pass through this
waters. Chengshanjiao water is also important
fishing area, the ships density is very high in fishing
seasons. More fog days and strong windy days are
other negative factors effecting marine safety in
Chengshanjiao waters. In order to change the
situation of high frequency of marine accidents, the
first ships routeing measure in coaster waters was
developed in 1991, in accordance to IMO standard
of ships routeing, in Chengshanjiao waters. After
nine years successful implementation, it was
presented to IMO and adopted by IMO in 2000, see
Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Ships routeing in Chengshanjiao waters
3 NEW DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPS ROUTEING
IN CHINESE COASTER NAVIGABLE
WATERS
After entering 21 century Chinese economy keep
high speed development, waterborne transportation
also keep high speed development at the same time.
In recent years construction of ports and fairways
very fast, the number of ships entering and leaving
increase in a large scale in these ports and nearby
waters. Keeping good traffic order and better traffic
safety become more important tasks for maritime
safety administrations to be carried out. Besides
other measures, ships routeing system is selected as
an effective measure of marine traffic management.
From 2002 to 2007, eight ships routeing systems
were developed and implemented in important
navigable waters as follows:
In September of 2002 Changjiangkou routeing
system was implemented, as shown in, see Figure 3.
Fig. 3. Changjiangkou routeing system
In July of 2003 Changjiang Jiangsu routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 4.
129
Fig. 4. Changjiang Jiangsu routeing system
In March of 2004 Zhujiangkou routeing system
was implemented, as shown in Figure 5.
Fig. 5. Zhujiangkou routeing system
In October of 2005 Changjiang Anhui routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 6.
Fig. 6. Changjiang Anhui routeing system
In March of 2006 Changjiang Shanghai routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 7.
Fig. 7. Changjiang Shanghai routeing system
In June of 2006 Liaotieshan Channel routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 8. Liaotieshan Channel routeing system
In January of 2007 Qongzhou Straight routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 9.
Fig. 9. Qongzhou Straight routeing system
130
In December of 2005 Changjiang Sanxia routeing
system was implemented, as shown in Figure 10.
Fig. 10. Changjiang Sanxia routeing system
4 EFFECTS OF SHIPS ROUTEING IN CHINESE
COASTER NAVIGABLE WATERS
After implementation of these ships routeing
systems, evaluations on the effects are carried.
General speaking, all above ships routeing systems
have got obvious affects both on safety and
economic efficiency. From the views of marine
traffic safety, one year later in the Jiangsu section of
Changjiang River, the number of total marine
accidents and collisions decrease 31.5% and 39.6%
separately. One year later in the Zhujiangkou waters,
the number of marine accidents, the lost of lives, the
number of foundering ships and direct economic
losses decrease 57%, 39%, 78% and 43% separately.
After implementation of the Changjiang Sanxia
routeing system there is no collision occur in the
Sanxia waters. From the view of traffic efficiency
and economic interest, the after implementation of
the Changjiang Jiangsu routeing system, Jiangsu
section of Changjiang River have realized night time
safety navigation of very large ships and create
economic efficiency more than one hundred million
Chinese Yuan. After implementation of the
Zhujiangkou routeing system, ships proceed from
Guaishan anchorage to Huangpu port take five hours
and save two hours than before. In other hand, good
orders of traffic have been established in these
important waters, which are called “waterborne
highways” by some seafarers.
5 CONCLUSION
From the outline of ships routeing systems
implemented in Chinese navigable waterways in
recent years, it could be known that, in order to
enhance marine traffic safety and to promote marine
traffic efficiency, Chinese government have made
very good use of ships routeing systems as a
effective measure of marine traffic management.
Now ships routeing systems of some Chinese sea
ports, such as Caofeidian port, Shenzhen port and
Xiamen port, have being developed by research
groups which consist of experts and officers. It is
believed that ships routeing systems shall play more
important role in Chinese navigable waterways.
REFERENCE
Editor’s comments. Practical effects of the ships routeing
systems. New safety. Second issue. 2006.
www.people.com.cn
