New Mobile Phone Apps for boaters on the Inland Waterways
4th November 2015
Numericanal is an EU funded project which includes some new mobile phone applications for the recreational boater. The project aims to provide better access to waterway information assist with s safe boating.
Safeguider helps boaters and skippers to find the safest way through busy intersections on the inland waterways, initially in France, the UK and the Netherlands. It also helps them to report any incident, accident or ‘near miss’ that they have witnessed or been involved in while visiting or using waterways in these countries. The information boaters and skippers give will help waterway managers to investigate the cause of the problem, minimise the risk of it happening again and where practical, remove potential hazard.
Safeguider has been developed by Voies navigables de France (VNF), Canal & River Trust (UK) Waterrecreatie Nederland. All busy junctions in France, the UK and the Netherlands have been defined and described. Safeguider is now available for iOS and later this year there should be an Android version.
Pogo has been developed by VNF and will give access to to local information within 30km of the user on an electronic map. Users will be able to upload information to PoGo which will then be visible to other waterway users. It is available for iOS and later this year for Android.
Both of these applications are in their infancy and will be loaded with more information in the future.
Further developments under Numericanal sponsorship include an app for bridge operation on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal in UK, local information in the Eijsden-Margreten (Maaastricht and Lanaye) area of the Netherlands and also in Eindhoven.