Suchergebnisse

The Prestige accident is perhaps the last among a series of serious marine accidents that have significantly shaped the formulation of maritime safety policy worldwide. The main thesis of this paper is that in spite of recent progress in this area there is still a long way to achieve a truly 'proactive' maritime safety regime. A qualitative assessment on the nature of some major maritime safety policies and on the way that these are put forward is attempted, along with some opinions on possible pitfalls and on what needs to be done so that this process can be further improved.

With the advent of the ISPS code, an impressive array of regulations has been pat in place to safeguard European Union (EU) ports from acts of terrorism and other unlawful acts. Also, the 'Prestige' tanker disaster has triggered important legislation that may affect ports, as regards safety and environmental protection. This paper takes a look at current port safety, security and environmental protection legislation, vis-a-vis the general policy thrust of the EU in the area of transport, and discusses the situation faced by the port sector and EU intermodal transport in the new regime. It is argued that we have a long way to go towards reaching policy goals as regards shifting cargo from land to sea. Challenges and opportunities are identified, and recommendations on how to improve the current situation are made. © 2005 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd All rights reserved.

This paper examines the recent concession of the Port of Piraeus (OLP) container terminal to Cosco Pacific. Serious discussions on how to transform the terminal to landlord status started in 2004 and, after an aborted tender, a concession award was approved by the Greek parliament in 2009. The contract is now operational after strong opposition by the port unions and a renegotiation phase in 2010. In this turbulent context, the economic implications of the particulars that dominated the negotiations and the provisions that were included in the final concession agreement (i.e. duration, conditions, competition issues, etc.) are worth examination. The analyses of the history, the design of the concession strategy that was endorsed by the relevant policy-makers (i.e. national ministry, port authority, etc.), and the implementation choices made provide an assessment of how the details of the concession might enhance/hamper the conclusion of the concession agreement and affect the organisation and the competitive position of the port. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.

There is a growing concern that the Earth's atmospheric composition is being altered by human activities which can lead to climate change. Policy measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are on the agenda of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the European Union (EU). Climate Change is an environmental problem and answers have to be sought among robust environmental policies that are often classified in market-based, command-and-control and voluntary instruments. Although there is evidence that many uncertainties surround the climate change phenomenon and the contribution of shipping, shipping is under severe political pressure. The paper presents an overview of the related uncertainties and environmental policies and focuses on emission standards and technology solutions. From a political point of view, it is easier to pass legislation that calls for technological and operational measures and may indeed have a high potential in reducing emissions.

""Formal Safety Assessment"" (FSA) was introduced as a tool to help in the evaluation of new regulations for maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment and is currently, the major risk assessment tool that is being used for policy-making. However, there is not much work done in FSA as regards the protection of the marine environment and especially the prevention of sea pollution. Taking into account that a major harm to the sea is the accidental spillage of oil and by acknowledging that there is no significant work on this matter, this paper attempts a literature review on the issue and comments on alternative approaches. To that effect, prior research on oil spill damage cost assessment is placed within context, and various alternative approaches are presented. This work is also viewed within the framework of recent IMO developments in this area.

This paper reports on recent analysis of oil spill cost data assembled by the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF). Regression analyses of clean-up costs and total costs have been carried out, after taking care to convert to current prices and remove outliers. In the first place, the results of this analysis have been useful in the context of the ongoing discussion within the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on environmental risk evaluation criteria. Furthermore, these results can be useful in estimating the benefit of regulations that deal with the protection of marine environment and oil pollution prevention. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The trend towards a risk based regulatory framework at IMO and within classification societies is expanding while some voices claim that a full ship risk based scantlings design approach can be immediately implementable. This paper attempts to clarify some widely used, but confusing to many, notions such as Risk Based Rulemaking vs. Risk Based Design, and IMO's Goal Based Standards Traditional Approach vs. Safety Level Approach, and the implications of their use, or misuse, to future ship rulemaking, design and safety. The paper elaborates on some identified weaknesses of Formal Safety Assessment and the risk based approach which must be corrected. It further cautions on the over eagerness of some rule makers and designers to drop all prescriptive rule formulations and haphazardly adopt risk based formulations borrowed from other industries which may not be appropriate for ships. A reliable risk based approach involves avoidance to cut corners and thus avoidance on relying on a large number of arbitrary assumptions. To be applied properly, the risk based approach requires a significant amount of future research in order to reliably link from first principles the ship risk model with the desired acceptable Risk or Safety level. © 2007: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

This article formulates the mathematical model of the liner shipping company cycle cost and attempts to optimize the operational profile of company assets in regards to specific network of routes of cargo flows and vessels portfolio. In other words it attempts to give a practical solution to the modern shipping company fleet deployment problem. This is achieved by developing a generic cost model methodology that aims to minimize total operating costs by using Genetic Algorithms in optimizing various predefined attributes such as operational speed. The finalized model could be applicable to liner shipping companies for optimization purposes of liner networks, as well as for simulation and examination of possible scenarios and what-if analysis. In the era of recession, a demand shock is examined and, interesting results are produced. In further research, this model can estimate the impact of environmental legislation intensification. In the what-if analysis, the model can depict how an initial design of a liner system can be optimized by modifying system attributes to dynamically meet new requirements. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.