Maritime Experts Research Articles

Live carbon-tracking mechanism for ships, a methodology to mitigate uncertainties in the carbon intensity calculations

The current carbon intensity indicator (CII) formulation has raised some fundamental concerns among maritime experts. The annual emission rate (AER) lacks sufficient sensitivity in reflection of cargo tonnage and ship speed, and further, calculation of transport work is subject to dispute. In addition, there are concerns regarding the reliability of the annual data collection. Two proposals are presented in this study in order to address these issues: first, modification in the CII formula and a new technique to calculate the average CII, and second, a mechanism of voyage-based data collection and verification. Case studies and real noon reports were used to demonstrate the compatibility of the modified CII formulae and their ability to encourage ship operators to slow steaming. Moreover, case studies demonstrated ineffectiveness of the engine power limits (EPL), and conflicting results when energy efficiency operational indicator (EEOI) and AER were applied to the same dataset.

Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic Effect on Ship Dismantling and Recycling Industry: An Assessment on Türkiye

_ The average age of the global merchant fleet has been declining with the increasing number of new ship constructions and dismantled ships. Although a noteworthy part of ship dismantling and recycling (SDR) facilities have been performed in Asian countries, such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, SDR facilities have also been increasing in Türkiye. SDR facilities provide substantial economic income and employment opportunities. However, SDR facilities should have been performed in a certain systematic framework by taking necessary precautions since toxic substances from dismantled ships affect the environment and employees’ health. That’s why maritime authorities make an effort to sustain the SDR facilities in the best way in the sense of safety, health, and environment through the European Union (EU) Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR), Basel Convention, and Hong Kong Convention (HKC). In this paper, the global SDR facilities have been evaluated in terms of ship types and their gross tonnages (GTs) over the past 5 years among the leading countries. The number, type, economic life span, steel weight, and light displacement tonnage (LDT) of dismantled ships have been analyzed in Türkiye, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic process. To determine the most effective year in terms of SDR, the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method has been utilized based on scrap steel price, LDT, economic life span, number of dismantled ships, and steel structure weight coefficient of the ship by maritime experts. The year 2017 has been highlighted as the most effective year with a .909 rank value in the last 5 years. In addition to analysis results, the largest amount of scrap steel has been acquired from dry cargo ships, which is the most dismantled ship type under data getting from the SDR facilities in Türkiye. Temporary bans on cruises due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused more than triple increments in the number of passenger ships (PS) dismantling. This paper will be a quite notable resource for experts, academics, and industry stakeholders in order to explore and compare the SDR process. Keywords ship dismantling; ship recycling; COVID-19; scrap steel; passenger ships

Safety through Artificial Intelligence in the Maritime Industry

Artificial intelligence is entering the maritime industry at a rapid pace. There is talk about intelligent ships and autonomous solutions. According to the authors of this study, autonomous technologies should be introduced in gradually so as to guarantee peace of mind for marine experts and offer maximum accuracy in their functionalities. The purpose of this paper is to reveal a methodology for intelligent (based on artificial intelligence) safety in the maritime industry. A gradual process has been revealed in which, with the help of various intelligent tools, multi-faceted analyzes can be carried out and conclusions and alternative solutions can be drawn, on the basis of which maritime experts can make an informed decision and significantly increase safety. The combination of technology and expertise, outlines the necessary transition for creating a new type of competitive advantage.

BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE INTENDED TO BOOST THE MARITIME TOURISM SECTOR

The initiative of One Belt One Road (OBOR) has economically benefited many countries in terms of export and import cargo. Malaysia is one of the countries that greatly export and import commodities business across international borders via different modes. However, this study shows that the OBOR initiative’s adaptation in Malaysia seaports is still beginning. The purpose of this study is to identify the issues faced by Malaysian seaports, to adapt the OBOR initiative, as well as to develop a new approach to overcome the obstacles that have been identified. A qualitative research approach was carried out to archive the objective of this study. A total of six maritime experts were interviewed and the results were analyzed by content analysis and coded using Nvivo 12 software. The results show that Malaysia suffers from financial instability, a lack of port capacity, and poor employee readiness. To overcome the issues, the experts proposed upgrading the port capacity, improving the port system with modern technology, and expanding the employee’s knowledge, as well as the safety and security of the port. This study proposes a novel framework to adapt maritime tourism as a new business market into OBOR strategy. This framework will overcome the current issues that Malaysian seaports have encountered. In the current digital world, the introduction of many advanced technologies known as “Smart” has great potential to progress the maritime tourism agenda into a smart maritime tourism industry to gain more benefits.

