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RRG GIS Database


Transport networks - Inland waterways and shipping routes





General information

The RRG inland waterway and short sea shipping network contains all navigable rivers, canals and maritime shipping routes in Europe, as well as some 466 inland ports, 939 sea ports and about 31 dedicated small fishing ports and marinas. For rivers, only those sections that are navigable by commercial vessels are covered. The spatial coverage of the layers is Europe as a whole, covering North Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and parts of the Atlantic Ocean, plus shipping connections in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, as well as ports of Iran.

An overview about the number of inland ports, seaports and marinas by country that are available in the dataset can be found here.

For central Europe all locks are included, whereas for eastern and southern Europe only the most important locks can be provided. The current version of the inland waterway network contains 5,596 links and 5,067 nodes. In addition to the currently existing waterways, the RRG GIS database furthermore includes all future projects of the trans-European transport network (TETN) programme of the European Union as specified in Decision 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (European Communities, 1996), further specified in the TEN Implementation Report (European Commission, 1998), later revisions of the TEN guidelines provided by the European Commission (1999; 2002a; 2004a; 2004b), so as the outline plans of the TEN-T guidelines as of 2011 (European Commission, 2011a; 2011b), information on priority projects (European Commission, 1995), latest publications on the priority projects (European Commission, 2002b; 2005), as well as all projects of the so-called TINA networks (TINA = Transport infrastructure needs assessment‘; TINA Secretariat, 1999; 2002) for the new member states and candidate countries.

As being one import link attribute, the waterway class can be used to link additional information on maximal permitted ship dimensions (height, width, length and draught) to the network. The coded waterway classes correspond to the ECMT classification (European Conference of Ministers of Transport, 1992; Wikipedia, 2013). The lock dimensions usually follow these waterway classes. This table links the waterway classes to the permitted ship dimensions:

The main characteristics of the RRG inland waterway and shipping route layer can be summarised as follows:

Layer name: WATERWAYSxx
Feature classes: Arcs, nodes (points)
No of arc features: 5,596
No of node (point) features: 5,067
User attributes associated with the arcs: 30
User attributes associated with the nodes (points): 28

Specific subsets of this layer are also available as individual layers, such as ferry lines and shipping routes, or inland ports and seaports. The basic features of these layers are as follows:

Layer name: SHIPPING
Feature classes: Arcs
No of arc features: 1,245
User attributes associated with arc: 25
Contents: Ferry lines and maritime shipping routes

Layer name: ARCTIC_SEAROUTES
Feature classes: Arcs
No of arc features: 18
User attributes associated with arc: 2
Contents: Potential Arctic searoutes after ice meltdown

Layer name: PORTS
Feature classes: Points
No of arc features: 1,436
User attributes associated with points: 28
Contents: Location of inland ports and seaports

Layer name: SEAPORTS
Feature classes: Points
No of arc features: 939
User attributes associated with points: 28
Contents: Location of seaports

The geometric features and attributive information included in the latter four layers correspond to the geometric features and attributive information provided in the overall WATERWAYSxx are and node layers.

So, the number and type of attributes available in the SHIPPING layer is identical to the number and type of attributes available in the arc feature class of the WATERWAYS layer; consequently, the number and type of attributes available in the PORTS and SEAPORTS layers is identical to the number and type of attributes available in the node (points) feature class of the WATERWAYS layer.





Detailed description of the arc attribute table

The following user-defined fields are associated with the WATERWAYS layer:



COUNTRY1 indicates the ISO code of the country in which the link is located. If a link represents a border river, COUNTRY2 is used to indicate that the link is also part of the waterway network of the neighbouring country. Because maritime shipping routes cannot be assigned to any one country, they have the country codes ‘YY’.

LINKTYPE, LINKCAT, ALIGNMENT, LABEL, STATUS and TYPE give general information on all links. Port links are virtual links representing docks/facilities of a port, to be used in transport models for modelling capacities or transshipment times. If there are constructions works going on along a waterway segment, STATUS and TYPE provide detailed information about the type of works and their status. YEAR then gives the estimated completion year of the construction works.

