Concept of the integrated maritime data environment as a framework for European integrated and comprehensive shipping monitoring data exchange system

Effectiveness of the contemporary maritime transport depends largely on already implemented intelligent shipping and maritime environment monitoring systems, which are simultaneously responsible for improvement of the maritime transportation process, management and widely understood safety and security. Recently noticed, diversification of existing shipping monitoring systems is based on a different range of covered areas, direct benefits for end-users as well as technical specifications of modern maritime sensors. Nowadays, a totally new approach has been developed as a response to growing demand for integration of all existing maritime systems and building a common platform for maritime data exchange. This solution is expected to be a cost-effective tool in gathering, transforming and dissemination of an integrated and comprehensive recognized maritime picture and relevant maritime data. This paper represents the holistic approach to identification of important factors having impact on possible implementation of such a system. The working hypothesis stating that there are systematic reasons for implementation of a single, common and integrated platform of maritime data exchange has been positively proved. As an example of efforts already taken by European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) on the EU seas, the experimental Integrated Maritime Data Environment (IMDatE) solutions have been presented.