Management of inland waterway system for transportation

Abstract

Inland waterways transportation system (IWTS) is one of the modes of transportation. Generally, waterways can be categorized into natural and artificial waterways. Rivers and lakes exist naturally as the result of geographically terrain while the artificial canals were constructing by human. The inland waterway as transportation systems comprise some facilities such as locks, inland port, weir, dock, navigation aids and bridges to facilitate navigation of the vessels. Various studies by different parties had shown that IWTS has some advantages compared to other modes of transport. Studies have also shown that IWTS is the cheapest and least demanding on land acquisition, energy, and labour, resources and most environmental beneficial form of all (Doerflinger, 1975). Further discussion on the advantages of IWTS is beyond the scope of this paper.