Maritime Safety, Pollution and Shipping Management Research Papers (original) (raw)

"The attempt for the improvement of safety in the shipping industry has primarily been focused on improving technology onboard vessels. At a later stage it was discovered that the advances on technology and related infrastructure did not... more

"The attempt for the improvement of safety in the shipping industry has primarily been focused on improving technology onboard vessels. At a later stage it was discovered that the advances on technology and related infrastructure did not produce the expected results and efforts concentrated on the human element. The desired compatibility between human factor and technology in an environment where the absence of errors is essential could not be achieved without applying an international framework consisting of regulations and procedures that extend to the ways those parameters interrelate.
In the beginning IMO aimed at improving technology through the enactment of SOLAS and MARPOL conventions, then turned to the human element by implementing the STCW convention and finally proposed necessary procedures through the ISM Code. The enforcement of this policy was not free of errors and omissions, a few of them took time to be properly dealt, another few still haven’t been clarified yet, causing risks to human life and protection of the environment. IMO decided to adopt existing successive models from other industries such as the FSA and HRA. This paper illustrates the omissions stemming from the functioning of the three parameters (technology, human factor, legal instruments) and proposes new methods to be examined by the shipping community.
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Providing guidance from ashore to a vessel underway is quite often necessary in order to avoid unpleasant mishaps at sea, such as a collision or grounding. Immediate clarification of concerning issues and acquiring crystal clear... more

Providing guidance from ashore to a vessel underway is quite often necessary in order to avoid unpleasant mishaps at sea, such as a collision or grounding. Immediate clarification of concerning issues and acquiring crystal clear information on demand are by all means extremely helpful tools for any navigating officer. In accordance with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) provisions, the Greek government has established the strategic vision of improving navigation safety by providing reliable Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and monitoring the various high density traffic areas of the Hellenic Republic. The specific effort -implemented in a step by step approach- should by now have reached its final stage. The analysis that follows will present the current state of Greek VTS operations and evaluate the need for further improvement. The final conclusion is that the Hellenic VTS can provide a helping hand in time of need in a small number of choke-points and covers a rather limited area. The Hellenic approach towards regulating navigation patterns and monitor traffic in various areas of the Hellenic Seas is a promising start. However, future expansion of the system in other busy locations is also needed in the near future.

Many methods and applications for maritime transportation risk analysis have been presented in the literature. In parallel, there is a recent focus on foundational issues in risk analysis, with calls for intensified research on... more

Many methods and applications for maritime transportation risk analysis have been presented in the literature. In parallel, there is a recent focus on foundational issues in risk analysis, with calls for intensified research on fundamental concepts and principles underlying the scientific field. This paper presents a review and analysis of risk definitions, perspectives and scientific approaches to risk analysis found in the maritime transportation application area, focusing on applications addressing accidental risk of shipping in a sea area. For this purpose, a classification of risk definitions, an overview of elements in risk perspectives and a classification of approaches to risk analysis science are applied. Results reveal that in the application area, risk is strongly tied to probability, both in definitions and perspectives, while alternative views exist. A diffuse situation is also found concerning the scientific approach to risk analysis, with realist, proceduralist and constructivist foundations co-existing. Realist approaches dominate the application area. Very few applications systematically account for uncertainty, neither concerning the evidence base nor in relation to the limitations of the risk model in relation to the space of possible outcomes. Some suggestions are made to improve the current situation, aiming to strengthen the scientific basis for risk analysis.

During the last few years bulk shipping has experienced the effects of safety and quality awareness. Social responsiveness of shipping companies is on the agenda and new regulations which might enforce this, are imposed. The shipping... more

During the last few years bulk shipping has experienced the effects of safety and quality awareness. Social responsiveness of shipping companies is on the agenda and new regulations which might enforce this, are imposed. The shipping business environment gradually changes and shipping companies are called upon to adapt to this change in order to remain competitive in the market. However, the efficiency of the adaptation process depends heavily on the companies’ structural characteristics. This paper concentrates on small bulk shipping companies and after having examined the affection that the new shipping environment will have on their competitiveness, argues that the disadvantage created by their current structure could be eliminated, by choosing and implementing the proper strategies. In doing so, shipowners need to analyze and evaluate several internal and external environmental factors of their companies. A methodology that incorporates the analysis and evaluation of these factors and helps shipowners in deciding the proper strategy is proposed.

