The inland waterways are an important part of the freight transport system of the Netherlands. In the coming years, a lot of maintenance and construction works are needed to keep the network operational. This can temporarily impact the availability of the waterways section which can have negative effects on the performance of inland vessels and the waiting time for locks at alternative routes. In this research a method was developed that can be used to study these effects. In the method AIS data is used to analyze several aspects the inland waterways transport system. Additionally, a simulation model was developed in which the results of the AIS analysis are used to create an accurate representation of the system. The method was applied to case study to determine the applicability. It was concluded that the developed method can be applied when studying the effects of planned maintenance and construction works, but it is best used to estimate where the impacts are expected to be high
rather than to calculate exact results.