ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SHAPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORTATION: THE CASE OF TORUN

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1 Maria Stawicka-Walkowska *) Bartosz Felski **) Marek Ptaszynski ***) ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SHAPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORTATION: THE CASE OF TORUN 1. Introduction The increasing intensity of inland transportation, and in particular road transport, has led not only to surging environment pollution, but also to a significant decrease of Europe s motorway capacity. This has forced us to seek alternative solutions for transport and communication in Europe. One of the possible solutions to this problem that is the idea currently being investigated by EU organizations of extending the existing inland waterways eastward. This aims at creating a system of inland waterways (see exhibit 1[1]) that would link the following destination points: the Baltic and Northern Sea harbors in the north with the Mediterranean and Black Sea harbors in the South, the Gdansk Bay Area with the system of European inland harbors, the System of European inland harbors with the existing waterway systems of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. As far as Poland and its place in the general system of inland waterways is concerned, the Vistula river and its basin despite its currently low transport capacity and need for technical modernization plays an important role in this system. The introduction of the Vistula into the system offers two important possibilities: a north to south connection of the Vistula waterway with the Danube (and in consequence, establishing an inland connection between the Baltic and the Black Sea) a west to east connection using the existing Warta channels, the Vistula, and the Bug river to establish a connection between existing western waterway systems and the eastern systems of the Dnieper and Prypec rivers. *) **) ***) Prof. dr hab. Eng. Arch. Faculty of Architecture Gdansk University of Technology M. sc. Eng. Arch. Ph. D. student at Gdansk University of Technology M. sc. Eng. Arch. graduate of the Faculty of Architecture Gdansk University of Technology 1

2 Fig. 1 European Inland Waterways ( The development of inland waterways is appealing because of its pro-ecological character, which entails its minimal degree of harm to the natural environment, and the low direct-costs of transport. The fundamental limitation of said development of Poland s inland waters is that of the lack of appropriate transport means (ones conducive to managing a given route with regard to technical difficulties) and the unsatisfactory state of the infrastructure. For such infrastructure has to provide complete technical services, as well as the social and administrative requirements for vessels all in accord with upholding the priority of ecological imperatives. The complex proposals of the group of projects covering the selected problems related to this topic was undertaken by the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology of the Gdansk University of Technology 1). One of the complex research proposals for the Baltic Sea transportation system, one that was elaborated and launched for research projects under the aegis of the EU s Eureka program, is: INCOWATRANS A New Generation of Environment Friendly Inland and Coastal Ships for Polish East West Waterways. Project Eureka E! The main task of this project is to create technically advanced, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient ships, ones boasting low emissions and amounts of waste, that could be used not only for the transport of goods and products, but also for tourist purposes. The cruising routes of passenger ships would include certain stages with stops at chosen destination points offering the necessary infrastructure for harboring (including facilities for the safe and environmentally friendly disposal of the ships waste for further treatment outside the base), hotel accommodation, sport and recreation facilities for tourism, as well as the necessary infrastructure allowing the service and small repairs of the vessels 2). The 1) 2) Internal research projects and grants funded by KBN, as well as within the European Union s V-th Framework Programme. Project Eureka INCOWATRANS E! 3065, A new Waterways. Main premises for the modular inland tourist ship, elaborated by Prof. Krzysztof Rosochowicz, General Coordinator of the project. 2

