The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) region is a vast maritime area off West and Central Africa, and an area of interest to numerous external actors for a range of different reasons including historical relations, trade, oil and fishery. This maritime space is characterised not only by legitimate actors’ presence at sea but also by various types of maritime criminality, with piracy currently being high on the agenda of external actors. Indeed, in 2020, 95% of all maritime kidnappings globally happened in the GoG. Through the application of a specific theoretical lens, namely the politics of piracy numbers, this chapter offers a regional case study of piracy in the GoG. Through this lens, the chapter for example explores how, though being the most counted type of maritime insecurity, piracy is only one aspect of a much broader complex of maritime insecurities. Attending also to the politics of missing numbers, the chapter also explores how far less attention is devoted to counting various onshore dimension of GoG-piracy.
The first-mile problem, which refers to the design of transport services that connect passengers to their nearby transit station, has attracted growing attention in recent years. In this paper we consider first-mile ride-sharing services and study the problem of optimally determining the fleet size and assigning vehicles to transport requests. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer program and present a number of numerical experiments based on a small-scale system to analyse different configurations of the service, namely with and without fleet control (FC). Result shows that a configuration with FC is superior in terms of profits while service rates can be higher in a configuration without FC, depending on the revenue-sharing mechanism.
Fishing is a human activity with various social and economic implications. In most countries, those implications are key factors to consider when deciding on specific management strategies. In this report, the fisheries management strategies implemented in the different European marine regions are reviewed, and relevant indicators, models and tools that can be used to predict the effectiveness of these strategies, from a social and economic point of view are identified. The objective was to identify the critical social and economic aspects of fisheries, relevant social and economic indicators, and regionally-relevant management measures to be considered in the evaluations of different management strategies later in the project.
The scoping consultations and systematic reviews identified a long list of potentially relevant key social and economic aspects and management measures. Among these, the most frequently mentioned items identified in scoping with stakeholders were windfarms, employment/jobs, MPAs, food supply, small-scale fisheries, local communities and pollution. The systematic review identified landings (volume or value), effort (days at sea), fuel costs, number of vessels, profit, aspects of costs, economic performance, sustainability-resilience, compliance and capacity as frequently occurring topics. The fisheries management policies most frequently mentioned were effort control, landing obligation, Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ), MPAs and TAC. Among the papers analyzed, more than 30%, concerned the Mediterranean region, followed by Western Waters, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, indicating a higher contribution of Mediterranean studies to the conclusions.
Aspects identified frequently in both scoping and in systematic reviews included MPAs and small-scale fisheries, which were all identified in both methods as frequently occurring. However, there were also aspects which appeared to be represented differently in the evaluations (e.g. employment and local communities) indicating discrepancies between the available knowledge and that sought by the end users.
The SEAwise project works to deliver a fully operational tool that will allow fishermen, managers, and policy makers to easily apply Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) in their own fisheries. One of the key uncertainties in fisheries science and management can be linked to (our understanding of) fishermen's behaviour. In this report we describe the project efforts to better understand fisher behavior by assessing literature, interviews and data to advance towards a better representation of fisher behavior in our modelling. A better understanding of fisher behavior is especially needed in the context of change affecting Europe's marine ecosystems. Change is both related to the natural part of the ecosystem (ie climate change) as to the social side of the ecosystem (ie building of wind parks).
To that aim we present nine different case studies in Europe as examples of how fisher behavior has been studied and which factors are (or can be) relevant for a better understanding of fisher behaviour. Each case study ends with a table summarizing the factors influencing behaviour, the categories within that factor and the (potential) application in modeling as well as the implications for management. The table below summarizes the factors found / used in the case studies and the elements (social, cultural, ecological, economic and institutional) to which they relate. A variety of social factors were identified that are promising for use in modelling. A key conclusion is that social data are often context dependent and cannot be copy pasted from one situation to the other and in some cases, additional data needs to be collected. The cases also demonstrate that mixed methods approaches and interdisciplinary approaches are key to get in-depth understanding of fisher behavior in fisheries science.