Self-regulation in shipping market, as in every other market cannot be easily achieved by itself and hence regulators/government’s intervention is needed, when it fails. The role of IMO and flag states is to create the framework within... more

Self-regulation in shipping market, as in every other market cannot be easily achieved by itself and hence regulators/government’s intervention is needed, when it fails. The role of IMO and flag states is to create the framework within which maritime actors will operate smoothly and the Stakeholders Model may lead towards this direction. Its basic principle is that every stakeholder involved in shipping industry must pay its fair share. This is an ethic and theoretically sound approach, but its implementation is not easy because on one hand stakeholders are not clearly defined and on the other hand there doesn’t seem to exist any method quantifying the fair contribution of each one. The present paper introduces a methodology facilitating the implementation of the Stakeholders model. This methodology may be used by both regulators and decision makers. The first use the method to redistribute the full cost of the shipping industry fairly among the various stakeholders involved in it, while the latter use it in order to analyze and evaluate self-regulated markets so as to select and implement proper strategies.

Transportation and translocation of non-native species by ships through ballast water is one of the current issues the shipping industry is trying to address. The Ballast Water Convention is nearing full ratification after which treatment... more

Transportation and translocation of non-native species by ships through ballast water is one of the current issues the shipping industry is trying to address. The Ballast Water Convention is nearing full ratification after which treatment of ballast water will become mandatory for most of the trading merchant vessel categories. Ballast water management systems employing various technologies are commercially available but at high costs. Economics apart, the efficiency of these technologies and realistic ways to ensure compliance with stricter requirements of some Administrations are issues that need to be focussed upon. With the report of the Environmental Protection Agency as an assessment reference, this paper reviews the treatment technologies. Juxtaposing reports of Lloyd’s Register on the status, a concise overview of the technologies has been projected. A sustainable ballast water management based on data and assessments is proposed. The management must be extended to both shore and on-board platforms for practices, treatment, sampling, testing, and recycling. An exemplar system harvesting shipboard waste heat is projected as a route for thermal treatment in combination with technologies showing potential for optimized ballast water management

In a world of continue business development in all the industries and domains we assist in the last years at a disastrous impact of ours actions that put the economic results in front of the protection and respect of the natural... more

In a world of continue business development in all the industries and domains we assist in the last years at a disastrous impact of ours actions that put the economic results in front of the protection and respect of the natural environment. The maritime and offshore industry is focused more in how more profit can obtain, that how to invest in the protections against the pollution of the seas and oceans of the World. Millions maritime transports with a variety cargo bulk transported in tanks or containers, millions of TEUs in one day. I am economist and I have a doctorate in nautical engineering – INCOTERMS 2010. I know well from analysis that the scope of one maritime transport is the economical profit, it's true. But what about the ballast water of every maritime transport, what about her disastrous effects on the waters World? When I was children I was a fighter against the pollution of the seas. I wanted to become a researcher in biology marine and I never abandoned the protection of the seas and of the peoples that working on the sea. We all depend for the source of water. We are made from a big percent of water. Water is life. We must to stop a second to analyse the financial profit and to compare with the catastrophically impacts on the maritime environment. The devastating consequences not hesitate to appear: invasive species, marine life is dying and the whole marine ecosystem is seriously affected. The last statistics show us that the rate of bio-invasions is continuing to increase and new areas are being invaded all the time. Let's put the red code of emergency against the pollution of our lives!

A rapid increase in maritime traffic together with challenging navigation conditions and a vulnerable ecosystem has evoked calls for improving maritime safety in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea. It is suggested that these improvements... more

A rapid increase in maritime traffic together with challenging navigation conditions and a vulnerable ecosystem has evoked calls for improving maritime safety in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea. It is suggested that these improvements will be the result of adopting a regionally effective proactive approach to safety policy formulation and management. A proactive approach is grounded on a formal process of identifying, assessing and evaluating accident risks, and adjusting policies or management practices before accidents happen. Currently, maritime safety is globally regulated by internationally agreed prescriptive rules, which are usually revised in reaction to accidents. The proactive Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) is applied to risks common to a ship type or to a particular hazard, when deemed necessary, whereas regional FSA applications are rare. An extensive literature review was conducted in order to examine the opportunities for developing a framework for the GoF for handling regional risks at regional level. Best practices were sought from nuclear safety management and fisheries management, and from a particular case related to maritime risk management. A regional approach that sees maritime safety as a holistic system, and manages it by combining a scientific risk assessment with stakeholder input to identify risks and risk control options, and to evaluate risks is proposed. A regional risk governance framework can improve safety by focusing on actual regional risks, designing tailor-made safety measures to control them, enhancing a positive safety culture in the shipping industry, and by increasing trust among all involved.