The fourth industrial revolution: a catalyst for regional development in Malaysian seaport sector

ABSTRACT Seaports enable national and international trade in nearly every country around the globe. The new digital world has led most seaport sectors to fully embrace new technologies and tools to better compete with other seaports. Moreover, such maritime activities have potentially significant effects on regional development. The east coast region in Peninsular Malaysia is less developed than the west coast region. It has caused a significant regional development gap, particularly in infrastructure quality, community services, production volume diversification, job opportunities and rising average wealth. Firstly, this study assesses how economic activities affect regional development in Peninsular Malaysia. Secondly, this study aims to identify the challenges and strategies for resolving the regional development imbalance in Peninsular Malaysia. A semi-structured face-to-face interview with fifteen maritime experts was adopted to achieve the proposed objectives. Interview outcomes helped identify and resolve significant problems and create strategies to facilitate the regional development of Malaysian seaports. IR 4.0: These novel strategies may lead to digitalisation in decision-making methods concerning regional development in the Malaysian seaport sector. Integrating four approaches could increase the regional development progress and facilitate continuous growth for the Malaysian seaport industry. The new findings recommend Malaysian seaport digitalisation through progressive regional development.

Toward a harmonization of sustainability criteria for alternative marine fuels

The discussion around shipping decarbonization has accelerated rapidly in 2020 and 2021. The growing studies on alternative marine fuels based on different criteria are indicative of both the complexities involved in marine fuels evaluation and absence of a consistent framework for assessment of alternative marine fuels from a holistic perspective. There is a recent call for an integrated evaluation model for alternative marine fuels with respect to economic, environmental, and social criteria. In this study, we develop and present a comprehensive and integrated set of sustainability criteria that are relevant for evaluating alternative marine fuels. First, we provide an overview of different alternative marine fuel pathways and assess the current challenges associated with adopting alternative marine fuels. Second, we develop 18 sustainability criteria, identified through the academic and trade literature and validated through a multi-stakeholder participatory approach (based on the input from 70 maritime experts), for a systematic and consistent evaluation of marine fuels. Third, based on an in-depth survey, we evaluate maritime stakeholder perspectives on the importance of sustainability criteria. And finally, we provide a discussion of key policy implications and areas for future studies. Our analysis reveals the current degree of agreement amongst maritime stakeholders in the debate about the importance of multiple, and often conflicting, criteria for evaluating marine fuels; the top five most important criteria are regulatory compliance, life cycle GHG, fuel cost, air pollution, and occupational health and safety. The analysis also looks at the importance ranking of each criterion from the perspective of individual maritime stakeholder groups. These findings provide decision-makers with a platform to understand priorities and interests of maritime stakeholder groups for the choice of marine fuels.

Accident susceptibility index for a passenger ship-a framework and case study

The continuous monitoring and assessment of operational vulnerability and accident susceptibility of passenger ships is crucial from the perspective of ship and passenger safety. Despite the existing solutions for vulnerability monitoring, stemming mainly from watertight door operations, a comprehensive framework for accident susceptibility assessment and monitoring is missing in the literature.Therefore, this paper offers a straightforward approach, utilizing heuristics rooted in the solid foundations of the first principles related to human performance. The proposed approach allows the evaluation of accident susceptibility of a ship in operation involved in open-sea and coastal navigation. The framework presented is based on observable and relevant factors, known to affect the navigator's performance, and as a consequence accident probability. The layout of the framework as well as the parameters of the developed model are based on literature survey in maritime and aviation domains, knowledge elicited from maritime experts and extensive simulations with the use of an in-house developed ship-ship encounter simulator. Subsequently, the model is applied to selected case studies, involving two distinctive ship types, namely a large cruise ship and a RoPax vessel.The results obtained for the case study presented in this paper reveal that most of their time the analyzed ships operate with negligible accident susceptibility (87%), while 1% of the cases are labelled as very high accident susceptibility. The remaining share of 12% is distributed among low, moderate and high values of accident susceptibility. The results are in line with earlier studies conducted in the same area but adopting different methods.The proposed solution can be applied as an onboard decision support tool, evaluating the operational accident susceptibility and vulnerability, thus increasing the crew's situational awareness. Additionally, it can be applied to historical data, allowing ship navigational safety diagnosis and implementation of appropriate countermeasures.

