About NEWS

NEWS' principal objective is to increase (container) transport flows on inland waterways (especially the Danube) by developing a Next generation European Inland Waterway Ship and logistics system to make container transport on inland waterways more cost-, time- and ecologically efficient. Hence, it supports the full integration of waterborne transport into the EU transport and logistics chain. NEWS combines technical and logistical innovations to assist cross-border European challenges for an optimized container inland waterway transport.

NEWS' major expected results will be
 

• a concept and specifications of novel inland vessel including validation documents such as a preliminary approval or general arrangement drawings, supplemented by tank test results
• a concept and specifications for the matching NEWS energy- and propulsion system: determined energy production and supply for propulsion, ship and machinery consumers, economical and ecological effects, exemplary layouts, typical layout components
• a map of most promising catchment area for NEWS 
• a description and reorganization of relevant logistics chains for NEWS including a concept for intermodal integration of NEWS an assessment of the current situation of inland ports and solutions for infrastructural and service adjustments for inland ports
• scenarios regarding naval operation and a technical implementation plan
• a finance and business plan and a report on the assessment of the socio-economic potential (Source: official summary, http://www.news-fp7.eu/)

Macro-regional analysis: Spatial framework incl. systemic transboundary and regional impact

The Department of Geography is Leader of Work package 3 “Macro-regional analysis: Spatial framework incl. systemic transboundary and regional impact”. WP3 focuses on a widespread macro-regional spatial framework analysis with its major aim to identify NEWS most promising catchment area, including four secondary objectives:
 

• Basic geographic analysis of the infrastructure of the Danube river
• Analysis and evaluation of the transboundary effects of NEWS
• Assessment of regional added value for the Danube linked waterways
• Assessment of spatial implications. These implications refer primarily to port industry, logistics industry and intermodality

Previous results and steps

Work package 3 of NEWS focuses on a widespread macro-regional spatial framework analysis with its major aim to identify NEWS´ most promising catchment area.
Therefore the first report (D3.1) contains a basic geographic infrastructure research of the Danube river with its objective to analyse given infrastructural facilities of the Danube, providing the framework for inland waterway transport (IWT) and potential application of NEWS. After conducting a first geographical overview of the Danube river and a study of the different waterway classes of the Danube, a detailed analysis of the current infrastructure has been carried out. In the course of this especially locks, bridges, ports and fairway depth of the Danube river were analysed. As a main result of D3.1 maps of the infrastructure facilities of the Danube river were created.

Another outcome of this first report was a bridge calculation tool which makes it possible to calculate the clearances of all bridges along the Danube as well as along secondary waterways like the Rhine for a ship with different loading conditions.

The objective of the second report (D3.2) was to localize the most promising catchment area of NEWS in a macro-regional perspective. Therefore a macro-regional analysis of the existing transport flows and the existing economic structure in the hinterland of the Danube was conducted. First a regional demarcation of the relevant hinterland of the Danube was conducted. In the next step groups of goods which can be transported by barge and which are at the same time suitable for container transport were defined. Then a regional economic area analysis of the already defined hinterland of the Danube was conducted. By doing so, first conclusions and assessments about regions with potentially or rather tendentially high demand of container transport could be made.

Finally a macro-regional transport flow analysis of container suitable goods was conducted. As a result different maps of macro-regional transport flows in the Danube region were created. Through this approach well-founded conclusions about the most promising catchment area for NEWS could be made.

In course of the last tasks current transport networks of selected actors in the relevant study area were examined more closely through applied empirical case studies. By identifying specific transport flows of individual companies possible general shift potentials for NEWS can be derived. Beside the Danube also the waterway system of the Rhine represented an investigation area of this analysis. Using the case studies the general transferability of NEWS should be examined for the relevant waterway systems. The case studies, in turn, comprise various expert interviews and a thematically dedicated workshop. Currently, waterways with a general potential for NEWS are being analysed more closely by conducting regional analysis and SWOT analysis as well as by developing a route-planning tool for checking the transfer of the NEWS concept to transboundary transport connections.