What are River Information Services?
The growing demand for high-quality, cost and time-saving transport services, as well as the provision of electronic information, has become an important success factor for logistics companies. In order to better equip inland waterway transport with the necessary tools for these needs, tailor-made information and management services - so-called River Information Services (RIS) - have been developed in Europe to assist both freight and passenger shipping on the waterway.
River Information Services increase traffic safety and improve efficiency, reliability and scheduling of transport. The available RIS data form a base of information for the support of traffic and transport related tasks.
RIS in the European Union
The harmonisation of River Information Services is EU wide and regulated by the Directive on harmonised River Information Services (RIS) on inland waterways in the Community which has been effective since 20th October 2005. This so-called "RIS Directive" contains mandatory technical provisions for navigational equipment and electronic data interchange along with minimum requirements for RIS implementation. The aim is to prevent the development of a conglomerate of dissimilar RIS applications and incompatible technologies within the EU.
The coordination and implementation of RIS services at European level is done with partners from European countries in the context of several EU-projects, such as the IRIS Europe projects. Above all, the international data exchange and the further development of the RIS infrastructure are to be implemented partly with coordination of viadonau together with its partners. All essential services of RIS are based on standards provided by the European Union, the UN/ECE, the Danube Commission and the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine.
For details please visit www.ris.eu
