Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2032Show full title

4. STRUCTURE OF NTS AND ENCODING OF NTS MESSAGES U.K.

This chapter describes the structure and encoding of standardised electronic NtS messages.

An NtS message is a structured message using standardised elements, wherever possible. The use of free text in the data elements shall be restricted to a minimum.

The standardised NtS extended markup language (XML) schema definition, referred to as XSD in this standard, contains the standardised code values and possible formats is included in Appendix C.

The standardised code values and the XML tags, their meaning and translation are provided in the NtS Reference Tables in Appendix E and are also available electronically in the European Reference Data Management System (ERDMS) operated by the European Commission.

4.1. General structure U.K.

An NtS message consists of the following sections:

(a)

identification section;

(b)

section defining the applicable object(s) or fairway section(s) the message is related to;

(c)

limitation(s) for a fairway and traffic related message, measurement(s) for a water related message, ice condition(s) for an ice related message or weather report(s) for a weather related message.

Figure 1 Notice to Skippers message structure U.K.

4.1.1. Identification section U.K.

Each message must contain an identification section. The identification section contains general information about the issuer and date of publication of the message.

4.1.2. Fairway and traffic related message U.K.

The fairway and traffic related message contains information for fairway section(s) or object(s), and it is used to indicate limitation(s) for the following purposes:

(a)

‘Warning’: relevant for safety. The warning must contain at least one limitation that results in direct and concrete endangerment of persons, crafts or facilities, such as welding works on a bridge producing sparks, inspection cage/workers hanging from a bridge, obstacle in the fairway,

(b)

‘Announcement’: relevant for voyage planning or safety. The announcement may contain limitations, such as blockage of a lock chamber due to maintenance works, dredging on the fairway,

(c)

‘Info service’: general information that is not directly linked to voyage planning or safety. The info service must not contain specific limitations, therefore it is not directly relevant to voyage planning or safety. Such information might include general information such as local rules of traffic, Inland ECDIS Update.

4.1.3. Water related message U.K.

The water related section contains values or predictions for:

(a)

water level;

(b)

least sounded depth;

(c)

vertical clearance;

(d)

barrage status;

(e)

discharge;

(f)

regime.

Usually, water related information is created and published automatically based on data received from sensor equipment (such as tide gauge), systems (such as water level model) or infrastructure (such as barrage status). There may be different triggers for publication, such as periodical publication or reaching certain value.

4.1.4. Ice related message U.K.

The ice related message contains information about the actual or predicted ice conditions for fairway section(s). Ice related information is usually generated by competent personnel based on local observation and professional assessment.

4.1.5. Weather related message U.K.

The weather related message contains information about (dangerous) weather conditions for inland navigation.

In order to facilitate the distribution of hydro-meteo information from hydro-meteo networks to skippers, weather related messages may be published.

4.2. Explanation of XML tags and code values in the NtS Reference Tables U.K.

The meaning of the different elements used in the NtS XML schema definition (XSD) is described in the NtS Reference Tables provided in Appendix E. The structure, format and possible values of all XML elements are described in the NtS XSD in Appendix C.

(a)

Latitude and longitude coordinates are encoded according to the World Geodetic System 1984 and are presented in degrees and minutes with at least three, but preferable four decimals ([d]d mm.mmm[m] N, [d][d]d mm.mmm[m] E).

(b)

Decimals in numeric fields are indicated with a decimal point (‘.’). No separators for thousand are used.

(c)

NtS messages shall only use the following units for the values included in the XML message: cm, m3/s, h, km/h and kW, m/s (wind), mm/h (rain) and degree Celsius. National applications may convert the units for user-friendly display.

4.3. Identification of fairway sections and objects in NtS messages U.K.

To fulfil the minimum data requirements for provision of information about objects relevant for Inland navigation as referred to in Article 4(3)(a) of Directive 2005/44/EC, the ISRS Location Code has to be used in the object section. The ISRS Location Code is used to uniquely identify objects and fairway sections and to ensure interoperable RIS Systems and Services (such as to combine information about infrastructure from the RIS Index, Inland ECDIS and NtS for voyage planning).

The ISRS Location Code is a 20-digit alphanumerical code used to establish a unique and standardized relation between objects in River Information Services. It consists of the following mandatory data elements, arranged in four information blocks:

(a)

Block 1: UN/LOCODE (5 letters, alphanumerical), comprising

• Country code (2 digits, alphanumerical)(1), and

• Location code (3 digits, alphanumerical, ‘XXX’ if not available)

(b)

Block 2: Fairway section code (5 digits, alphanumerical, to be determined by the national authority)

(c)

Block 3: Object Reference Code (5 digits, alphanumerical, ‘XXXXX’ if not available)

(d)

Block 4: Fairway section hectometre (5 digits, numerical, hectometre at the centre of the area or ‘00000’ if not available).

The ISRS Location Codes and the reference data of objects are maintained by the Member States in the RIS Index and submitted to the ERDMS operated by the European Commission according to the Maintenance procedures for the RIS Index published on the ERDMS website.

4.4. Rules for encoding of NtS messages U.K.

NtS messages shall be encoded in line with the NtS Encoding Guide for editors (Appendix A) and in line with the NtS Encoding Guide for application developers (Appendix B).

(1)

The UN country codes are defined in accordance with point 2.4.2.12 of the Annex to Commission Regulation (EU) No 164/2010 (OJ L 57, 6.3.2010, p. 1). The UN country codes are identical to the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country codes.