Assessing the impact of climate change and weather conditions endangering inland waterway navigation

Inland water transportation has been long-recognized as an environmentally friendly and efficient transportation mode. The problem is that the availability and efficiency of inland water transportation are heavily influenced by droughts, floods, and extreme weather conditions, and climate change will worsen it. The influence of these factors on inland waterways can be mitigated by soft measurements, such as providing information services. This study aims to reveal the most influential weather conditions and relevant information service functions covering shipment, as well as loading and storage at ports. Hence, deep interviews and an online questionnaire were conducted with relevant stakeholders. The most influential weather conditions were low water for shipment, intense precipitation and storm for loading, and high water for storage. The transportation planning could be improved by more than 1-week forecast on low water, a 5-day forecast on high water, floods, and heatwaves, and a 2-day forecast on intense precipitation, wind, and fog. The results highlight the main development areas and functions for information service developers.