3 proposal of the necessary measures to provide this will be covered in detail in a separate expert work that will be submitted by subcontracting teams of the Eureka project). Fig. 2. 3) The index of the Participants of the Projects System for the Baltic Sea under the aegis of the EU s Eureka program. This project is in an initial stage of elaboration. Thus, as yet we cannot present the concrete effects of its development. However, the objective of this brief paper is to but to call attention to the need of a thorough-going approach to the possibilities of taking-over roadway goods and passenger transport by inland waterways, in heed of the pro-ecological and economic aspects of this solution. 2. General premises pertaining to the lay of routes and the choice of stoppage places The network of waterways as foreseen by the ICOWATRANS project runs through the riverside areas of the Warta, Notec, Vistula, and Bug rivers. The appropriate development of connections between the areas highly appraised for their cultural merits (the cities of Bygdoszcz, Torun, Wloclawek, Warsaw) and those of great value for their natural qualities (the National Park at the Warta s outlet, the Notec Forest, the Bydgoszcz Forest, the Kampinos National Park, the Bug River Scenic Park, the Biala Forest areas which are rich bio-regions) is a matter which requires the utmost of far-sighted stewardship. The introduction into these areas of new types of environmentally friendly river-going vessels will not disturb the present ecological conditions. However, the danger of this type of threat does exist in regard to the stage stoppage bases for the communication centers as planned. For this requires the construction of riverside facilities, proper port infrastructure, and logistical needs. 3) Eureka Projects Group. Baltic Sea Transportation System (BSTS); General coordinator: Prof. Krzysztof Rosochowicz. 3

4 Riverfronts in urbanized areas generally developed in step with the expansion of ports or stoppages and entailed factors contributing to a city s growth and to that of local industry in the vicinity of rivers, being as they were until the Industrial Revolution, a driving force of development. The ecological and economic aspects of waterway transport creates the need of formulating rules for the architecture of inland waterway fronts in close regard to the character of the place of investment (i.e, the zoning context, the social context, the economic context). This also involves the need to identify both the threats and the opportunities that arise from a new approach to shaping waterfronts and creating a veritable model network of places for tourist services on inland water routes. Much here can be drawn from analogous experience on roadways. The emergence of such waterway facilities would ensure the creation of social, administrative, and service facilities that would bring about the development of a nexus between rivers and the land, between nature and people and it would allow (in chosen stoppage points) an encounter not only with the wealth of Poland s scenic landscape, but also with the cultural and architectural riches of our country. The tasks laid out by the INCOWARTRANS project for the creation of a modular solution of hotel-recreation complexes that could pose the relevant infrastructure for rivertourism stoppage bases wherever that might be whether in urban and wild areas requires appropriate technical solutions, ones that heed universal architectural standards, and construction material solutions that permit the desirable configuration of individual elements and utilize modern technologies that promote protection of the natural environment (i.e., solar power to aid in conventional heating). The initial concepts for this type of solutions are presented in Figure 3. The initial requirement for the INCOWATRANS project is that of creating a universal coastal and inland vessel that in its tourist version would provide basic hotel accommodation for its passengers. Any longer periods of harboring for technical reasons (fueling, loading food stuffs, unloading waste and sewage for further neutralization and treatment) should be undertaken at a place attractive for tourists, and where disembarkation for land sightseeing routes and on-land hotel accommodation is provided. Cross section technical solutions of residental segments Fig. 3. The concept of solutions for modular hotel facilities for stoppage points in waterway tourism. 4

5 Thus, this Project includes the investigation of the range of possible solutions for the: technical solutions allowing harboring (mooring) and the provision of supplies to the vessel, including the possibility of delivering the necessary products and technical materials via smaller delivery boats (water trams, etc.), hotel infrastructure of the vessel allowing for bed and breakfast accommodation, facilities offering a full range of amenities for tourists and the organization of entertainment, conferences, and meetings, sport and recreation infrastructure in the harboring base including swimming pools, organization of cultural attractions and sightseeing routes within the range of a onehour bus ride or water tram route (maximum 10-hour total routes for places available by water transport from the harboring base). During the stay at the harboring base the tourists should have the possibility to organize private sightseeing routes by foot or using local transport, electric or traditional car rentals. As the basic requirement of the program is to use the harboring base and its neighboring areas as natural parks for the recreation of the citizens of the city, its architectural conception should foresee the possibility of further gradual and modular development of the zone and its functions [2]. Generally, the localization of waterway tourist stoppage bases (and their categories) is dependent on the following conditions: - technical and exploitational (with the periodic choice of vessels), the offloading of wastes for treatment, taking on food stuffs, technical examination of vessels; - environmental (the possibility of using existing or creating new port infrastructure); - cultural, landscape (in special regard to the merits of each given region); - social and economic (i.e., the interests of local authorities, the organization of infrastructure that serves and stimulates the flow of material and non-material goods as an essential source of regional development. An example of such a place that fulfills all the above localization conditions is the City of Torun. For these reasons Torun is foreseen as the site of the modular base for the purpose of waterway tourism. 3. The City of Torun characteristics of the location point for the first modular base The city of Torun is located at the northern route of Poland s inland waterways. The route starting from Berlin goes first in the direction of the Odra river, and then further through the Warta and Notec rivers eastward, thereafter turning north through the Vistula to enter the Gdansk Bay Area with Elblag and Konigsberg right beyond it. The route then proceeds back west via Baltic Sea to Berlin. Torun, a centuries-old city on the banks of the Vistula, is located at the crossing of the main communication routes from the Baltic Sea to the center and south of Poland, and from the western to the eastern regions of Poland. 5

