Corridor Management is the next step in the development of River Information Services that are described by PIANC and adopted in the EU RIS directive and the EU RIS Guidelines to improve safety, efficiency and reliability of inland navigation including positive effects on the protection of the environment.

Corridor Management as a concept aims at improving and linking existing RIS services on a route or network in order to supply RIS not just locally, but on regional, national and international level. Therefore, Corridor Management will realise support for route planning, voyage planning, transport management and traffic management which are at present, if at all, just available in fragments.

In that respect “Corridor Management” is defined as information services among waterway authorities mutually and with waterway users and related logistic partners in order to optimise use of inland navigation corridors within the network of European waterways.

It is evident that this definition indicates that sharing of information between authorities is required and the cooperation of public and private partners is necessary to improve both the performance of inland navigation and the use of the existing infrastructure.