S. Kristiansen – Maritime Transportation

Автор: S. Kristiansen
Название книги: Maritime Transportation
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Водный транспорт
Страницы: 523
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

Shipping or commercial seaborne transport is largely an international activity by the very
fact that ships are operating on the high seas between different countries and parts of
the world. The international character is also emphasized by the disintegrated nature of
shipping companies, where ownership, management, crewing and operations are located
in different countries. Even the country of registration (the Flag State), which has the
primary responsibility for safety, may not have any immediate link to the commercial
activities. The international character eventually led to the establishment by the United
Nations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). IMO has the prime
responsibility for adopting safety regulations but has no power to enforce them. It is a
regrettable fact that certain Flags of Convenience (FOCs) show more interest in the fees
they collect than in exercising safety control. Shipping is also tarnished by both
unregulated and substandard employment practices, which have negative effects on safety.
Lastly, it has been questioned whether the commercial orientation of ship classification is
justifiable in all respects.
These weaknesses of the safety regime have become more visible in recent decades as a
consequence of some large catastrophes to tankers and passenger vessels. Both the public
and governments were aroused by the accidents to the tankers Erika and Prestige and not
least to the passenger vessels Herald of Free Enterprise and Estonia. Today’s society is less
willing to accept environmental damage and fatalities. The conflict between the coastal
state and shipping interests has therefore become more visible, and we also see that
consumer groups are targeting ferry and cruise shipping. The authority of IMO has been
somewhat reduced by the unilateral actions of certain states: the US has put tougher
liability requirements on the shipowner (OPA’90), the European Union has speeded up
the implementation of new safety regulations, and some coastal states have started
to inspect vessels on their own initiative through so-called MOUs (Memorandums
of Understanding).
The negative focus on shipping has had the effect that both the industry itself
and the regulators have taken steps to heighten the safety level. IMO has during the
last decade introduced both risk analysis (Formal Safety Assessment – FSA) and
systematic safety management (International Safety Management Code – ISM). We
now see that all stakeholders in the industry are striving for a more professional attitude towards controlling the risks. FSA is based on scientific methods supported
by probability theory, reliability techniques and systems engineering. Likewise
safety management finds its basis in organization and work psychology, quality
management thinking and even anthropology. The striving for higher safety will therefore
in the future be based on rational knowledge and not only the subjective experience
of individuals.
Naval architects and marine engineers have key roles in the design and building of
ships and thereby have considerable impact on safety. In many respects the engineering
profession is focusing primarily on safety: hull strength, stability and vessel controllability.
But the engineers are also working on the interface between systems and humans:
navigating bridge, engine control room and related systems. However, the requirements
of efficient building and maintenance processes are often given higher priority than
ergonomic and human factors considerations.
The author of this book started some ten years ago to give a course on risk analysis for
master’s degree students in marine engineering. The modest ambition was to give the
students a broader understanding of the safety aspects of the ship itself and as a
transportation system. It was also important to address the fact that safety is not only
about methods and techniques, but also about priorities and knowledge about safe
behaviour. Engineers are also involved in operations and daily decision-making processes
that influence risk. They may sometimes have the key responsibility for managing safety in
competition with economic and time-pressure considerations. I have also given courses to
personnel with a nautical background based on the material in this book. Present nautical
education gives the necessary training in mathematics and statistics to follow the more
technical aspects of risk monitoring and estimation. The book will hopefully therefore
have a broad readership.
The book is organized in 4 parts or 15 chapters:
I. Background 1. Introduction
2. Maritime risk picture
3. Rules and regulations
II. Statistical methods 4. Statistical risk monitoring
5. Decisions in operation
III. Risk analysis 6. Traffic-based models
7. Damage estimation
8. Risk analysis techniques
9. Cost-benefit analysis
10. Formal safety assessment
IV. Management and operations 11. Human factors
12. Occupational safety
13. Accident analysis
14. Emergency preparedness
15. Safety management

The parts can also be studied independently or in other sequences depending on whether
the focus is on risk analysis that is mainly related to design and planning, or whether the
the interest is in safety management.
The first part outlines the present situation with respect to safety in shipping in terms
of risk level and dominating accident phenomena. It also focuses on some key problems
relating to risk acceptance.
Part II gives a foundation for consistent application of statistical methods in risk
monitoring and typical decision-making situations. It assumes that the reader has a basic
knowledge of probability and statistics. Safety initiatives are often based on the assessment
of the present risk. It is, however, a fact that the risk concept is often ill formulated and
understood and, combined with limited data, this may lead to erroneous decisions with
large consequences.
Risk analysis methods are outlined in Part III. It is covered on two levels: the ship as
an element in a traffic scenario and as an entity in itself. Traffic-related accidents such as
grounding and collision must be analysed in a wider context taking the environment,
the fairway and maritime traffic into consideration. The consequences of an accident are
dependent on the damage to the ship. This book focuses on impact-related damage to the
hull. We give an outline of the general methods in risk analysis that have evolved during
the last decades in land-based and process-oriented industries. These methods have also
found wide application in the marine field. One of the fundamental paradoxes in risk
analysis is the fact that we have ‘hard’ methods but ‘weak’ decision criteria: What is safe
enough? An outline of different decision approaches is therefore given, together with the
so-called cost-benefit method. Finally, it is demonstrated how the FSA method may be
applied to concrete problems in ship design.
The final part of the book discusses a few aspects of systematic safety management.
The first topic is human factors, which is important by the very fact that ships still are
operated by humans. An overview is given of the limitations of human performance and
how it is influenced by the typical conditions onboard. We choose also to focus on the ship
as a workplace and have outlined some of the emerging knowledge with respect to
occupational accidents. It should, however, be emphasized that no clear relation has been
shown between ship and work accidents, although one may suspect there is one. In order
to improve safety it is necessary to understand how and why things go wrong and lead to
accidents. Without credible basic knowledge, risk analysis and decisions will be futile.
Accident investigation and analysis have therefore been given considerable room in the
book. In serious accidents the crew and passengers have to evacuate the vessel. The
emergency situation is dramatically different from what one experiences under normal
conditions. Design of escape routes and life-saving equipment are therefore critical and
must be based on a realistic understanding of how people react in those circumstances.
Finally, it is necessary to admit that the scope of this book is perhaps too large for the
number of pages in a typical textbook. This is for others to judge, my hope is only that it
may inspire the reader to, further study of this large topic. The references in each chapter
may also be of some help.
The manuscript of this book was originally written in Norwegian. In the rewriting
process I have had vital help from doctoral student Torkel Soma, M.Sc., and Geir Fuglerud, M.Sc. They have also given me constructive input and proposals for new text
sections and useful examples. Without their help I am not sure the project would have
been completed. But, as always, I take full responsibility for any errors and ignorant
statements.
The inspiration to write the book came partly from my involvement in a number of
EU-sponsored research projects. Directly and indirectly I am indebted to the following
colleagues: Lars Egil Mathisen, Egil Rensvik, Odd T. Mørkved, Geir Langli, Martin
Olofsson, Piero Caridis, Carlos G. Soares amd Mauro Pedrali.
I would like to dedicate the book to the numerous persons in the seafaring community
who are the victims of bad ship design of engineers and incompatible orders from
managers.