CIRCULAR

INLAND WATERWAY SURVEY

Pursuant to Law on Inland Waterway Transport dated June 15, 2004; Law on amendments to Law on Inland Waterway Transport dated June 15, 2014;

Pursuant to Decree No. 12/2017/ND-CP dated February 10, 2017 of Government on functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of Ministry of Transport;

Pursuant to Decree No. 08/2021/ND-CP dated January 28, 2021 of the Government managing inland waterway activities;

At request of Director of Transport Infrastructure Department and Director of Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration;

Minister of Transport promulgates Circular on inland waterway survey.

Chapter I

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Article 1. Scope

This Circular prescribes inland waterway survey.

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Circular applies to organizations and individuals related to inland waterway survey operation.

Article 3. Definition

In this Circular, terms below are construed as follows:

1. “width of inland waterway” is measured at the bottom of the inland waterway based on the cross section of the inland waterway in question and based on technical level of current conditions of inland waterways.

2. “inland waterway route” refers to one or multiple inland waterways whose starting point and ending point are determined specifically.

Chapter II

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Article 4. Classification of inland waterway survey

1. Regular inland waterway survey refers to surveys conducted during regular inspection of inland waterways.

2. Periodic inland waterway survey refers to survey of inland waterway conducted with a determined frequency.

3. Irregular inland waterway survey refers to survey conducted when any irregularity occurs within the inland waterway or protective corridor of inland waterway that can cause loss of safety to inland waterway traffic.

Article 5. Range of survey and scale of inland waterway topographic map

1. Range of inland waterway survey

a) Regular inland waterway survey shall be conducted within the waterway (based on the centerline of the waterway) and shoals mentioned under inland waterway management dossiers;

b) Periodic inland waterway survey shall be conducted within the width of inland waterway and both sides of inland waterway protective corridor towards the bank of the river, channel, canal, lagoon, gulf;

c) Irregular inland waterway survey shall be conducted in the area where the irregularity occurs within the inland waterway and protective corridor of inland waterway. In case of any irregularity that creates new inland waterway, surveying width shall not exceed 3 times the width of the new waterway and not exceed the bank of the river, channel, canal, lagoon, gulf. Length of survey shall be the length of the new inland waterway.

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a) Scales of topographic map serving the purpose of inland waterway survey consists of 1:1.000; 1:2.000 and 1:5.000;

b) Topographic map scale of 1:1.000 applies to irregular inland waterway survey. In case an irregularity creates a new inland waterway, scale of topographic map depending on surveying width shall comply with Point c, Point d, and Point dd of this Clause;

c) Topographic map scale of 1:1.000 applies to up to 50 m of surveying width;

d) Topographic map of 1:2.000 applies to surveying width that ranges from more than 50 m to 300 m;

dd) Topographic map scale of 1:5.000 applies to surveying width of more than 300 m.

Article 6. Frequency of periodic inland waterway survey

1. Frequency of periodic survey of national inland waterway shall be determined based on:

a) Type of inland waterway serving management purposes;

b) Role of inland waterway in inland waterway transport;

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d) Technical grade of inland waterway.

2. Frequency of periodic survey of national inland waterway shall be determined by scoring. A scale of 100 scores shall be used for assessment and determined based on criteria under Appendix attached hereto.

3. Frequency of periodic survey of national inland waterway includes:

a) A frequency of 1 year per survey for waterways with a total score of 85 or higher;

b) A frequency of 3 years per survey for waterways with a total score ranging from 70 to below 85;

c) A frequency of 5 year per survey for waterways with total score of below 70;

d) A frequency of more than 5 years per survey for national waterways whose total scores are mentioned under Point a, Point b, or Point c of this Clause but are situated in lake, lagoon, gulf, channel, canals with great depth according to decision of Ministry of Transport at request of Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration.

dd) A frequency of less than 1 year per survey for waterways, routes of waterway of other countries at estuaries or areas heavily deposited or eroded. Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall rely on the nature, scale, range, and role of an inland waterway to inland waterway transport to request Ministry of Transport to decide on survey frequency.

4. In case of provincial inland waterways, on the basis of criteria under Clause 1 of this Article, Departments of Transport shall request People‘s Committees of provinces to decide on frequency of periodic survey of provincial inland waterways.

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6. In case of inland port waters, Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration and Departments of Transport, within their management authority, shall decide on survey frequency of inland port waters no more than 5 years per survey and direct inland port authorities to survey inland port waters in order to ensure safety for watercrafts.