TENCAT, TENALIGN, CATEGORY, PRIOEL, PRIOEU03, PRIOVM and PRIOSEC and CORRIDORS give information on those links which are included in the „Trans European Transport Network Outline Plan, Section Inland Waterways“ and are taken from the „Joint Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council“ published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (L228, 9 September 1996). A planned TEN link in association with un-known alignment (TENCAT=2 and TENALIGN=2) represents a planned inland waterway link to be constructed, whereas a planned TEN link with known alignment (TENCAT=2 and TEN-ALIGN=1) represents improvements on existing waterways (e.g. extension, widening).

The four attributes PRIOEL, PRIOEU03, PRIOVM and PRIOSEC inform about whether or not a waterway section is part of the priority projects. Priority projects were first identified by the European Commission at the Essen summit (PRIOEL) (European Commission, 1995). These projects are part of the TEN and were considered of crucial importance for the further development of the trans-European transport networks. Hence, efforts and money was concentrated on them. The priority projects of the Essen list concentrated on the old EU member states. Partly these projects are already under operation, partly they are in the construction phase, and some of them are only in the planning stage. In 2003, the Van Miert high level group was established to develop suggestions and recommendations for the further development of the TEN and TINA networks in general, and for the priority projects in particular (HLG, 2003). Their suggestions are laid down in PRIOVM. In the light of the enlargement of the EU, this list now extends into the new member states. However, not all of the suggestions of the Van Miert group were finally adopted by the Commission (European Commission, 2003). Therefore, PRIOEU03 represents the final revised list of the priority projects. Parts of these projects are furthermore subsumed under the so-called Quick Start Programme (QSP, European Commission, 2004). These prioritised sections can be identified by the attribute PRIOSEC.

VDE indicates those inland waterway sections in Germany which were part of the so-called Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit (transport projects German unification) which were identified as crucial projects for the integration of the former two German states (Bundesministerium für Verkehrs, Bau und Stadtentwicklung, 2012; Kieslich et al., 1992; Wikipedia, 2012). End of 2012, most of these projects were already implemented and opened to traffic.

STRATEGIC indicates whether or not the link is part of the strategic road network. The strategic road network contains the trans-European road links specified in Decision 1692/96/EC, the TINA networks for the candidate countries as defined by the TINA secretariat and the east European road corridors (\'Helsinki Corridors\') as well as selected additional links in Eastern Europe and further links to guarantee connectivity of regions and centroids. In contrast to the road and rail networks, the inland waterway network does not include access links to/from centroids (and hence does not include any NUTS-2 region centroid), but includes virtual port access links (LINKCAT=1). These functional links represent all port facilities, and can be used for transport modelling purposes. The modelling principle of the port access links is as follows:

The node representing the seaport or inland port is connected to the real-world waterway network using virtual port access links (LINKTYPE=5). The port node can be identified using the NODETYPE attribute of the node attribute table (see below, NODETYPE=4, NODE-TYPE=14 or NODETYPE=17). The node to which the port access link connects to the real-world waterways is considered a so-called port access node (NODETYPE=12). The modelling principle of the port access links is described here.

Several attributes give further information on maritime shipping and short sea shipping routes: MARITIME represents the travel times between the two seaports. ORIGIN gives the name of the origin seaport, OCC its ISO country code, and finally OPORTCAT represents its port category, while OPORTNUMB represents its port number. DESTINATION, DCC, DPORTCAT and DPORTNUMB provide equivalent information for the destination ports. SERVICE_FR provides information on the travel frequency of the ferries or shipping routes, while eventually SAILING_DI approximates the shipping distance between the two seaports in km.



Detailed description of the node attribute table

The following user-defined fields are associated with the WATERWAYS node feature class:

