Inland waterway transport (IWT) is one of the three main modalities for inland transport of dry, liquid and containerized cargo. As IWT performs well on cost-competitiveness, environmental friendliness, and congestion-related issues, authorities strive to shift freight transport from road to water. Inland waterway connections, however, are vulnerable to the growing impact of climate change. A combination of higher temperatures and more extreme seasonal differences in precipitation is expected to increasingly impact river discharge in the future. In summer, this will result in low water events happening more frequent and more intense. The effects of climate change on IWT could result in a reduced annual transport capacity, thereby weakening the reputation of IWT and increasing the costs of cargo shipment. The objective of this research is to provide more insight into the consequences of climate change-induced low discharges on the performance of IWT and to assist in making justified adaptation decisions. During this research, an IWT performance model has been developed that is capable of studying the capacity and vulnerability of the inland waterway system to low water depths, and simultaneously can be used to propose measures to strengthen the position of IWT. To assess the quality of the logistic simulations, the model has successfully been subjected to a number of validity tests. Consequently, the model was calibrated on two parameters that have a high uncertainty and a significant impact on the simulation. After calibration, the model shows correlation coefficients of r=0.794 and r=0.921 so that it can be concluded that the results of the IWT performance model are relatively accurate with reality. Daily projections of the water depth on the Rhine are obtained by extrapolation of the representative, dry year 1976 with two climate scenarios to the year 2050. The water depths encountered have been compared to the base scenario. To put into perspective these impacts, a model run for the reference scenario of 2018 has been incorporated in the comparison. It follows from this thesis that low discharges, in combination with navigational restrictions, could cause substantial losses for the IWT in 2050 in terms of transported cargo and transport costs. Following from literature, the accurate modelling of IWT should include various local effects that follow from regulations, fleet composition or waterway characteristics. This research is the first study on the impact of low water depths on the IWT performance that does not take the load factor as the only variable but that includes other network parameters as the active fleet size and the number of trips to provide a comprehensive picture of the IWT performance in periods of low discharge.

This paper is the result of the first collaboration project between Delft University of Technology and Sohar University. The project team consisted of 6 core- members from both Sohar University and TU Delft along with 5 more students, together appointed to help find an answer for a problem stated by Sohar Industrial Port Company and Majis Industrial Services. This paper proposes a deep seawater intake for the cooling water system of Sohar Industrial Port, Oman. In the region’s summers, surface water temperatures tend to rise to very high levels. Among other things, this results in inefficient cooling of the processes associated with the steel manufacturers, petrochemical plants, refineries and power plants present in the port. The proposed inlet subtracts water 4 km offshore at an average temperature of 24.9 ±C. Using this colderwater, the demand is expected to go downwith approx. 2% in the winter and 16% in the summer, saving system capacity and pumping costs. The 2,148 MW generated power at Sohar port is expected to increase efficiency by 0.72%. Furthermore, the coastal waters are vulnerable to algal blooms. These toxic algae can not be filtered out efficiently and lead to temporary closure of the desalination plants (mainly Reverse Osmosis) causing a threat to the drinking water supply in the entire north of Oman. This paper concludes however that there is not an (economically) feasible inlet location that is unaffected by the algal blooms. Other water characteristics such as turbidity and organic content are also expected not to show significant improvement at the proposed inlet location but more elaborate measurements should validate this. A technical feasibility study was conducted to find the optimal system design. Multiple alternative materials being metals, alloys, HDPE and concrete have been investigated to serve as water conveyors to transport the water from the inlet to the shore. A possible design for the off-shore water inlet structure was made as well as a recommended design for the connection of the pipelines with the current facilities. Site selection, material selection, friction head loss calculations, pipeline sizing, concrete ballast weights, seabed pipeline stability and planning have been discussed in this report. Finally, a financial feasibility study has been conducted. A model was built and costs have been quantitatively estimated based on the technical design. Benefits have been quantified where possible and if not, were qualitatively described. It is concluded that it is not financially feasible to build a deep seawater intake for the entire port. Building a limited-scale variant, only providing RO and power plants, is a better solution but still unfeasible. Recommendation is done to scrutinise the processes within power plants and RO-plants further as their potential benefits are considerable.