GEOMETRIC DESIGN 2 – GMD 711S

WATER TRANSPORTATION
 SEA AND OCEAN TRANSPORTATION
• Movement of people and cargo on bodies of water, consisting of;
– Trans‐oceanic – Ocean (also called Overseas) or sea (also called Coastal)
transport
– Inland transport – Rivers, Canals, Lakes
• It is the oldest mode of transport which have gone through tremendous revolution
and development through innovation
• Its vehicles range from huge ships to smaller watercraft (boats) used for recreation
• Today it is no longer a very important mode of passenger transportation, becoming
less popular compared to land transport (road and rail transport)
• However, it is a dominant factor in global trade (supporting international trade)
• Navigability (sufficient amount of water, its depth and width) remains an important
factor for this mode
• Large water bodies are in the form of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers
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 SEA AND OCEAN TRANSPORTATION
• The world has five oceans, over seventy seas and inland lakes and navigable rivers some of
which include;
• The five oceans of the world and their sizes;
1. Pacific Ocean: 64,186,000 sq miles
2. Atlantic Ocean: 33,420,000 sq miles
3. Indian Ocean: 28,350,000 sq miles
4. Southern Ocean: 07,848,300 sq miles
5. Arctic Ocean: 05,106,000 sq miles
• The top six largest seas and their sizes;
1. Mediterranean Sea: 01,144,800 sq miles
2. Caribbean Sea: 01,049,500 sq miles
3. South China Sea: 00,895,400 sq miles
4. Bering Sea: 00,884,900 sq miles
5. Gulf of Mexico: 00,615,000 sq miles
6. Okhotsk Sea:
Geometric Design 00,613,800
2– GMD 711S sq miles
(166,240,977 sq kilometre)
(086,557,403 sq kilometre)
(073,426,163 sq kilometre)
(020,327,004 sq kilometre)
(013,224,479 sq kilometre)
(002,965,018 sq kilometre)
(002,718,193 sq kilometre)
(002,319,075 sq kilometre)
(002,291,880 sq kilometre)
(001,592,843 sq kilometre)
(001,589,735 sq kilometre) 3
 OCEANS AND SEAS OF THE WORLD

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 WATER TRANSPORTATION
• The top ten largest natural lakes and their surface areas;
1. Caspian Sea: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan (372,960 sq km)
• Note that the Caspian sea is considered both, as a lake as well as a sea, as it has
characteristics that are common to both, but has no fresh water
2. Lake Superior: Canada, United States (082,414 sq km)
3. Lake Victoria: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania (069,490 sq km)
4. Lake Huron: Canada, United States (059,596 sq km)
5. Lake Michigan: United States (057,441 sq km)
6. Lake Tanganyika: Burundi, Dem Rep of Congo, Tanzania, Zambia (032,890 sq km)
7. Great Bear Lake: Canada (031,800 sq km)
8. Lake Baikal: Russia (031,494 sq km)
9. Lake Nyasa: Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania (030,044 sq km)
10. Great Slave Lake: Canada (028,400 sq km)
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 WATER TRANSPORTATION
• Top ten longest rivers and their lengths;
1. Nile (Africa) 6,693 km
2. Amazon (South America) 6,436 km
3. Mississippi‐Missouri (North America) 6,238 km
4. Yenisey‐Angara (Asia) 5,981 km
5. Ob‐Irtysh (Asia) 5,569 km
6. Yangtze (Asia) 5,525 km
7. Yellow (Asia) 4,671 km
8. Amur (Asia) 4,352 km
9. Lena (Asia) 4,345 km
10. Congo (Africa) 4,344 km
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 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER TRANSPORT
• Low speed
• Low accessibility
• High capacity
• High capital cost
• Extremely low operating cost per ton‐kilometer
• Environmental impact is relatively low but there is a significant problem on pollution of the
water
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF WATER TRANSPORT
1. Circulation domains
• Geographical – by its physical attributes (Interior Waterways and Transcontinental
Waterways)
• Water covers about 71% of the earth’s (terrestrial) surface
• Strategic – by its control
• Commercial
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– by its usage 7
 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER TRANSPORT
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF WATER TRANSPORT
2. Maritime routes
• Corridors of a few kilometres in width – hazardous navigation
conditions (due to ice and heavy waves)
• Try to avoid discontinuities of land transport
• Function
– Obligatory points of passage – are strategic places
– Physical constraints – coasts, winds, marine currents, depth, reefs, ice
– Political borders

