A new digital test service is developed to facilitate the assess of tidal level and weather affecting their plans to sail challenging passageways where shallow water poses a risk. Initially, the service will cover the Sound between Sweden and Denmark.
Operators can have more data when sailing through challenging passages, as a result of a digital service which combines bathymetry, updated tidal tables and weather reports to show ‘comfort zones’ and ‘no-go areas’ for vessels with different draughts. The service has been developed by the EU-funded project EfficienSea2 and can be accessed on computers and tablets by those with a login to the web platform BalticWeb.
Navigators will have to check the platform BalticWeb, when using the ‘Under Keel Clearance Service’. The relevant data will then be added as another layer on the nautical charts of BalticWeb, showing where it is unsafe to sail.
The data for the service is provided by the Danish Meteorological Institute, the Danish Geodata Agency and the Swedish Maritime Administration.
The new test service is planned to cover the Danish and Swedish waters surrounding the Sound, with the possibility to include other parts of the Baltic Sea and the world.
The service is being delivered to BalticWeb through the MCP, thus enabling other nations to make their own bathymetric, weather and tidal data available.
The new service was inspired by the International Hydrographic Organisation which worked on a production specification (S-129) for Under Keel Clearance, as well as from around the world, where countries, and mostly Australia, are investing in similar services.
