MOIA: an Integrated Decision Support Tool for Port Management

This paper describes MOIA, a numerical tool that evaluates sea-wave effects on port operations and broadcasts warning messages whenever the safety of such operations are deemed to be at risk. The evaluation of the seawave transformation from offshore - where the results of numerical models for sea-wave forecast at a regional level are available - up to the port area is described. Also, the procedures used to evaluate the sea-wave effects on sailing ships, focusing on the amplitude of the vertical movements of a selected point in the ship, are explained. Such procedures are combined and applied to an example where the average downtime for the navigation at four points along the sailing lane is evaluated for the entrance voyages into the port of Praia da Vitoria (Azores) of a given ship.