Implementation of Smart Pilotage to Safeguard Pilots from Pilot Ladder Accidents

This study aims to identify and use digital technology to ensure the pilots’ lives’ safety and to avoid unnecessary delays due to vessels staying at quarantine anchorage during pandemics. The primary means for a pilot to board or disembark a ship is by a pilot ladder. Many pilots suffered severe injuries or even lost their life due to accidents involving the failure of pilot ladders. For this research, a questionnaire with five questions about the dangers and its reasons which threaten pilots’ lives, was prepared, and distributed to professionals both in the maritime industry and port operations. Eightynine professionals from the maritime industry answered it. The most common causes affecting pilots’ safety were unsafe rigging and not securing the ladder correctly or the breaking of a defective pilot ladder. In addition, interviews made with three maritime experts about the distance pilotage. This study aims to utilize and implement the digital technology enabling pilots to sit in the port control office or Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) office instead of going onboard a vessel. For assessing our innovation, a berthing and one unberthing scenario were designed and tested in our full mission bridge simulator by an experienced pilot. The results discovered during the debriefing sessions and the feedback from other experienced pilots and captains were satisfying, making us confident and comfortable with the innovation idea

Cognitive Gap and Correlation of Safety-I and Safety-II: A Case of Maritime Shipping Safety Management

In contrast to the conventional safety management principle, namely, safety-I, which focuses on “what goes wrong”, a new-born safety philosophy (safety-II) inspires people to investigate “how and why things go right”. In the present study, the cognitive difference and correlation between safety-I and safety-II in the maritime shipping industry are explored and investigated. For this purpose, a questionnaire is administered to survey seafarers and maritime experts, and semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect original data associated with safety-I and safety-II. Then, the data from seafarers and maritime experts are further processed by empirical statistical methods and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology. The results show that impacting factors associated with individual aspects are usually accepted as dominant with respect to views of safety-I, while organizational factors are more influential for safety-II, which is essential to developing an organizational resilience capacity. Based on the findings and discussions, potential safety countermeasures that integrate safety-I and safety-II are proposed in this article. The present study discusses the new-born safety-II perspective to elucidate the safety issues associated with maritime shipping operations, which can be seen as the main innovation of this work.

Transnational networks for the ‘greening’ of ports: learning from best practice?

Port environmental ‘networks’ are collaborative initiatives in and through which port authorities design an array of policy measures and tools and facilitate policy learning to improve their environmental performance, promote environmental upgrading and deliver sustainable development. Drawing on document analysis, participant observation and information collected through interviews with port managers, network coordinators, and maritime experts in Europe and West Africa, existing forms of port environmental networks, their actors and best practice tools are described and analysed in their influence on environmental upgrading. The theoretical perspective is thereby informed by Castells’s network theory of power, complemented by insights from the literature on policy mobilities—a geographical concept for analysing the global circulation of best practice—ideas, concepts, technologies and policies and the conditions that constrain or enhance their adoption. The study shows that uptake or adoption of best practice tools is limited to a few pioneer ports, a finding that contradicts the dominant conceptualisation of transnational governance networks as transformative and their best practice tools as largely transferable. One reason for this limited uptake is seen in the fact that the networks are created around the political interests of a few powerful actors.

