What's the navigation aids?
Definition of Navigation Aids
The facilities, including lighthouse, light beacon, unlighted beacon, buoy, radio signal station, or radio direction signal station, that provide the vessels traveling the port, straits, internal waters, territorial sea, or EEZ of Republic of Korea with the data by means of lights, mark, color, sound and radio wave.
Need and Importance of Navigation Aids
Amid growing demand for marine transport, nations in the global market have been expanding their capacities with larger, high-speed and automated vessels, resulting in drastic environmental changes in navigation aids. The importance of navigation aids, thus, becomes more crucial for the vessels.
The most important for the vessels, among others, is to identify the accurate location of vessel so as to determine the safe and cost-efficient route.
Particularly during approaching to the coast or narrow access, or the route near dangerous objects such as reef, submerged ship or marine structure, or traveling in the night, snow, rain or fog, identifying the location of the ship must be extremely critical and challengeable.
Navigation aids, hence, is to provide the vessel with data enabling to determine the location, making use of lights, marks, colors, sound and radio wave.
Basic Requirements for Navigation Aids
It shall be installed and operated in a way to ensure the safety and effective operation of the vessels as well as to be convenient and distinguishable for every ship.
It also shall be highly reliable and accessible to the users.