Development of a Decision Support Tool for Assessing Vessel Traffic Management Requirements for U.S. Ports

Effective vessel traffic management is critical to the safety of maritime ports and waterways. The United States and other maritime nations have had difficulty in establishing justifiable criteria for selecting ports requiring vessel traffic systems and for determining the level of sophistication of the vessel traffic management system required. Congress directed the USCG to reexamine the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) acquisition with focus on meeting user needs. This paper outlines a process for developing a port evaluation tool to be used as the basis for a systematic approach for identifying ports in need of new Vessel Traffic Management (VTM) technology and for establishing the level of technology required. The tool is based on the technologies of eliciting and structuring the judgment of experts representing port users, and combining this knowledge base with available quantitative data to estimate the current level of safety in a port and the potential reduction in risk achievable through a VTM intervention. The effectiveness of the tool was demonstrated in two groups consisting of experience mariners. This paper outlines the technique used and the results of these sessions.