Navigational hazard
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A navigational hazard or hazard to navigation has been defined in various, slightly different, ways:
- An obstruction, usually sunken, that presents sufficient danger to navigation so as to require expeditious, affirmative action such as marking, removal, or redefinition of a designated waterway to provide for navigational safety.
- Any obstacle encountered by a vessel in route posing risk or danger to the vessel, its contents or the environment.
- An obstruction determined to have a substantial adverse effect on the safety and efficient utilization of the navigable airspace.
Types
Maritime hazards to navigation and airspace hazards to navigation.
Hazards to marine navigation
Hazards may be permanent, or temporary, including seasonal, and fixed or mobile,
- Fog is temporary, but may occur frequently in some areas and seasons
- Icebergs are mobile and temporary, and also seasonal in some areas
- Some river channels are variable
- Some underwater obstructions are unidentified, others may be known.
- Both shipwrecks with a fixed position and floating derelicts and other flotsam can be hazards
- Seabed obstructions
- Mined international waterways
The risk associated with a hazard is aggravated when the position is uncertain, or the hazard is unmarked or obscured by poor visibility.
Consequences
- Marine accidents can occur, which can cause loss of life and vessels, or delays of shipping, unreliable transport of people and goods, and environmental damage.
Hazards to airspace navigation
- Weather conditions such as high winds, icing, thunderstorms, wind shear and clear air turbulence, low visibility.
- Physical obstructions such as tall buildings, radio masts, cranes, wires, mountains, cliffs, power lines.
- Volcanic ash.
- Smoke and convection from wildfires.
- Human factors, such as fatigue, poor navigation, inattention, bad communication and aircrew error.
- Entering restricted airspace without proper authorisationand warning.
- Wildlife such as birds can be a hazard, particularly during takeoff and landing.
- Dysfunctional navigation systems such as radio and radar beacons, lights, etc.
Conditions determining a hazard
When deciding whether a static hazard will be marked,the following factors may be considered:
- Location of the obstruction relative to the navigable channel and relative to other hazards
- Difficulty of navigation near the obstruction
- Depth of water over the hazard, and how much it is likely to vary
- Type of vessel traffic in the vicinity of the hazard, particularly draft, but also amount of traffic
- Physical characteristics of the hazard
- Probability that the hazard may move
- Weather conditions that are likely in the vicinity
- How long the hazard has existed in that location, and any history of accidents involving the hazard, and
- Whether the object is considered a hazard in terms of alternative legislation
Marking of navigational hazards
An aid to navigation (ATON) is any device external to a vessel or aircraft specifically intended to assist navigators in determining their position or safe course, or to warn them of dangers or obstructions to navigation.
- Lighthouse – Structure designed to emit light to aid navigation
- Lightship – Ship that functions as a lighthouse
- Navigational buoy – Moored floating object intended to aid navigation
- Emergency wreck buoy – Marker buoy warning of a wreck
- Isolated danger mark – Sea mark indicating a danger spot
- Safe water mark – Type of sea mark
- Cardinal mark – Sea mark indicating where safe water is near to a hazard
- Bell buoy – Audible navigational warning used in low visibility
- Radar beacon – Transmitter-receiver associated with a fixed navigational mark
- Foghorn – Device using sound to warn shipping in fog
- Notice to mariners – Advisory document updating navigational safety information
- Nautical chart – Topographic map of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions
Navigational warnings
A navigational warning is information published or broadcast providing information on the status of one or more navigational hazards.
References
- ↑ "33 CFR § 64.06 - Definition of terms". www.law.cornell.edu. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ↑ "navigational hazard". www.eionet.europa.eu. GEMET General Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- 1 2 "Hazard to navigation: Definition". www.lawinsider.com. Law Insider. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- 1 2 3 "Marine navigation hazards". The Encyclopedia of World Problems & Human Potential. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Hazard identification and management in aviation". www.casa.gov.au. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
- ↑ "Airspace Infringement and Navigation". skybrary.aero. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "§ 64.31 Determination of hazard to navigation". Title 33 Chapter I Subchapter C Part 64 Subpart D § 64.31. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ↑ "Navigation hazards". /www.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 21 May 2024.