6 Because of these attributes and the central location of Torun, this city has been chosen as the localization point of the modular harbor base. It is also a point at which part of the goods vessels could be disembarked to multimodal ships with destination points in Ukraine and Belarus. As far as the tourist merits of the city are concerned, Torun is one of the most wellknown cities in Poland. That is thanks to its rich history, its tradition connected to Mikolaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born in Torun) and the Old Town, which is one of the most beautiful in Europe and which, because of its preservation, is on the list of the World s Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO. The conscientiousness preservation of the natural and cultural values of the city, which includes around 340 items currently registered as artistic monuments 9), makes this city an especially attractive point for tourism purposes. The choice of Torun as a location point for a modular harbor base for the purpose of inland transport, as well as the development of both domestic and foreign river tourism, enjoys the full support of local authorities. According to the description of the existing investment plans for the Vistula river 5), the possibility for further development of harbor infrastructure on the Vistula River and the plans for the construction of new tourism and recreation centers near the river are all aimed at increasing the existing tourism merits of the city and its adjacent areas lying on the banks of the river. This development will allow the creation of a green center for the city whose value will systematically increase by locating within it the functions resulting from the constant monitoring of the citizens needs i.e., realizing the idea of creating an open recreation center, including bicycle paths, sight-seeing trails, recreation places for disabled people, inland harbor for water sport and tourism 6). Given the fact that the rules for investment in water zones are practically non-existent (apart from the rules deriving from the general aquatic law ), and given the fact that the development and preservation of river zones is generally not a primary concern in Poland, the initiative of the authorities of the City of Torun is an example of an enlightened understanding of inland waterways and their importance in balancing increasing social and civilization needs with the preservation of the natural environment. Based on the local investment plan for the development of the City of Torun and its proecological communication systems, the city s Winter Port neighboring zone was selected as the best location point for the modular base. (see illustration no. 4 point 1). This zone has very good communication routes along with major car routes and is located closely to the foremost tourist attraction of the city Torun s Old Town. It also directly neighbors the harboring station, which is currently being used during winter season for harboring river barges, and could possibly be used as a harboring point for the newly designed hotel-vessels, i.e., for disembarkation and offloading sewage for further neutralization on land, as well as for undertaking all necessary maintenance repairs of vessels. From the logistical point of view the selection of this base would simultaneously allow: mooring at the Vistula s existing embankment (Fig. 4 and 5 - see point no. 2) and disembarkation of passengers to the newly designed modular base, Fig. 4. Functional diagram of the main architectural premises of the module stage base (connections with the neighborhood). 5) 6) The City Hall of Torun materials regarding investment in the area of the Vistula and revitalization of the Old Town zone response to INCOWATRANS Project ( ). As above. 6

7 entrance by the passengers wishing to use their cabins during their stay at the city to the Winter Port (see point no. 1), which neighbors the planned recreation base (see point no. 3) pedestrian and bike communication local communication stopover pedestrian communication Technical service Inland waterway communication Fig. 3 Functional diagram of main architectural assumptions of module stage base(connections with the neighbourhood). Dominant architectural element Urban opening View axis Fig. 4 Functional diagram of main architectural and urbanistic elements(localisation of module stage base and its viewpoints) 7