Attribute Type Contents
COUNTRY1 Character ISO country Code
YY = Maritime shipping route
COUNTRY2 Character ISO country code
YY = Maritime shipping route
LINKTYPE Integer Link type
1 = Free flowing river
2 = Canalised river
3 = Canal
4 = Maritime shipping route
5 = Port link
LINKCAT Integer Present link category (see note)
1 = Port link
2 = Waterway class VII
3 = Waterway class VIc
4 = Waterway class VIb
5 = Waterway class VIa
6 = Waterway class Vb
7 = Waterway class Va
8 = Waterway class IV
9 = Waterway class III East of Elbe
10 = Waterway class II East of Elbe
11 = Waterway class I East of Elbe
12 = Waterway class III West of Elbe
13 = Waterway class II West of Elbe
14 = Waterway class I West of Elbe
15 = Maritime shipping route
16 = Planned link
17 = Not navigable rivers
ALIGNMENT Integer Waterway link alignment
1 = Precise alignment known
2 = Precise alignment unknown (i.e. planned link)/TD>
3 = Maritime shipping/ferry route/TD>
MARITIME Integer Travel times on maritime shipping routes (min)
0 = Inland waterway
> 0 = Maritime shipping route
LABEL Character Name of the waterway
TENCAT Integer TEN/TINA category
0 = No link of strategic network
1 = Existing TEN/TINA waterway
2 = Planned TEN/TINA waterway
TENALIGN Integer TEN/TINA alignment
0 = No TEN/TINA link
1 = TEN/TINA link with precise alignment
2 = TEN/TINA link with unknown precise alignment
CATEGORY Integer Waterway category
0 = No link of strategic network
1 = TEN waterway link
2 = TINA waterway link, backbone
3 = TINA waterway link, additional
4 = Helsinki corridors
5 = Short Sea Shipping Routes, Motorways of the Sea
6 = Additional link of strategic network
PRIOEL Integer TEN priority project number (Essen list)
0 = No priority project
18 = Danube improvement between Vilshofen and Straubing
PRIOEU03 Integer Adjusted TEN priority project number (rev. 2003)
0 = No priority project
18 = Removal of bottlenecks: Rhine, Main, Danube, incl. improvements between Vilshofen-Straubing
21 = Motorways of the sea
30 = Inland waterway Seine-Scheldt
PRIOVM Character Priority project code (Van Miert group)
- = No priority project
L1P2 = Removal of bottlenecks: Rhine, Main, Danube
L1P3 = Motorways of the Sea
L2P4 = Inland waterway connection Seine-Schelde
STRATEGIC Integer Strategic network
0 = Not included in strategic network
1 = Part of strategic network
ORIGIN Character Name of origin port
OCC Character Country code of origin port
OPORTCAT Integer Port category of origin port (TENCAT in NAT)
0 = No shipping route
1 = Seaport
2 = Sea- and inland port
3 = Inland port with facilities for combined transport
4 = Inland port without facilities for combined transport
OPORTNUMB Integer Port number of origin port (PORTNUMBER in NAT)
DESTINATION Character Name of destination port
DCC Character Country code of destination port
DPORTCAT Integer Port category of destination port (TENCAT in NAT)
0 = No shipping route
1 = Seaport
2 = Sea- and inland port
3 = Inland port with facilities for combined transport
4 = Inland port without facilities for combined transport
DPORTNUMB Integer Port number of destination port (PORTNUMBER in NAT)
CORRIDORS Character Corridors towards Eastern Europe
- = No corridor
I ... IX = Corridor number
SERVICE_FR Integer Service frequency of maritime shipping/ferry routes
0 = No maritime shipping/ferry route
1 = Several daily connections
2 = One daily connection
3 = Several connections per week
4 = One connection per week
5 = Less than One connection per week
99 = Frequency unknown
SAILING_DI Integer Sailing distance of maritime shipping routes (in km)
STATUS Integer Status of construction works
0 = Not a waterway project
1 = Study not yet decided
2 = Study phase
3 = Planning phase
4 = Works underway
5 = TEN project not included in implementation report, works unknown
6 = Works completed, opened to traffic
TYPE Integer Type of construction works
0 = Not a waterway project
1 = Upgrading
2 = Upgrading EEA
3 = Upgrading: deepening
4 = Upgrading: lock
5 = Upgrading: lock improvement, bridge enlargement
6 = Upgrading: enlargement of bridges
7 = Deepening
8 = Deepening, increasing height under bridges
