Introduction

Traffic on the Brussels-Scheldt canal consists of seagoing and inland vessels. The canal has two locks and is crossed by eight drawbridges/liftbridges. Most of the bridges serve regular road transport and can be opened on demand by the ships traffic; two of them are operated by the NMBS (Belgian railway company) based on time tables.

The downstream end of the canal consists of the Wintam lock and gives access to the tidal river Scheldt. Therefore, seagoing ships can leave the canal only within specific timeslots. The responsible authority W&Z (Waterwegen en Zeekanaal) operates the VSZ software to manage traffic on their network (including the BS-canal).

The main project goals are:

• to minimise traffic time and energy consumption,
• to minimise water consumption during lock operations,
• to provide skippers with actual traffic information (based on a real time model),
• to provide skippers with accurate long term forecasts based on statistics,
• to provide the operator with sufficient information at the right time in order to issue pilot service orders and similar services.

• Actual Traffic Model
• Statistics
• External Interfaces
• How It Works
• Benefits for Users
• Technology Used