8 With this localization both groups of passengers would have the possibility to use hotel infrastructure and would be only a few minutes away by foot from the City s Old Town and the Higher Sea School hotel (see point no. 4), which is currently being modernized and could be used in the future as an alternative accommodation point for passengers. Further advantages of this localization include its wonderful view of the Natural History Park of Kepa Bazarowa (see point no. 5), of the XV century Royal Castle (also known as the Dybowski Castle see point no. 6), and the nearby localization of the planned small sailing and small boat harbor at the mouth of Small Vistula river (see point no. 7). This is harmonized with the Project for the revitalization of the Castle s ruins (approved by the City s Monuments Office), with a planned function not only as a museum, but also as a site for exclusive hotel rooms, restaurants, and panorama on the Old Town. Right next to it is a residential quarter boasting interesting examples of pre-wwii architecture and the remains of fisherman housing. Looking further ahead, there is a planned construction of sight-seeing trails that would lead from the Dybowski Castle and leave the landscape of the Kepa Bazarowa untouched. The modernization of the Natural History Park and the trail over the Small s Vistula s foot-bridge to the existing viewpoint (see point no. 8) will allow a panoramic view of the City s Old Town. The planned sailing, small boat and ferry harbor nearby (see point no. 9) will allow the joining of the left bank of the City with Philadelphia Boulevard (see point no. 10). This will provide an alternative for the city s road bridges and will bring closer the Podgórze city zone to the center of the city. Based on the INCOWATRANS program and Torun s Town Hall investment plan for the city s Vistula River zone, the major goal of the project is to create a complex vision of water communication between the city s most alluring features, ones that join the past with the future, and to revitalize the precious recreation areas on the left bank of the river by introducing them as part of Torun s tourist attractions. Dybowski s castle localization Fig. 6. View to the Natural History Park of Kepa Brzozowska and the localization of the Dybowski Castle (special thanks to M.Sc Archeology Ms Lidia Grzeszkiewicz-Kotlewska) 8

9 The creation of an alternative form of lodging on land, in a complex of modular houses (fig. 7) that can be placed as desirable, is foreseen on the areas designated for the construction of the stage stoppage bases. Fig. 7. Sample application of module solutions at the Water Tourism Stage Base in Torun by the Winter Harbor 5. Summary The development of transport systems using the connections between inland waterways is an alternative to roadways. Introducing new types of inland and coastal ships that are technically advanced and environmentally friendly including modern technical solutions having pro-ecological components and systems to decrease the level of harmful emissions and the amount of waste further increases attractiveness of this type of communication, which (apart from its economy advantages) also has significant ecological merits. Moreover, shifting car transport onto waterway routes shall relieve the burden on land roads on an international scale, increasing their flow capacity and safety and decreasing the level of atmospheric contamination and noise pollution in areas directly adjacent to them. The development of water transport, both in goods and tourists, requires the creation of stage stoppage bases and river embankments. These bases are necessary for the reason of ship media intake, handing over waste and other materials for disposal, making small repairs, and acquiring food provisions. The location of these bases, conditioned by 1) the maximum distance that a ship can make without technical stoppage, 2) the location of existing port infrastructure, and by 3) optimal construction conditions, is dependent upon cultural and landscape considerations, ones entirely essential from the point of view of tourism. An important social aspect of constructing this type of base, especially one that expects to accommodate tourists and to organize an attractive stay for them, is the creation of additional jobs for local people in the organization and servicing of the necessary hotel and recreation infrastructure something that can be used both during and after the tourist season. 9

10 Providing access to local tourism and sightseeing attractions, directing attention in particular to natural monuments, scenic parks, objects of material culture together with their history this is a presentation of the cultural heritage of a given region. The care for its preservation is one of the elements of sustainable development such as taking into account the environmental costs of the construction and exploitation of a stage base. [1] Literature [2] Rosochowicz K.: Baltic Sea Transportation System, Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship technology; Department of Ship Manufacturing Technology, Quality Systems and Materials Science description of research projects under the aegis of the EU s program. [3] Rosochowicz K.: project Eureka INCOWATRANS E! 3065 A New generation of environmentally friendly inland and coastal ships for Poland s system of East-West waterways. Framework design premises for articulated inland passenger ship, Gdansk, December