## 4 Results
### Organization of the VTS Systems  
The organization of the operation of each VTS system also differs. The VTS Zatoka Gdanska system's management authority is located in Gdynia and provides 24-h service by 12 operators who work in four teams; services are provided in 12-h shifts [55]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Name of VTS** & **Reporting** & **TSS?** & **Location** & **Surroundings** & **Types of Traffic** & **Annual Average** \\
**System** & **System?** & **TSS?** & **Location** & **Surroundings** & **Served** & **Number of Ships** \\ \hline VTS & & & Internal sea & & Adjacent & Regular SOLAS & \\ VTS & & & Internal sea & border and & vessels, & \\ Zatoka & YES & YES & waters, & territorial & auxiliary ships of & 8775 \\ Gdanska & & & territorial & waters of the & harbor shipping, & \\  & & & & Russian & local passenger & \\  & & & & Federation & vessels & \\ \hline VTS Lawica & & & & & Regular SOLAS & \\ Slupska & NO & YES & Territorial sea & Territorial sea & & auxiliary ships of & 3600 \\ Slupska & NO & & waters & of the Polish & harbor shipping, & (regular SOLAS \\  & & & & Republic & local passenger & vessels) \\  & & & & & vessels, fishing & \\ \hline VTS & & & & & Regular SOLAS & \\ Swinoujscie- & YES & NO & Internal sea & & Regular SOLAS & \\ Swinoujscie- & YES & NO & waters, & territorial & & \\ Szczecin & & & & waters of the & & \\  & & & & German & vessels, inland & \\  & & & & Republic & water vessels, & \\  & & & & internal port traffic & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Data are given as the average for 2018–2022.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Comparison of the VTS systems in Poland according to the criterion system location (our own elaboration based on [55; 56]). The management authority of the VTS Lawica Shupska system is situated in Ustka and provides full-time service by 12 operators working in four teams; services are also provided in 12-h shifts [55]. The VTS Swinoujscie-Szczecin system's management is divided into two sub-centers: the VTS Swinoujscie Centre and the VTS Szczecin Centre (Figure 3). Thirteen operators are employed in each center and the staff is divided into four teams. Operators perform services in 12-h shifts [56]. Each center serves an assigned area of responsibility. A comparison of the VTS systems taking into account the organization and configuration of each system is presented in Table 3.  
Figure 3: Areas of responsibility of the VTS Centers in Szczecin and Swinoujscie (our own elaboration based on [11]), where “Mijanka Zalew” and “Mijanka Police” are places indicated within Swinoujscie-Szczecin Fairway where ships may pass each other and purple circles represent map components. Within each VTS system, the decisions are made considering cooperation between several decision-making participants, e.g., Harbor Masters' Offices located in Szczecin, Swinoujscie, Gdarsk or Gdynia, Port Authorities, VTS Centers in Swinoujscie, Szczecin or Gdarsk, etc. It should be noted that analyzed VTS systems have a different number of involved decision-making participants, as well as different number of allied services that impact the organization of decision-making processes. The greater the number of participants involved in the decision-making process, the more complex and time-consuming it becomes.