9 = Deepening, doubling locks
10 = Improvement
11 = Improvement, renovation of lock Ijmuiden and Oranje lock
12 = Rivercrossing, deepening, increase height under bridges
13 = Increase height under bridges
14 = New construction
15 = Modernisation
16 = Alternative route
17 = Lengthening of ship lift
18 = Enlargement, deepening, adaption of bridges
19 = Enlargement of locks
20 = Enlargement of harbours, traffic guidance
21 = Water regulation, enlargement
22 = Works not specified, works unknown
23 = TEN project not included in implementation plan
24 = Speed link
YEAR Integer Completion year of construction works (estimated for ongoing works, final year for completed projects)
VDE Integer Transport projects German unification (VDE = Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit)
0 = No VDE project
17 = Inland waterway link Mittellandkanal / Elbe-Havel-Kanal / Untere Havel
Attribute Type Contents
NODEID1 Float Node-ID xxx.yyyy
xxx = Region-ID
yyyy = Node number in region (0001 ….)
COUNTRY1 Character ISO country code
REGION1 Character NUTS-2 region code
NODEID2 Float Node-ID xxx.yyyy (see NODEID1)
COUNTRY2 Character ISO country code
REGION2 Character NUTS-2 region code
NODETYPE Integer Node type
1 = Border node
2 = Waterway intersection
3 = River mouth
4 = Seaport
5 = Lock, double lock, ship lift, lock system
8 = Safety gate
9 = Changing link attributes
12 = Port access node
13 = Dam without locks
14 = Inland port
15 = Border river node
17 = Seaport, port of motorways of the sea
18 = Fishing harbour, yacht harbour, marina
PORTNUMBER Integer Port number
0 = No port node
LABEL Character Port or lock name, node label
LOCKS Integer Number of locks in line
0 = No lock node
1, 2, … = Number of locks in line
CHAMBERS Integer Lock chambers
0 = No lock node
1 = Lock with one chamber
2 = Double lock
3 = Lock system with several chambers
4 = Ship lift, elevator
CATEGORY Integer Port category
0 = No TEN/TINA port
1 = TEN port
2 = TINA port
3 = Additional port of strategic network
TENCAT Integer TEN/TINA category
0 = No TEN/TINA (sea)port
1 = Seaport
2 = Sea and inland port
3 = Inland port with facilities for combined transport
4 = Inland port without facilities for combined transport
PRIOEU03 Integer Adjusted TEN priority project number (rev. 2003)
0 = No priority project
18 = Upgrading for Lanaye lock
PRIOVM Character Priority project code (Van Miert group)
- = No priority project
L1P2 = Upgrading of Lanaye lock
L3P5 = Limassol port development
L3P6 = Larnaka port development
L3P7 =Valletta and Marsaxlokk port development
CONT_TURNOVER Float Container turnover (in 1,000 TEU, most recent year)
-9999 = data not available
0 = No container turnover
>0 = Annual container turnover (number of containers per year)
CONT_TEU Character Development of container turnover over recent year (in 1,000 TEU, time series)
n.a. = Data not available
PASS_DEV Character Passenger movements of ferries (in 1,000; development over recent years; without cruise passengers)
CONTINENTS Integer Continent code of the continent where the node is located
1 = Asia
2 = Africa
5 = Europe
STATUS Integer Status of construction works
0 = Not a waterway project
1 = Study not yet decided
2 = Study phase
3 = Planning phase
4 = Works underway
5 = Completed
TYPE Integer Type of construction works
0 = Not a waterway project
1 = Upgrading, modernisation, improvement
2 = Upgrading: deepening
3 = Upgrading: lock (enlargement, lengthening of ship lift)
4 = Deepening, double lock
5 = New lock
6 = New node
7 = Upgrading port
8 = New port
YEAR Integer Completion year of construction works (estimated for ongoing projects, final year for completed projects)
PT_BULK Integer Identification of bulk ports
0 = No bulk port
1 = Bulk port
PT_GCG Integer Identification of general cargo ports
0 = No general cargo port
1 = General cargo port
PT_UNT Integer Identification of unitised cargo ports
0 = No unitised cargo port
1 = Unitised cargo port
CT_BULK Integer Annual bulk turnover (in tonnes)
CT_GCG Integer Annual general cargo turnover (in tonnes)
CT_UNT Integer Unitised cargo turnover (in tonnes)



