Oceans cover approximately 70 % of Earth's surface area. Continents are intersected by various rivers. Because of this, waterways continue to be important routes for transporting people, goods, and materials.

Water traffic can be divided into marine traffic, inland waterway traffic and underwater traffic.

Various kinds of ships travel the world's waters: passenger ships, ferries, freight ships, river boats, barges and submarines.

Water traffic was one of the first modes of transportation developed by humans. Because of this, many historically significant cities were built in locations where they had acces to water. Even to this day, harbors continue to be important links between inland areas and the wider world.

The advantages of water traffic are the vast space of movement in the oceans, the ability to transport large amounts of goods and materials and its relatively few environmental problems. The disadvantages of water traffic are the slow speeds of ships and the high construction and maintenance costs of harbors.


Large and small ships arriving in Hong Kong.