Division 1.2 Primary functions and performance requirements for Notices to Skippers (NtS)

This technical specification for NtS provides rules for the data transmission of fairway information via Internet.

NtS shall:

1. (a)

   provide information related to fairway conditions, traffic, weather, water levels and ice for Fairway Information Services;

2. (b)

   provide automatic translation of the most important content of notices, using standard vocabulary based on code lists (the NtS Reference Tables as provided in Appendix E);

3. (c)

   be provided in a standardised structure of data-sets to facilitate the integration of notices in voyage planning systems;

4. (d)

   be compatible with the data-structure of the RIS Index and Inland ECDIS to facilitate integration of NtS into Inland ECDIS as stipulated by Directive 2005/44/EC of 7 September 2005 on harmonised RIS on inland waterways in the Community.

The technical specifications for NtS facilitate the data-exchange among NtS systems of different countries and towards other applications making use of NtS data, including Inland ECDIS.

Some information contained within NtS messages can be standardised, some cannot.

The standardised part shall cover all the information which is:

1. (a)

   important for the safety of inland navigation (for example: sunken small craft on the right side of the fairway at the Danube, river-km 2010);

2. (b)

   needed for voyage planning including closure of locks and reduction of vertical clearance.

Additional information that is not relevant for safety or voyage planning, including the cause of the closure of a lock, may be given as free text, without automatic translation. The use of free text shall be restricted to a minimum.