Leaders from the private sector, government and academia will gather in the heart of the Mississippi River Valley to recreate the debate on international river and land transportation.

From September 8 -12, 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, the Smart Rivers 2025 event will take place.

Supported by the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC), the event will convene an interdisciplinary community of practitioners, researchers and decision-makers to share the latest developments and lessons learned, and to build a vision for a sustainable future for river and land transport.

The technical program was designed to foster a multidisciplinary approach and to enable transportation professionals to take better advantage of current opportunities and prepare for future challenges in river and inland transportation.

PIANC is a global, non-profit, non-political organization that convenes international experts to present industry-revolutionary technical reports on all aspects of sustainable river transportation infrastructure.

The United States was organized as a national chapter of PIANC in 1902. Its members, comprised of U.S.-based local, national, and international individuals and organizations, collaborate with peers from more than 75 countries to address engineering and environmental issues that drive river transportation development.

The Smart Rivers conference was first developed in Louisville, Kentucky during 2007 in response to the need for a venue to share best practices and innovative technologies from river navigation practitioners and researchers.

Among the participants of the event is the OptiRiver platform, which is already conducting field trials in Argentina.

Similar to what happens with Waze, where motorists share in real time the incidents that happen on routes and roads, OptiRiver proposes to navigate safely on canals and rivers.

Great expectations

 "This is the world's leading event focused on technical issues related to river navigation. We are very excited about the estimated participation. We expected to receive 120 papers for presentations, and we received 250 from 21 countries. Therefore, we have increased the expected attendance from 350 to 400 participants, Jim Walker, Sponsors and Exhibitors Contact of Smart Rivers 2025, told Transport & Cargo.

The executive clarified that Smart Rivers will offer five simultaneous technical sessions and that “technological advances such as OptiRiver tend to attract the largest audience”.

The venue chosen for the event is iconic. At the heart of the Mississippi River system, the Memphis District is home to the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of dredging and marking America's waterways.

The district encompasses parts of six states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky. Within the area are 960 kilometers of navigation channels, federal levees and 10 river ports.