China News Service, Guangzhou, April 8 (Guo Jun, Chen Xiuhui, Chen Yuanrui) The "Danpole" supervision station of the Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration Vessel Traffic Management Center (hereinafter referred to as the "Guangzhou VTS Center") was officially put into trial operation on the 8th, marking a key step in the expansion project of core water supervision in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
Relying on the technical support of the country's first purely domestically produced Vessel Traffic Management System (VTS), the supervision station will realize regular and precise supervision of complex waters such as the Dangan Waterway and Wailingding in the Pearl River Estuary, and build a solid safety defense line for the high-quality development of shipping in the Greater Bay Area.
The "Dangan" supervision station of the Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration Vessel Traffic Management Center (hereinafter referred to as the "Guangzhou VTS Center") was officially put into trial operation on the 8th. Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration
As the water transportation hub of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Pearl River Estuary is one of the waters with the densest ship traffic and the most complex navigation environment in the world. The average daily ship traffic exceeds 5,000 vessels. It undertakes the core functions of cross-border logistics and passenger transportation in the Greater Bay Area. It is the only expressway in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In terms of passenger ships, the daily average daily traffic exceeds 200, and the daily average number exceeds 400 during the Spring Festival and summer island tour peak periods. Among them, the second warning zone of the traffic separation system of Dangan Waterway is connected to the traffic separation section of East Lammao Waterway in Hong Kong, and the navigation environment and traffic flow are more complex. The launch of the "Dangang" monitoring station will carry out normalized VTS management and control of the Dangan Water Channel Traffic Separation System, Guangdong's main coastal public waterways, and recommended fishing routes in Dangan waters, focusing on ensuring the safety of key vessels such as high-speed passenger ships, cross-border freighters, and liquefied gas ships in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.
In the past, my country's coastal VTS system construction relied on foreign technology, and there were potential risks to the security of core equipment and data. This situation will completely change in 2023 – the Pearl River Estuary VTS new system upgrade and transformation project has passed the delivery acceptance. The country's first purely domestic VTS system adapted to high-traffic and extremely complex navigation environments has been officially launched, breaking the foreign technology monopoly. The system adopts the "19 stations and 2 centers" architecture, integrates the latest radar signal processing technology, and successfully overcomes industry problems such as stable multi-target tracking and multi-source data fusion display. Its comprehensive performance has reached the international advanced level, and some core indicators surpass similar foreign products. Feng Suoqi, director of the Guangzhou VTS Center, told reporters that after the system realized the localization of the entire chain, it not only solved the "stuck neck" problem of the core technology, but also greatly improved the compatibility with domestic radars, and the transmission quality and operating efficiency were significantly improved.
With the help of technological innovation, the waters of the Pearl River Estuary have achieved blind coverage of radar, very high frequency (VHF), and automatic identification system (AIS) signals, achieving the full-chain supervision goal of "visible, responsive, and manageable". Since the launch of the localized system, the Guangzhou VTS Center has issued more than 750,000 safety reminders and carried out more than 25,000 transportation arrangements. The incidence rate of water traffic accidents in the jurisdiction has continued to decline, providing safety guarantee for the Greater Bay Area's annual port throughput of 1.5 billion tons and 75 million TEU container transportation.
"With the advancement of capacity expansion, the dynamic tracking capabilities of the Pearl River Estuary VTS have been further enhanced. Key ships such as cargo ships and liquefied gas ships that were originally outside the VTS regulatory coverage area and entering and exiting Hong Kong will all be included in the regulatory vision of the Guangzhou VTS Center." The person in charge of the Guangzhou VTS Center introduced to reporters. (over)
