Weather-routing project

Ship weather-routing services are becoming more reliable as technology advances in telecommunications, ship tracking and positioning, and forecasting of the atmosphere and the sea. A recently awarded Interreg IIIB MEDOCC project entitled Weather-routing dans la Méditerranée (WERMED), in which the IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta is a partner targets to develop an experimental system for weather-routing for the Mediterranean Sea and analyse its potential in the region.

Weather-routing is a means of optimizing shipping routes on the basis of meteo-marine conditions. Unfavourable conditions at sea often cause considerable delays in marine transportation with increases in operational costs and fuel consumption.

The forecasting of wind, sea state and currents permits an anticipated assessment for optimisation of routes to enable the most convenient navigation at lowest costs, minimal risks to the environment and highest safety to crew, passengers and cargo.

WERMED will estimate risk scenarios for maritime transportation by Mediterranean climatologies of key meteorological and oceanographic quantities, based upon historical data from databases recently developed by a few international research projects.

A test case on the shelf and coastal areas of the Maltese Islands is envisaged. This will lead to establishing the basis of a prototype weather-routing system for the Central Mediterranean, with focus on the Malta Channel and approaches to the Maltese Islands, and to assess its feasibility and impact.

In January the IOI-MOC will be hosting the first plenary meeting of the project. The meeting will be opened by a half-day seminar on "Applying new technologies for safety, surveillance and enforcement at sea - a challenge for Malta and the Mediterranean". The aim of the seminar is to give an overview on the benefits of technological developments in applications to support the management and monitoring of maritime activities, particularly to improve safety at sea, in surveillance operations, assessments and in the enforcement of maritime laws and regulations.

Further information on the WERMED project may be obtained from Dr Aldo Drago, director of the IOI-MOC, by e-mail at aldo.drago@um.edu.mt or by calling 2144-0972.