A study on the planning aids to navigation systems on the Taiwan area

Taiwan has land area of 36000 square kilometres. As far as the politics and economy are concerned, the shipping industry in Taiwan is extremely important. Almost 99% of import and exports are transported by sea. The major ports, Kaohsiung and Keelung, retained the fourth and tenth places in the top 20 league of world container ports in 1990. And the expansion of ports in the governments Six Year National Development Plan attempts to make Taiwan the prime shipping centre of north-east Asia. To a large extent the community is dependent on reliable, cost effective and safe shipping services. However, the lack of well planned and poor established aids to navigation systems in the Taiwan area are increasing the risks to mariners navigating in this high density sea traffic area. Therefore, the author recommends that the Taiwan government must carefully weigh the needs of navigational safety, environment protection, and legal requirements against the demands of the users in the most effective way. Economic and operational dimensions also need to be considered for the wide diversity of vessels that transit the Formosa Strait and Taiwan waters