NODEID1 is a unique identifier for each node in the network. The first three digits indicate the number of the region in which the node is located. COUNTRY1 indicates the ISO code of the country in which the node is located. REGION1 is a four-character acronym of the name of the region. The main city (not necessarily the greatest city) of each region is the centroid of the region. For each region the nodes are counted from 0000, with 0000 indicating the centroid. Because the layer includes ports along the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and also along the Arabic Gulf, the field CONTINENTS indicates whether the feature is located in Europe or Asia.

Border nodes are nodes at national borders. At each border crossing there is a border node. Border nodes (NODETYPE=1), or a node located along a border river (NODETYPE=15), have two node numbers, country codes and region codes indicating that they belong to two different countries. Regular nodes have no entries in NODEID2, COUNTRY2 and REGION2. With the exception of river mouths (NODETYPE=3), seaports (NODETYPE=4,17), inland ports (NODETYPE=14) and end nodes (NODETYPE=11) all other nodes might have also entries in NODEID2, COUNTRY2 and REGION2, if they are located along a border river.

STATUS and TYPE give general information on all nodes. If there are constructions works going on at waterway node, STATUS and TYPE provide detailed information about the type of works and their status. YEAR then gives the estimated completion year of the construction works.

LABEL gives general information on selected nodes such as ports or locks. However, this attribute is not available for all nodes, but only for a subset of them, mainly serving for location purposes. PORTNUMBER represents a unique port identifier in integer format. In addition to NODEID1, this attribute can be used to link for further information and data to (sea)ports. A label is assigned to each port.

Lock nodes represent locks with one chamber, double locks represent locks with two parallel chambers, and lock system nodes represent several locks in line with unknown location and unknown number of chambers per lock. The item LOCKS will then give the number of locks in line. CHAMBERS will give the number of parallel chambers per lock.

CATEGORY, TENCAT, PRIOEU03 and PRIOVM give information on those inland and sea ports included in the \"Trans European Transport Network Outline Plan, Section Waterways\" based on the Joint Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (L228, 9 September 1996) or are part of the TINA network (TINA Secretariat, 1999; 2002). CATEGORY distinguishes between TEN ports (located in the old EU member states) and TINA ports (located in the candidate countries) and those ports added to the strategic modelling network. TENCAT can be used to differentiate between sea and inland ports, and those ports with or without facilities for combined transport.

CONT_TURNOVER and CONT_TEU give the container turnover for the main container seaports in Europe for the most recent year (CONT_TURNOVER), and as a time series over the last dec-ade (CONT_TEU). Data for seaports in Western Europe are as of 2001-2008, data for Black Sea ports are of 2007. PASS_DEV provides information on the development of passenger movements at main passenger seaports in Europe, excluding cruise passengers, over the last decade.





Ferry lines and shipping routes layer

The number and type of fields available in the ferry lines and shipping routes layer SHIPPING is identical to the number and type of fields of the arcs of the WATERWAYS layer. However, as this layer covers ferries and shipping routes only, free flowing rivers (LINKTYPE=1), canalised rivers (LINKTYPE=2), and canals (LINKTYPE=3) are generally not included, with the remarkable exception of some big rivers representing the gateways for seaport (for instance, the Elbe river to Hamburg). Port links (LINKTYPE=5) are only included if they represent the gateways for seaports.


Inland ports and seaports layer

The number and type of fields available in the inland ports and seaports layer PORTS and SEAPORTS is identical to the number and type of fields of the node feature class of the WATERWAYS layer. However, as this layer covers (sea)ports only, several other node types such as locks (NODETYPE=5) or waterway intersections (NODETYPE=2) are not included and so are some attribute values missing in the various attributes. Port access nodes (NODETYPE=12) are, however, also not included in these layers.



 More on this topic
Related documents:Waterway classes and permitted ship dimensions
Port access links
ISO Country Codes
Number of inland ports and seaports by country



RRG GIS Database contents:

General information
Transport networks

Available transport datasets
Road network
Railway network
Railway stations in Europe
Inland waterways and shipping routes
Inland ports and seaports
Inland waterways and inland ports
Shipping routes and seaports
Airports of the World
Freight Villages and Transport Terminals
Travel Analysis Districts

Region boundaries, admninistrative boundaries
Geography
Interaction data and regional data
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