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Geometric Design 2– GMD 711S 9
 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER TRANSPORT
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF WATER TRANSPORT
3. Technical developments and innovations
• Size
– Ship size expresses type as well as capacity
– Each time the size of a ship is doubled, its capacity is cubed
– Largest tankers (ULCC) are around 500,000 dwt
– Largest dry bulk carriers are around 350,000 dwt
– The only constraints in ship size are the capacity of ports and the canals
– It is one of characteristics used to differentiate types of ships
• Speed
– Average speed of ships is about 15 knots (≈ 27.8 km/h)
– A ship can travel about 575 km per day
– Modern ships
Geometric Design have speeds between 25 to 30 knots (46.3 to 55.6 km/h)
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 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER TRANSPORT
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF WATER TRANSPORT
3. Technical developments and innovations
• Specialisation of ships
– This innovation has resulted into different types of ships capable to handle different
types of cargo
– Below are the different types of ships available
• Ship building – i.e. its design and construction
– Ship design and construction takes long;
• Up to 4 months – for container and crude carriers
• Up to 1 year – for cruise ship
• Automation
– Self‐unloading ships
– Computer aided navigation and global positioning systems
– Reduction of crew size needed to operate larger ships
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 SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER TRANSPORT
TYPES OF SHIPS
1. Bulk carriers
2. Container ships
3. Tankers
4. Reefer ships
5. RORO
6. Cruise ships or cruise liner
7. Ocean liner 8.
Ferries
9. Barges
10. Multipurpose ships
11. Special purpose ships
a. Cable layers
b. Tugboats
c. Dredgers
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 SHIP BUILDING

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 SHIP BUILDING

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 SHIP BUILDING

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 Landlocked Countries
4. Landlocked Countries ‐ Maritime enclaves
• Countries that have difficulties to undertake maritime trade
• Require agreements with neighbouring countries
– Access to port facility is made possible through a road, railway line or a
navigable river
• Their involvement in international trade result in;
– Substantial higher transport costs
– May impair economic development

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 LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES IN AFRICA

1. Botswana
2. Burkina Faso,
3. Burundi,
4. Chad,
5. Central African Republic,
6. Ethiopia,
7. Lesotho,
8. Malawi,
9. Mali,
10. Niger,
11. Rwanda,
12. South Sudan
13. Swaziland,
14. Uganda,
15. Zambia,
Geometric Design 2– GMD 711S 16. Zimbabwe 17
 MARITIME ENCLAVES AND ACCESSIBILITY

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 WATER TRANSPORTATION

SEA AND OCEAN TRANSPORTATION

TYPES OF SHIPS, THEIR FUNCTIONS AND

TYPES OF CARGO

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 BULK CARRIERS
• Used to transport bulk cargo
• Bulk cargo is unpackaged cargo in dry form or liquid form like;
– Minerals like
• Oil
• Coal
• Iron ore, etc
• Food items (grains), such as
• Rice
• Maize Grains
• Wheat, etc
• They have box‐like hatches on the deck that slide outboard for
loading
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 BULK CARRIER SHIP

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 LOADING THE BULK CARRIER SHIP WITH ONE TYPE OF BULK CARGO)

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 CONTAINER SHIPS
• Used for transport of containers (containerisation)
• The entire load on these ships is containers

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 CONTAINER SHIPS
• Used for transport of containers (containerisation)
• The entire load on these ships is containers

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 EVOLUTION OF CONTAINER SHIP CAPACITY

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 TANKERS
Used to transport fluid cargo, like;
• Crude Oil
• Petroleum Products
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
• Chemicals
• Vegetable Oils, etc