Grounding Probability in Narrow Waterways

The Strait of Istanbul is one of the world's busiest, narrowest and most winding waterways. As such, there is a high grounding probability for vessels. Although a number of grounding probability models exist, they have been deemed unsuitable by local maritime experts, due to their insufficient stopping distance criteria for narrow waterways. Thus, there is a need for a new model. This paper proposes a two-component grounding probability model that multiplies the geometric grounding probability (calculated with a kinematic-based model) with the causation probability (calculated with a specially designed Bayesian network). The geometric probability model is improved in terms of stopping distance parameters and the Bayesian network is crafted for narrow waterways. The model is then deployed with pre-determined parameters within the Strait of Istanbul to run risk analysis scenarios. The results, validated with actual grounding records, show that the causation probability is the key component for quantifying the probability of grounding in narrow waterways. If navigated without frequent evasive manoeuvres, grounding would be almost inevitable. Although this study focuses on the Strait of Istanbul, the proposed approach can be applied to research into grounding probability of vessels navigating through other waterways.

Структурно-функциональная модель формирования профессионально важных качеств будущих морских специалистов

The paper presents a structural and functional model for developing professional and significant qualities of future maritime experts in the system of secondary vocational education as a result of the theoretical stage of the study. The model is based on the essential properties and interrelationships of the purposeful process of developing professional and significant qualities of future marine specialists: goal-setting, educational principles serving as the basis for the learning process, the development components and functions of the above-mentioned qualities, the implementation stages of the educational conditions of the process. The relevance of rational distribution of students according to the field of study by means of the set of techniques designed to provide a differentiated maritime education is considered as the main principle for constructing a structural and functional model. The authors focus on the sequence of developing professional and significant qualities of future specialists and describe the model under review as a system of interrelated units: target, content, management and activity, assessment and effectiveness.

Securing coastal sailors in Korea : Investigating occupational prestige of maritime university students in Japan and Korea

There are about 2,000 maritime experts in South Korea annually. but, high quality sailors avoid sailing on coastal ships. Korea is worried about the aging of coastal vessels and the increase in foreign sailors, as this points are. directly linked to shipping traffic problems that cannot be secured by the coastal sailors of good quality.

Bayesian networks for maritime traffic accident prevention: Benefits and challenges

Bayesian networks are quantitative modeling tools whose applications to the maritime traffic safety context are becoming more popular. This paper discusses the utilization of Bayesian networks in maritime safety modeling. Based on literature and the author's own experiences, the paper studies what Bayesian networks can offer to maritime accident prevention and safety modeling and discusses a few challenges in their application to this context. It is argued that the capability of representing rather complex, not necessarily causal but uncertain relationships makes Bayesian networks an attractive modeling tool for the maritime safety and accidents. Furthermore, as the maritime accident and safety data is still rather scarce and has some quality problems, the possibility to combine data with expert knowledge and the easy way of updating the model after acquiring more evidence further enhance their feasibility. However, eliciting the probabilities from the maritime experts might be challenging and the model validation can be tricky. It is concluded that with the utilization of several data sources, Bayesian updating, dynamic modeling, and hidden nodes for latent variables, Bayesian networks are rather well-suited tools for the maritime safety management and decision-making.

New Sights of Light-up in Tokyo I : Tokyo Gate Bridge(Illumination Until Now and in Future～ : Tokyo Branch)

Tokyo Gate Bridge, nicknamed Dinosaur Bridge because of its shape, opened to traffic on February 12, 2012. A light-up was held on April 25 of the same year. Symbolic lighting was designed to enhance the peculiar form of this bridge that serves as a new gateway to Tokyo. Various committees executed detailed examinations for this major public structure; maritime experts carried out studies to prevent interference with shipping; bridge design and construction experts were consulted. Overall planning and design took nine years to complete. As a result, each truss is lit individually; light dispersion from color LEDs on the sides of the bridge is tightly controlled; bridge footings and the underside of the span are attractively lit. In particular, colors of LEDs used to light the sides are changed each month to give a seasonal feel; every hour on the hour light variations give the impression of waves; thus the overall lighting is dynamic. In consideration of the environment and energy conservation, solar power is used for about 40 percent of the scenic lighting. In autumn 2013, the lighting design of Tokyo Gate Bridge received the Award of Excellence from Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).