In this paper, we introduce two probabilistic meta-models evaluating accidental oil spill volume for two types of tanker: VLCC and Aframax and two types of accident: collision and grounding. The metamodels utilize two engineering models,... more

In this paper, we introduce two probabilistic meta-models evaluating accidental oil spill volume
for two types of tanker: VLCC and Aframax and two types of accident: collision and grounding. The metamodels
utilize two engineering models, one for ship damage estimation due to an accident, another for
evaluation of an oil spill size given the damage extent. Both models are coupled and executed for a large
number of accidental scenarios, thus two extensive datasets are developed, one for collision and one for
grounding accident. Subsequently, the datasets are used to develop two casual, probabilistic meta-models by
applying the Bayesian Networks. The obtained results are compared with the real-life cases, and good
agreement is found.

Ship traffic is the factor that presents in almost all of the existing grounding risk models. It is considered to be one of the main factors affecting the expected frequency of ship groundings. This is mostly accepted by experts as... more

Ship traffic is the factor that presents in almost all of the existing grounding risk models. It is considered to be one of the main factors affecting the expected frequency of ship groundings.
This is mostly accepted by experts as common sense. However, there is no research available on the actual dependency between ship traffic and grounding accidents. In this paper, we
conduct a study aimed at determining the statistical dependency between the density and distribution of traffic, the number and frequency of grounding accidents and the dependency between the complexity of waterways and an actual accident. For this purpose we utilise statistical analysis of maritime traffic, obtained from Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and grounding accidents, enhanced with the expert elicitation techniques delivering the waterway complexity index. The sea area under investigation is the Gulf of Finland. The results show statistical dependency between frequency of grounding and waterway complexity as well as the traffic distribution. However, the study does not reveal any significant dependency between grounding and traffic density.

Self-regulation in shipping market, as in every other market, cannot be easily achieved and hence regulators/governments’ intervention is needed, when it fails. The role of IMO and flag states is to create the framework within which... more

Self-regulation in shipping market, as in every other market, cannot be easily achieved and hence regulators/governments’ intervention is needed, when it fails. The role of IMO and flag states is to create the framework within which maritime actors will operate smoothly and the Stakeholders Model may lead towards this direction. Its basic principle is that every stakeholder involved in shipping industry must pay its fair share of the cost. This is an ethic and theoretically sound approach, but its implementation is not easy because on one hand stakeholders are not clearly defined and on the other hand there doesn’t seem to exist any method quantifying the fair contribution of each one. Another very serious problem of the shipping market is the case of those stakeholders who are unable to pay their share of cost. Third World countries are such an example. For those countries with the majority of their population on or below poverty line, the implementation of safety/quality measures is far beyond their capabilities. The present paper provides guidelines for a fair redistribution of risk and cost among the various actors involved in shipping market, thus leading to its self-regulation.

The SHEL model which was developed by Elwyn Edwards describes the behavior of interactive systems with special regard to human factors issues. Recently aviation industry had encompassed the concept of Stakeholders, that is to say has... more

The SHEL model which was developed by Elwyn Edwards describes the behavior of interactive systems with special regard to human factors issues. Recently aviation industry had encompassed the concept of Stakeholders, that is to say has recognized that safety and cost is a matter concerning all involved actors of the maritime consortium. The Regulators’ role is to create the framework within which maritime actors will operate smoothly and the Stakeholders Model of Business Ethics (SMBE) may lead towards this direction. The latter’s basic principle is that every stakeholder involved must pay their fair share of the cost. This ethical approach is tried to implement through our new method SAFE. In our method we combined the interactive systems of the SHEL model with stakeholders’ fair collaboration and co-operation in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry. This method could be used by both regulators and maritime stakeholders. The former use it to redistribute the full cost fairly among the various stakeholders involved, while the latter to analyze and to evaluate markets so as to select and implement proper strategies.

There is a need for developing improved methods of evaluating the safety of cargo ships that would quantify and assess the ship safety more comprehensively than current methods and further allow for a more direct comparison of ship... more

There is a need for developing improved methods of evaluating the safety of cargo ships that would quantify and assess the ship safety more comprehensively than current methods and further allow for a more direct comparison of ship designs safety-wise so that safety could become one of the goals of design process. This newly developed method will not only have to allow for effective determination of ship safety, but also should meet expectations from various industries. This paper presents an alternative approach to safety of ships in damaged conditions, which when further verified and evaluated, could serve as a useful tool for designers and ship operators alike. It was shown that a computationally efficient quasi-dynamic method that addresses the main drawbacks of current regulations can be formulated for evaluating the exact risk levels at any stage of vessel's life.