7. Once every 5 years in the 3^rd Quarter of the last year or whenever necessary, Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration shall update, revise, consolidate, and request Ministry of Transport to publish list of national inland waterways subject to periodic survey for the next 5-year period. Documents presenting the list of inland waterways subject to survey include:

a) Written request for publishing list of inland waterways subject to survey;

b) List of inland waterway subject to survey, including: name of waterway (route), topographic map scale, survey frequency;

c) Assessment and scoring results which determine surveying frequency in accordance with Clause 3 of this Article;

d) Other relevant details (if any).

Article 7. Requirements and contents of inland waterway survey

1. General requirements for inland waterway survey

a) Surveying tasks and technical solutions must be produced depending on type and technical grade of the inland waterways and survey classification;

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c) Survey must adhere to technical surveying tasks and solutions, ensure environmental safety and protection, meet requirements of surveying tasks, and must be inspected, supervised, and commissioned as per the law;

b) Surveying topographic map uses VN2000 coordinate system, local longitude and VN2000 coordinate system, national longitude;

dd) Periodic survey: topographic map must show coordinate, elevation of the bottom, range, centerline, protective corridor, chainage, and signaling system (if any) of inland waterway; water level at the time of measurement, information on topography, administrative division, landmarks, chainage, and works along inland waterway;

e) In case of irregular survey: topographic map must show coordinate and elevation within the surveying range, centerline of inland waterway, chainage, and other relevant information; water level at the time of measurement;

g) In case of regular survey: topographic map must show depth of inland waterway where shoals and obstacles are located; water level at the time of survey; changes of inland waterway signaling devices (if any); other necessary warnings.

2. Contents of periodic and irregular inland waterway survey

a) Surveying tasks and production of technical surveying solutions;

b) Collecting and analyzing data and documents;

c) Field inspection;

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dd) Measuring and monitoring hydrography;

e) Processing data and producing surveying results;

g) Other surveying tasks.

3. Contents of regular inland waterway survey shall comply with regular maintenance standards of inland waterway.

4. Development of electronic hydrographic map shall be prioritized for inland waterway on water transport corridors, primary transport routes, waterways where foreign vessels, watercrafts are operating and updated after each periodic survey.

Article 8. Documents on inland waterway survey

1. Surveying technical tasks and solutions approved by competent authorities as per the law.

2. Reports on consolidated inland waterway surveying results, including measuring and processing surveying data; documents on calculated coordinate and elevation; detail list of currently available inland waterway works and signals (if any).

3. Surveying diary.

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5. Surveying topographic map.

6. Surveying results commissioning dossiers.

7. Data for digitalizing surveying results.

8. Documents on regular survey shall conform to regular maintenance standards of inland waterway.

9. Other relevant documents.

Article 9. Management and use of surveying data

1. Surveying data and documents shall be kept by project developers and authorities entitled to notify inland waterway.

2. Surveying data and documents shall be used for the purpose of notifying inland waterway; managing, maintaining inland waterway; updating and monitoring inland waterway; digitalizing topographic map (if any) and providing surveying database and topographic map.

Chapter III

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Article 10. Entry into force

1. This Circular comes into force from March 01, 2022.

2. Annul Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BGTVT dated June 30, 2016 of the Minister of Transport.

Article 11. Organizing implementation

Chief of the Ministry Office, Chief Inspector of Ministry, Directors, Director of Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration, directors of Transport Departments of provinces and central-affiliated cities; heads of relevant entities and individuals are responsible for implementation of this Circular./.

PP. MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER




Nguyen Xuan Sang

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CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING FREQUENCY OF PERIODIC INLAND WATERWAY SURVEY
(Attached to Circular No. 36/2021/TT-BGTVT dated December 22, 2021 of the Minister of Transport)

No.

Criteria

Maximum scores

I

Inland waterways serving management purposes

1

Type 1 inland waterway

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2

Type 2 inland waterway

25

3

Type 3 inland waterway

20

II

Role of inland waterway in inland waterway transport

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Inland waterway in primary waterway transport corridor, route

30

2

Inland waterway outside of primary waterway transport corridor, route and directly connected to primary waterway transport corridor, route

25

3

Inland waterway outside of and not directly connected to primary waterway transport corridor, route

15

III

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1

Foreign watercraft or watercraft with load capacity of at least 2.000 tonne

20

2

Watercraft having load capacity of 1.000 tonne to less than 2.000 tonne

15

3

Watercraft having load capacity less than 1.000 tonne

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IV

Technical grade of inland waterway

1

Special grade, grade I inland waterway

20

2

Grade II, grade III inland waterway

15

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Grade IV inland waterway or lower

5

Note: Primary transport corridor and route comply with planning approved by competent authorities.

Thông tư 36/2021/TT-BGTVT quy định về công tác khảo sát luồng đường thủy nội địa do Bộ trưởng Bộ Giao thông vận tải ban hành