The content of Resolution MSC.473(ES.2) can be summarized in five main points and one invitation to IMO Member States.
The first point pertains to the implementation of the Framework of Protocols. The second point pertains to the designation of seafarers as 'key workers' in order to facilitate safe and unhindered movement for embarking or disembarking a vessel. The third point pertains to the consideration of temporary migration measures to ease mobility of seafarers, eg waivers or relaxations of visa or documentary requirements. The fourth point is on the use of prevention measures such as testing crews before embarkation; this requires active conduct by port states, namely providing access to personal protective equipment and testing facilities. The fifth point is on providing seafarers with immediate access to medical care and facilities, as well as with evacuation when the assistance required cannot be provided on board or at port; this aims to prevent humanitarian situations such as casualties on board vessels due to lack of access to intensive care units.
Furthermore, the Resolution invites Member States to designate a National Focal Point on Crew Change and Repatriation of Seafarers ('National Focal Point').
This thesis presents the numerical study of combustion under marine engine like condi- tions. The thesis is divided into two main parts. In the first part, combustion is studied in a large two-stroke marine engine with conventional diesel fuel. In the second part, two different dual-fuel combustion modes of diesel-methane i.e. non-premixed combus- tion and premixed combustion are studied. All numerical models are validated with the experimental data.
First, in a simplified geometry of the marine engine, conjugate heat transfer (CHT) calculations are applied to simultaneously solve the in-cylinder gas phase dynamics and the temperature field within the liner of the engine. The effects of different initial tem- peratures across the liner and the effects of the amount of water vapor in the air on the sulfuric acid formation and condensation in a large two-stroke marine engine are studied. An initial temperature is calculated based on heat transfer modeling and it is observed that the sulfuric acid vapor formation is more sensitive to the variation of the water vapor amount than the sulfuric acid condensation. In the next step, the effects of the turbulence modelling on the simulation of the full cycle of the engine including scavenging process, combustion, and emission formation is studied in a real geometry of a large two-stroke marine research engine. The Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier- Stokes (URANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence models are utilized for modeling of in-cylinder turbulent flow. The accuracy of the tangential velocity and swirl flow in the top of the cylinder where the fuel is injected is crucial to predict the air-fuel mixing correctly. It is found that URANS predicts a solid body rotation for the tangential velocity in this region. However, LES predicts a tangential velocity that is uniformly distributed in the radial direction that is consistent with experimental results. Furthermore, during the scavenging process, LES is able to predict the Burgers vortex upstream of the cylinder near the scavenging ports. Also, LES predicts a higher angu- lar momentum inside the cylinder in comparison with URANS. During the combustion process, the LES model shows a moderately better performance in capturing the experi- mental pressure and heat release rate profiles than URANS. However, the predicted gas temperature at the liner wall is approximately 45 % higher for URANS than LES during the expansion stroke, which is attributed to a higher predicted turbulent viscosity in the URANS case. A higher temperature of gas beside the liner wall may decrease the sulfuric acid formation and increase the heat transfer. The higher predicted swirl by LES than that in URANS leads to an earlier and stronger interaction between the flame and the spray, decreasing the oxidation of the emissions. The second cycle LES simula- tion shows that the solutions after the scavenging process are in-sensitive to the initial conditions and the main governing parameters are boundary conditions and injection characteristics.
Next, two different dual-fuel combustion modes of non-premixed combustion and premixed combustion are studied. The non-premixed combustion is simulated and val- idated with the experimental data of a large two-stroke marine research engine under low and high engine loads. Based on the results, further methane jets penetration in the low load case leads to better air-fuel mixing and a higher combustion intensity than that in the high load. Effects of the pilot diesel fuel injection timing on combustion and emission formation and the governing mechanisms are also investigated in detail. Results indicate that the intense combustion of the accumulated methane expands the methane flame towards the piston when the pilot injection timing is retarded. The NO formation is lower in the high load case due to the lower combustion intensity. Also, retarding the pilot injection timing decreases the NO formation. Furthermore, the effect of the direction of pilot diesel injection is investigated which shows a significant effect on the methane start of combustion and intensity as well as flame propagation direction which leads to different heat transfer trends from the combustion chamber walls.
