Committee Dashboards

About the MASS Group

Chair:
Maarten Berrevoets,
IPW, the Netherlands

Vice Chair:
Captain M. Segar,
MPA, Singapore

Group Committee representatives

  • VTS – Neil Trainor
  • ARM – Jakob Bang
  • ENG – Alwyn Williams
  • DTEC – Jillian Carson-Jackson

Background

At its 72nd  session, the Council discussed the development of MASS and reaffirmed its position that there is a need to increase focus on developing MASS related IALA guidance. The Netherlands and Singapore agreed to develop an input paper to PAP on preparing VTS for MASS (PAP41-6.1.5.1).

 In the current work programme, the ENAV committee is in the lead of developing MASS related guidance and a virtual workshop on Marine Aids to Navigation in the autonomous world has been planned. The workshop will take place in May 2021, shortly after IMO MSC 103, enhancing the workshop discussion with the results of the IMO MASS Regulatory Scoping exercise (RSE).

Related documents

  • C71-8.5.1 The impact of MASS on VTS (the Netherlands)
  • VTS49-8.2.4 Scoping exercise on the implications of MASS on VTS documents (China MSA)
  • C72-11.1.2 Committee Work Programme for 2018-2022

Recalling the first article of the Constitution, it is believed that the discussion on MASS within the association should be broadened to encompass all types of Marine Aids to Navigation, which includes VTS. This would ensure that all types of services rendered by members are taken into account. For the same reason, the scoping exercise should include all IALA publications. The work undertaken by the association should include:

  1. Identifying possible future scenarios while considering the evolution of MASS;
  2. analysing the possible impact of MASS on Marine Aids to Navigation;
  3. identifying the future requirements on Marine Aids to Navigation service; and
  4. identify possible MASS related work items for the IALA committees.

The papers referenced above provide further background and proposed work items.

Given the diversity of issues involved and in order to facilitate the organisation and coordination of future work, it is expected that a cross-committee group could be established under the auspices of PAP.

The group should be composed of a chair and a vice chair appointed by PAP, one representative from each technical committee appointed by the chairs, as well as 3 to 4 subject matter experts at the discretion of the group chair.

Terms of Reference

The purpose of the group is to facilitate MASS related work within IALA and focus the work on developing relevant guidance to members.

The group meets periodically to discuss MASS developments, study national and regional MASS projects and progress MASS related work across the technical committees.

The group reports to the Policy Advisory Panel which assigns the groups work and decides on its composition.

The IALA Secretariat provides secretarial support to the group.

The initial deliverables of the group are:

  1. a schedule of the work indicating deadlines for deliverables.
  2. a report on possible MASS scenarios and their impact on Marine Aids to Navigation;
  3. a scoping exercise and a report on the impact of MASS on IALA publications; and
  4. a report on possible MASS related work items for the IALA committees;

The group provides regular progress reports to PAP and submits relevant informative inputs to the technical committees, informing them about MASS developments.

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