The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/510499
www.sea-technology.com May 2015 / st 31 T he Port of Rotterdam (PoR) is a leading global port and by far the largest seaport in Europe—in 2013, more than 130,000 vessels shipped about 440 million tons of cargo through the port. For many goods, PoR is the initial entry point to the European market, which consists of more than 500 million consumers. PoR is geographically constrained and completed a large- scale €1.35 billion expansion in 2013 to meet the projected increase in port traffc. The project, Maasvlakte 2, in the North Sea added 2,000 hectares of land behind a 4-kilome- ter dike. Growing within its geographic limits while remain- ing competitive requires good accessibility by water, train, road and pipelines. At the same time, this growth needs to balance the interests of the community and environmental regulations. Recognizing that this would require optimal and more effcient use of existing assets, PoR decided to invest in a new spatially enabled framework to support performance- based asset management. The platform, based on a geo- graphic information system (GIS), would replace their exist- ing, typically home-grown systems, which were technically obsolete, expensive to maintain, and unable to connect to mobile devices and business systems used across the port. A Goal of Three Mouse Clicks The port authority wanted a platform so user friendly, any user could fnd information for their role at the port within three mouse clicks. They also required an adaptive system to handle facilities management, accommodate mobile devices and integrate with its other corporate information systems: SAP, Microsoft (Sharepoint) and e-docs. PoR also required more of a partnership than a traditional provider- client relationship, especially as the system expanded. In the frst phase, Esri Global (Redlands, California) helped PoR implement ArcGIS and integrate it with key en- terprise business systems, such as SAP, AutoCAD and Mi- crosoft Offce. Esri also built an enterprise geodatabase that houses more than 150 data layers, including port assets, boundaries, parcel land records, utilities data, transporta- tion data, bathymetry, ortho-imagery, nautical charts and lidar data. The fnal data model, a combination of asset management data, land records and nautical data, is unifed through the application of confgured extract-transfer-load (ETL) script- ing that automates the daily ingestion of updated informa- tion into a common picture, which informs the business of the port. In one example, more than 700 electronic naviga- Big Data Management At Port of Rotterdam Using a GIS Platform to Streamline IT at Growing Maritime Hub By Guy Noll • Marten Hogeweg (Photo Credit: Marten Hogeweg, Esri Professional Services) Even though Rotterdam is Europe's largest cargo port, it is much more than a ship- ping hub. The massive industrial complex at the port is a major economic driver for the region.