Application of Radar Observation on Improvement of Buoyage System in Bulgarian Teritorial Waters

Aids to navigation play a critical role in ensuring the safety of shipping in coastal areas, traffic separation schemes, fairways and approaches to ports. Originally designed as shore-based or floating facilities aimed at supporting visual means of navigation and later, radar observation, nowadays they are high-tech facilities based on the use of the achievements of information and communication technologies, renewable energy sources and waste-free technologies. This allows them to be easily integrated into vessel traffic management and information systems (VTMIS), to control their location and status, providing temporary or permanent marking of areas, dangerous for navigation, reliable and recognizable visualization onboard ships, equipped with modern integrated bridge navigation systems and operating in the areas concerned. The research carried out with the present work aims to highlight the problems and to propose acceptable solutions regarding the design and construction of coastal systems of aids to navigation in order to improve the safety of navigation. The present paper describes some ideas and experimental studies aimed to improve the buoyage system in Bulgarian territorial waters by integration of data from different sources, provided by Bulgaria VTMIS.