Motivating Factors for Cargo Diversion from Nigerian Ports to Neighbouring Ports

Maritime experts have in recent times observed a generally low level of performance at the ports particularly in the area of patronage. On the contrary, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) at the la...

The effectiveness of maritime safety policy instruments from the Finnish maritime experts’ point of view – case Gulf of Finland and prevention of an oil accident

Sea accidents are aimed to be prevented with an extensive amount of maritime safety regulation. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a questionnaire study that was targeted at Finnish maritime experts and addressed the question: how to prevent an oil accident in the Gulf of Finland. This study also includes a literature study about the problems of the current maritime safety regime. The findings of the questionnaire study are compared to the findings of the literature study. The questionnaire study showed that many kinds of policies have improved maritime safety, and they are needed to ensure maritime safety. For instance, ship construction, fairway maintenance, nautical charts and rules of the road at sea can be considered the cornerstones of maritime safety. However, the results ranked voluntary activities of companies as the most effective way to improve maritime safety in the future. Self-regulative approaches could solve some problems connected to more traditional policy-making.

PIRATES OF AFRICA’S SOMALI COAST: ON TERRORISM’S BRINK?

This article will examine and evaluate the potential threat of maritime terrorism inAfrica, in particular the threat posed at present off the Somali coast. Africa’s porousborders have provided an ideal conduit for the export of terrorism on land, and nowits unguarded coastlines are a potential new thoroughfare for maritime terrorists tooperate at sea. In Africa, the threat to maritime security and the proliferating threatof ungoverned spaces have lethally combined to spawn the major threat of piracyand now also the potential threat of maritime terrorism off the insecure coastline ofSomalia. At the time of writing, the security threats and challenges posed by therapid proliferation of piracy remains, and have continued to be so throughout 2009.As of recent, maritime experts observe that the waters off the coast of Somalia andthe Gulf of Aden have emerged as the most dangerous zones for seafarers.

The Channel habitat atlas for marine resource management (CHARM): an aid for planning and decision-making in an area under strong anthropogenic pressure

The eastern English Channel, the narrow channel of water separating northern France and southeast England is an area of intense human use of the array of resources concentrated into its relative small area. The vul- nerability of living resources and their habitats brought together French and British maritime experts within a common project (called CHARM): to create an atlas of marine resource habitats in the eastern English Channel so as to provide planners and decision-makers with the necessary information to help managing the use of its living and non-living resources. This multidisciplinary and richly illustrated atlas provides abundant information on the legal framework and physical environment; benthic invertebrates, fish and their habitats; fishing activities; and a first attempt at developing a trophic network model (using ECOPATH software) and a marine conservation planning exercise (using MARXAN software, at a spatial resolution of 25 km 2 ). Although most of the data used were collected elsewhere, some were col- lected especially for the project. Similarly, most of the analyses performed on the data where entirely original for this geographical area. The CHARM atlas has significantly improved the knowledge about the eastern Channel while con- tributing to the recognition that such holistic or multidisciplinary approaches to exploited marine systems are necessary to efficiently and durably manage their resources use.

The Maritime Security Management System: Perceptions of the International Shipping Community

This paper presents the findings of a research project on the Maritime Security Management System (MSMS) conducted at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) in 2005–2006. The main objectives of this study are to identify key shore-based and near shore activities associated with maritime operations that are currently not covered by the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code and players involved in these activities; to explore and analyse important relationships among them, which can affect the management of security; to investigate the key criteria of a good/effective security management system; to explore the perceived effectiveness of some major aspects of security activities in a MSMS; and to identify the perceived importance of essential elements in a MSMS. Based on this identification and analysis, essential inputs that should be included in the curriculum of maritime universities and training institutions are proposed. This study applies a two-stage methodological approach, in which a focus group discussion is utilised first to explore the initial ideas from maritime experts, followed by a mail survey to reflect the perceptions of the international shipping community. The findings of this study provide essential insights to the formulation of such a global MSMS for the sake of safer and more efficient maritime transport.