The World Canals Conference reverted to an on-site event in June 2024 after an on-line version in 2023. The event was based in Bydgoszcz in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland, where the Rivers Brda and Wisła (Vistula) meet, along with the old and new Bydgoszcz Canals.
Inland waterways can play a pivotal role in the EU’s efforts to decarbonise the transport system, according to the Council of the European Union. In December 2022, the Council voted to approve the conclusions of the NAIADES III report on ‘Ongoing development of inland waterways transport’.
IWI is a member go the ‘Think Climate’ coalition under the auspices of PIANC (The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure), working on a far-reaching initiative Navigating a Changing Climate.
A milestone in development of the European waterway network for 3000-tonne barges and push-tows was marked on Tuesday 4 October when the 36m-high Niederfinow shiplift was officially opened, on the Havel-Oder Canal.
The first vessel to pass through the new lift, with its striking architecture, was the Waterway Authority’s icebreaker Frankfurt. Barges and tankers up to 115m long can now transport cargoes between the Polish port of Szceczin and Berlin and beyond.
When we visited the site in May 2022, before attending the World Canals Conference in Leipzig, we saw that even a single-barge Polish push-tow had to split to pass through the original lift, opened in 1933, with its usable length of only 83.50m.
Member Navigli Lombardi is hosting the 27th World Canals Conference in Milan on September 1-4. Sign up for the Conference and the pre- and post-conference tours. Also read background news and features on our Blog. The conference/tours page of Euromapping’s on-line shop may also now be used to register for the conference, by agreement with the host organisation, with a discounted fee for current IWI
The 27th World Canals Conference is to be held in Italy for the first time, and will be based in one of the ‘birthplaces’ of European canals: Milan, from Monday 1st to Thursday 4th September 2014. The public agency for development of Milan’s canals, Navigli Lombardi, is putting together a conference that will be both informative and spectacular. Aware of the importance of the event,