Optimization of safe navigability conditions in shallow inland waters: The Routinav app

Safe navigation in inland waters subjected to tide requires dedicated forecasts of meteorological and oceanographic variables, such as local tidal height, currents, wind and atmospheric pressure. Indeed, it is more difficult to navigate inland shallow waters subjected to intense morphologic dynamics, and therefore characterized by the non-linearity of the tidal height propagation throughout the channels, traduced by important changes in tidal amplitude and phase, especially when no navigation aids are installed. In this context, this work objective is a mobile application (Routinav) development that allows simulating the navigability conditions in inland shallow waters. Firstly, a monitoring system was installed on volunteer boats and validated in Ria de Aveiro, showing high accuracy in depth and position acquisition. Secondly, was designed and applied an algorithm allowing the identification of navigable and non-navigable route segments, according to the updated depth and forecasted tidal height by the hydrodynamic model. Based on this algorithm, was created an agile prototype used to build up the Routinav mobile application for iOS (iPhone OS) and Android operating systems.