Navigation conditions and the risk management in inland waterway transport on the middle Danube

Water transport could be the backbone of the future European combined transport system. The development of the cargo transport in river traffic depends directly on technical-exploitative characteristics of the network of inland waterways. Research of navigational abilities of inland waterways always comes before building ships or making a transport schedule. It is known that the size of the vessel’s draught (T) is usually the limiting value in project tasks and it depend on the depth of the waterway or certain ports condition. This is the reason why navigation characteristics of rivers have to be determined as precise as possible, especially from the aspect of determination of the possible draught of vessels. Unfortunately, risks in water transport are perhaps an under researched area and consequently, this article outlines a rationale, why it is necessary to develop competence about risk in water transport. Climate changes require special attention and global monitoring. Current risk assessment methods for water transport just consider some dramatic events. We present a new method for the assessment of risk and vulnerability of water transport where river depth represents a crucial part. The analysis of water level changes in the middle Danube was done during the last sixty years.