Learning lessons in resilient traffic management: A cross-domain study of Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) and Air Traffic Control (ATC)

Although younger than the maritime domain, aviation has had a huge impact on the system design and development within shipping. Stakeholders often look towards aviation to make shipping, and the way that traffic is handled and organised, safer, more efficient and more effective. Although legally not the same, Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is frequently compared to Air Traffic Control (ATC). In this article the area of traffic management within the maritime and aviation domains is addressed from a Resilience Engineering perspective. Focus is placed on the arrival part of a mission. The comparison is based on information collected during two study visits at VTS centres and one study visit at an ATC centre. The two organisations are described with the help of the Resilient Engineering capabilities: to respond, to monitor, to anticipate, and to learn. Furthermore, it is discussed how VTS and ATC adapt to cope with the complexity encountered during daily wor