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RRG GIS Database


Transport networks - Shipping routes and seaports





General information

The RRG shipping routes and Seaports layer contains contains main maritime shipping routes in Europe, as well as some 910 seaports and 31 fishing ports and marinas. A list of seaports by country can be found here. The spatial coverage of this layer is Europe as a whole, including North Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean, plus shipping connections in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.

With these main characteristics, the shipping routes and seaports layer is a layer derived from the overall inland waterways and shipping routes layer, in that it contains only a subset of the full waterways. Consequently, this layer does not include any inland waterway nor those attribute values representing inland waterway characteristics.

However, as regards the shipping routes, both information contained in this layer and in the overall RRG Inland Waterway and Shipping Routes layer are fully compatible with each other.

The main characteristics of the RRG Shipping Routes and Seaports layer can be summarised as follows:

Layer name: SHIPPING
Feature classes: Arcs, nodes
No of arc features: 2,109
No of node features: 1,820
User attributes associated with the arcs: 20
User attributes associated with the nodes: 18



Detailed description of the arc attribute table

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

Attribute Width Output Type Dec. Contents
LINKTYPE 4 4 I - Link type
4 = Maritime shipping/ferry route
5 = Port link
LINKCAT 4 4 I - Present link category (see note)
1 = Port link
15 = Maritime shipping/ferry route
MARITIME 4 4 I - Travel times on maritime shipping routes (min)
0 = Port link
> 0 = Maritime shipping/ferry route
TENCAT 4 4 I - TEN/TINA category
0 = No link of strategic network
1 = Existing TEN/TINA waterway
2 = Planned TEN/TINA waterway
TENALIGN 4 4 I - TEN/TINA alignment
0 = No TEN/TINA link
1 = TEN/TINA link with precise alignment
2 = TEN/TINA link with unknown precise alignment
CATEGORY 4 4 I - Waterway category
0 = No link of strategic network
5 = Short Sea Shipping Routes, Motorways of the Sea
6 = Additional link of strategic network
PRIOEL 4 4 I - TEN priority project number (Essen list)
0 = No priority project
PRIOEU03 4 4 I - Adjusted TEN priority project number (rev. 2003)
0 = No priority project
21 = Motorways of the sea
PRIOVM 6 6 C - Priority project code (Van Miert group)
‘’ = No priority project
L1P3 = Motorways of the Sea
STRATEGIC 2 2 I - Strategic network
0 = Not included in strategic network
1 = Part of strategic network
ORIGIN 32 32 C - Name of origin port
OCC 4 4 C - Country code of origin port
OPORTCAT 2 4 I - 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 6 6 I - Port number of origin port (PORTNUMBER in NAT)
DESTINATION 32 32 C - Name of destination port
DCC 4 4 C - Country code of destination port
DPORTCAT 2 4 I _ 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 6 6 I - Port number of destination port (PORTNUMBER in NAT)
SERVICE_FR 6 6 I _ 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 6 6 I - Sailing distance of maritime shipping routes (km)


LINKTYPE, and LINKCAT give general information on all links. Port links are links representing docks/facilities of a port.

TENCAT, TENALIGN, CATEGORY, PRIOEL, PRIOEU03 and PRIOVM 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 unknown 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 TENALIGN=1) represents improvements on existing waterways (e.g. extension, widening).

STRATEGIC indicates whether or not the link is part of the strategic waterway network. The strategic waterway network contains the trans-European waterway links specified in Decision 1692/96/EC, the TINA networks for the candidate countries as defined by the TINA secretariat and the east European waterway corridors ('Helsinki Corridors') as well as selected additional links in Eastern Europe and further links to guarantee connectivity of regions. In contrast to the road and rail networks, the 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) instead. These functional links represent all port facilities, and can be used for transport modelling purposes. 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 to 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 in km.


Detailed description of the node attribute table

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

Attribute Width Output Type Dec. Contents
NODEID 10 10 N 4 Node-ID xxx.yyyy
xxx = Region-ID
yyyy = Node number in region (0001 ….)
COUNTRY 6 6 C - ISO country code
REGION 4 4 C - NUTS-2 region code
NODETYPE 4 4 I - Node type
3 = River mouth
4 = Seaport
12 = Port access node
17 = Seaport, port of motorways of the sea
18 = Fishing harbour, yacht harbour, marina
PORTNUMBER 6 6 I - Port number
LABEL 40 40 C - Port name
CATEGORY 4 4 I - Port category
0 = No TEN/TINA port
1 = TEN port
2 = TINA port
3 = Additional port of strategic network
TENCAT 4 4 I - 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
CONT_TURNOVER 8 8 F - Container turnover (in 1,000 TEU, latest available year)
-9999 = Data n.a.
0 = No container turnover
>0 = Container turnover
CONT_TEU 250 250 C - Development of container turnover (in 1,000 TEU, time series)
n.a. = Data not available
PASS_DEV 250 250 C - Passenger movements of ferries (in 1,000; development over last years, without cruise passengers)
CONTINENTS 4 4 I - Continent code where the port is located
1 = Asia
2 = Europe
PT_BULK 4 4 I - Identification of bulk ports
0 = No bulk port
1 = Bulk port
PT_GCG 4 4 I - Identification of general cargo ports
0 = No general cargo port
1 = General cargo port
PT_UNT 4 4 I - Identification of unitised cargo ports
0 = No unitised cargo port
1 = Unitised cargo port
CT_BULK 4 4 I - Bulk turnover (in tonnes)
CT_GCG 4 4 I - General cargo turnover (in tonnes)
CT_UNT 4 4 I - Unitised cargo turnover (in tonnes)


NODEID 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. NODEID can be used to establish a relation between the RRG Shipping Routes and Seaports layer and the overall WATERWAYS layer. COUNTRY indicates the ISO code of the country in which the node is located. REGION 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 0001. CONTINENTS indicate the continent on which the seaport is located.

LABEL gives general information on all seaports. PORTNUMBER represents a unique port identifier in integer format, and can also be used to establish a relation between the RRG Shipping Routes and Seaports layer and the overall WATERWAYS layer, or can be used to link for further information and data to seaports.

CATEGORY and TENCAT give information on those seaports 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 decade (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.

PT_BULK, PT_GCG, and PT_UNT characterize major ports in Europe according to their main cargo turnover, whether they can be classified as bulk, general cargo or unitised cargo ports. Similarly, CT_BULK, CT_GCG and CT_UNT provide respective turnover figures for these ports.


 More on this topic
Related documents: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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