Separation Zones

General Information

North Sea

Baltic Sea

Clyde Marine Region

Adriatic Sea

Separation Zones

File:Layer Separation Zones.png
Layer Info
Category	Activities
Sub-category	Shipping

Description

Separation zones refer to the IMO's "traffic separation scheme", which intends to establish routing measures in the sea’s most busy areas to increase shipping safety.

Traffic routing measures include different types of shipping routes and separation zones. This page is about the separation zones; these include "separation zones", "precautionary areas", and "areas to be avoided".

MSP Challenge

This puts no pressure on the ecosystem.

This layer is only present in the Digitwin North Sea Edition.

Types

• Separation Zones (general designation)

"a zone or line separating traffic lanes in which ships are proceeding in opposite or nearly opposite directions; or separating a traffic lane from the adjacent sea area; or separating traffic lanes designated for particular classes of ship proceeding in the same direction", from IMO, accessed on 2022/04/26.

• Special Zones

An official definition of "special zones" was not found. However, special zones seem to be located on the edge of shipping lanes that have different directions, thus suggesting that navigation in these zones needs extra attention to avoid incidents.

• Areas to be Avoided

"an area within defined limits in which either navigation is particularly hazardous or it is exceptionally important to avoid casualties and which should be avoided by all ships, or by certain classes of ships", from IMO, accessed on 2022/04/26.

• Precautionary area

"an area within defined limits where ships must navigate with particular caution and within which the direction of flow of traffic may be recommended", from IMO, accessed on 2022/04/26.

Metadata

Data Source

Rijkswaterstaat

Original Title

"Separatiezones" or Separation Zones in English.

Description

Not available.

Creation Date

Not available. Layer retrieved on 2019/10.

Methodology

Reprojected the geodata layer to Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (EPSG:3035).

Not applicable.

This layer is not present in the Baltic Sea Edition.

Not applicable.

This layer is not present in the Clyde Marine Region Edition.

Not applicable.

This layer is not present in the Adriatic Sea Edition.