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 REEFER SHIPS
• Used to transport perishable commodities, like;
– Fruits
– Meat
– Vegetables
– Dairy Products
– Fish, etc
• They have temperature controlled facilities

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 REFRIGERATED CONTAINER SHIP
• Used to transport perishable
REEFER CONTAINER

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 RORO SHIPS
• Designed for wheeled cargo that is loaded directly on board like;
• Vehicles
• Trailers
• Railway Carriages
• They have ramps that allow cargo to be rolled on and off the ship

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 RORO SHIPS
• Designed for wheeled cargo that is loaded directly on board like;
• Vehicles
• Trailers
• Railway Carriages
• They have ramps that allow cargo to be rolled on and off the ship

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 CRUISE SHIP OR CRUISE LINER
• Passenger ships used for pleasure voyages
• Mainly used for tourism as transportation is not a primary purpose

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS, FORMERLY THE LARGEST CRUISE SHIP IN

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THE WORLD
 CRUISE SHIP OR CRUISE LINER
• HARMONY OF THE SEAS, THE CURRENT BIGGEST CRUISE SHIP

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 CRUISE SHIP OR CRUISE LINER

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 OCEAN LINER
• A passenger ship transporting people from one seaport to another
along regular long‐distance routes according to a schedule
• May also carry cargo and sometimes can be used for other
purposes

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 FERRIES
• Designed to carry passengers and (sometimes) their vehicles across relatively short
bodies of water in a shuttle‐type service
• They form part of the public transport systems for waterside Cities and islands
• Some RORO ships operate as ferries in Europe
• The Staten Island Ferry in the United States shuttles commuters between Manhattan
and Staten Island in New York City, the world's busiest ferry route

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 CAR FERRY IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

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 FERRY ACROSS THE DARDANELLES WITH A RAMP

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 FERRY BOAT FROM MELBOURNE TO DEVONPORT

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 A PONTOON FERRY CROSSING THE ZAMBEZI AT KAZUNGULA

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 BARGE
• A flat‐bottomed boat designed for rivers and canal transport
• They may be self‐propelled or moved by tugboats

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 SELF‐PROPELLED BARGE ANDROMEDA IN CANAL AT HANOVER, GERMANY

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 CAR BARGE ON THE DANUBE RIVER

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 BARGES TOWED BY A TUGBOAT ON THE RIVER THAMES IN LONDON

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 MULTI‐PURPOSE SHIP OR GENERAL CARGO SHIPS

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 SPECIAL PURPOSE SHIPS
• CABLE LAYERS
A Cable Laying Ship is created
specifically to cater to the purpose of
laying cable lines underwater. But at the
same time since cable laying work does
not take place round-the-clock and
throughout the year, a Cable Laying Ship
is also additionally used as research
ships to monitor various happenings in
the oceanic and sea waters. A Cable
Laying Ship is built with every modern
gadget required to make the process of
laying the intricate lines of cable on the
oceanic floor simpler. It is enabled with
Dynamic Positioning and Dynamic
Tracking systems which pinpoint the
exact location of the ship in the mid-
ocean and lay the underwater cable
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lines appropriately. 45
 SPECIAL PURPOSE SHIPS
• TUG BOAT
• Used to manoeuvre other vessels by towing or pushing them
– Over the Open Sea
– Through Rivers and Canals
• Also used to tow
– Barges
– Disabled Ships

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 SPECIAL PURPOSE SHIPS
• DREDGER
– Over the Open Sea A marine vessel fitted with a
device(s) to scrap or suck the
– Through Rivers and Canals sediment deposition over a sea
• Also used to tow bed is known as a dredger (The
device used for excavation and
– Barges scraping of the sea bed is called the
– Disabled Ships Dredge).

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 SPECIAL PURPOSE SHIPS
G.

• DREDGER BACKHOE DREDGER

• Used to manoeuvre other vessels by towing or pushing them

– Over the Open Sea
– Through Rivers and Canals
• Also used to tow
– Barges
– Disabled Ships

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Geometric Design 2– GMD 711S 49