# Sensing in Inland Waters to Promote Safe Navigation: A Case Study in the Aveiro's Lagoon
## 6 Conclusions
### Limitations and Future Work  
The issues of cybersecurity and the absence of communication signals are aspects that must be addressed in the near future. At this stage of the research, the primary focus was on validating the usefulness of the shared meteoceanographic data, as well as the overall system and user interface (UI) with navigators. Ensuring that the system effectively provides valuable real-time information to sailors was the key objective in this phase, in order to maximize security and prevent maritime accidents. Nevertheless, future work will focus on enhancing the system's robustness by addressing communication challenges, such as the need for satellite connectivity in areas with limited LTE signals, and mitigating potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities to ensure safe and secure data transmissions between vessels.  
The maritime data sharing system presented in this paper is currently undergoing real-world testing in the Ria de Aveiro. These evaluations aim to validate the system's functionality in a practical maritime environment, specifically focusing on the performance of the sensors and the effectiveness of the data sharing mechanism between vessels using the hardware setup. By testing the system in actual navigation scenarios, we can assess its reliability, accuracy, and overall usability for sailors. This real-world evaluation is a crucial step in refining and optimizing the system to ensure it meets the specific needs of navigators to improve safety and enhance user satisfaction. The iterative feedback gatheredfrom these consequent stages of interaction with the Ria's sailors were, and will continue to be, used to enhance both the technological aspects and the UI, ensuring that the system is robust and fully capable of supporting navigation in inland and coastal waters.  
Additionally, it is important to emphasize that the focus of this work is not to compete with industrial-grade products, but rather to present a proof of concept for a low-cost solution. The affordability of the prototype enables a broader accessibility and ease of use, particularly for smaller vessels operating in inland waters. This makes the system more practical and accessible for a wider range of users.  
Conceptualization, D.M.C. and J.F.d.A.; methodology, D.M.C.; software, D.M.C.; validation, D.M.C., J.F.d.A. and J.M.D.; formal analysis, D.M.C.; investigation, D.M.C., J.F.d.A. and J.M.D.; resources, D.M.C.; data curation, D.M.C.; writing--original draft preparation, D.M.C.; writing--review and editing, D.M.C., J.F.d.A. and J.M.D.; visualization, D.M.C.; supervision, J.F.d.A. and J.M.D.; project administration, D.M.C.; funding acquisition, J.F.d.A. and J.M.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by FCT--Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P, grant number under the project 2022.09580.BD.  
Ethical review and approval were not required for this study due to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the nature of the research not involving human or animal subjects.  
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper. The document signed by the Data Protection Officer of the University of Aveiro, approving the data collection for this research, can be found in Appendix A.  
The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. However, a detailed description of the datasets analyzed and generated during this study, including links to publicly archived datasets, can be accessed through the MDPI Research Data Policies.  
This work is financially supported by national funds through FCT--Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project 2022.09580.BD. We acknowledge financial support to CESAM by FCT/MCTES (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+ LA/P/0094/2020) through national funds.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.