Published June 29, 2021
Thanks to the system, managers no longer inspect each buoy and signal by hand: they follow them on a computer or phone.
The new application lets the waterway sector manage the buoys and night channel lights of the national waterway network online, keeping vessels safe and managing waterway infrastructure assets effectively.
Check buoys and lanterns from your phone
Mr Nguyen Van Loan, head of the Infrastructure Management Division of the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration, said that in 2016 the Administration began piloting the management of waterway buoys and lanterns on several national routes using GPS units fitted to the lanterns on the buoys. The aim was to keep buoys, signals and waterway traffic safety in the best possible condition by applying modern technology as effectively as possible.
"The national waterway network is very large: more than 7,000 km are in use across the country. Manual management can't keep up with or respond in time to incidents involving buoys and lanterns, which affects not only costs but also traffic safety on the routes. The world has used this technology for a long time, but in Vietnam we used to have only imported lanterns and equipment, which were very expensive, with complex and costly warranty service.
From 2016, domestic manufacturers were able to supply local products at about half the price, and the Administration started using them in practice, evaluating the results step by step before upgrading and expanding. Today the national waterway network has more than 6,000 lanterns with operating-status monitoring, more than 2,000 of them on buoys with GPS positioning as well," Mr Loan said.
The management of River Management Joint Stock Companies No. 3 and No. 5 said the application has been a breakthrough, giving them online visibility of buoys and signals around the clock. Instead of checking each buoy by hand, staff monitor them on an internet-connected computer or phone and see through the software when a lantern has a problem or a buoy drifts off position (lost signal, insufficient intensity, low power, wrong flash character and so on). Drifting buoys or abnormal lantern signals are located and dealt with quickly, so vessels can pass safely and without delay.
The same signals also go to the traffic safety monitoring centre of the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration or the assigned unit, which supervises the units that maintain the aids to navigation. Positioning also makes it easy to find buoys and lanterns lost in storms, struck by vessels or stolen.
Supervising maintenance and protecting assets
A representative of the Administration said its Director, Hoang Hong Giang, personally directs the use of technology in waterway infrastructure management, and the management software and lanterns continue to be upgraded and refined. The Administration is the first organisation in Vietnam to automate aids-to-navigation management with an integrated system that monitors lantern status and the position of buoys and lanterns over the GSM mobile network.
Recovering drifting and stolen buoys
Thanks to online management, every GPS-equipped buoy and lantern lost since 2016, whether it drifted in a natural disaster or was stolen, has been recovered, improving asset management.
Most recently, on 25 April 2019, a VIJA-218COM lantern stolen from buoy QG182P064 in Vinh Long was found by the maintenance unit in Dong Nai. The police are handling the case.
"The Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration is continuing to improve the management software and the quality of signalling products for the national waterway network, with the aim of covering all national waterways by 2021. Suppliers are selected through tenders as required by law," Mr Loan said, adding that the supervision of maintenance in general, and of aids to navigation in particular, through the application is also being separated from the units that directly maintain the inland waterways.
Mr Nguyen Huy Hoang, Director of VIJA Technologies Co., Ltd, the company that won the tender to supply online-monitored waterway lanterns, said many countries use such applications to manage waterway and marine aids to navigation.
"Applying technology to waterway infrastructure management, including the management of waterway buoys, is in line with the trend towards smart, technology-driven modern transport. VIJA lanterns from VIJA Technologies are used not only in Vietnam but are also exported abroad," he said.
Hong Xiem