Premixed combustion is analysed in a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC) and validated with experimental data. Results show that by simulation of methane-air mixing, the numerical model is able to capture the ignition delay time (IDT) within a maximum relative difference of 7 % to the measurements. A higher relative difference of 38% is obtained when methane gas injection is omitted and the methane-air and temperature are assumed homogeneous. Therefore, it is concluded that the simulation of methane-air mixing process is crucial in this type of combustion due to the presence of inhomogeneities in both methane fuel and temperature distribution after mixing. Creating the idealized inhomogeneities for separately investigation of methane and tem- perature inhomogeneities shows that the inhomogeneity in the temperature has a more profound influence on the IDT than the inhomogeneity in the methane distribution. Furthermore, the effects of the number of pilot fuel nozzle holes on the auto-ignition are studied. The auto-ignition process in two cases with 4 nozzle holes is investigated and compared with the base case with 8 nozzle holes. Considering the same amount of pilot fuel, the injection rate is assumed to be double in one of the cases, while in the other case, the injection duration is doubled. Results show that a reduction of the nozzle hole numbers can improve the pilot diesel ignition in the case with 4 nozzle holes and double injection duration compared to the base case with 8 nozzle holes. However, combustion in the case with 4 nozzle holes and a double injection rate is incomplete due to flame impingement on the walls.
This chapter is about emergent safety hazards in engineering systems. These
hazards are those that emerge from a system without arising from any part of the
system alone, but because of interactions between parts. We distinguish two
approaches to analysing engineering systems: one is to view them as sociotechnical, and the other is to consider them as cyber-physical systems. We
illustrate a great deal of emergent hazardous behaviours and phenomena due to
unknown accident physics, malign actions, chemistry, and biology and due to
deficiencies in managements and organisations. The method that follows the
socio-technical view consists in the representation of a system by sequential
functionally unrelated processes that can in reality influence the performance of each other via sneak paths. The method that follows the cyber-physical systems
view focuses on the analysis of control loops (feedback, feedforward, positive,
and negative) and, especially, interrelated loops. The chapter explores also the
realm of security threats due to malign actions that can trigger safety-threatening events. And finally it gives general guidance for avoiding and eliminating safety hazards when designing engineering systems.
The safety of people and cargo onboard is a key functionality of a commercial ship.
The health and well-being of seafarers and passengers is protected through an extensive set of technical specifications, standards and norms that govern the design and commissioning of all vessels.
They differ by ship type and size, while the specific services to be provided and the specific geographic regions to be served also play an important role in this respect.
The requirements are of national and international character and vary also with the classification society that will commission the ship. Thus in a broader sense, all competences related to ship design are related one way or another to maritime health.
Much of the design of ships is overseen by a naval architect or marine engineer. It is rare to have the involvement of a medical professional except in the cruise industry.
Purpose and tasks
To ensure that the design of a ship includes the requirements to protect the health and well being of seafarers. More specifically, to identify areas of intervention that go beyond the usual engineering curricula where, nonetheless, the safety dimension is embedded through international standardization.
What is the role of the sea in globalized capitalism? In their new book Capitalism and the Sea: The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World, Liam Campling and Alejandro Colás explore this question through a historical and geographical lens. In this book, the authors track the larger history of maritime commerce and pursue new understandings of the role of the sea in the global economy. In doing so, they illuminate the understudied maritime spaces, systems, and flows that underpin the global economy and create the foundations of global material circulation.
According to the narratives transmitted through media and political discourse, climate change reduces the ice coverage in the Arctic and enhances shipping and other forms of maritime activities. Especially, expectations of an increasing level of transit shipping between Asian, especially Chinese, ports and ports in Europe and North America is dominant. Evidence, however, tells that the numbers of transit shipping through the Arctic Ocean are very limited, and dominated by European shipping companies. For Greenland, political expectations have also been high, since Greenland has been seen as "strategically" situated in relation to new shipping routes in the Arctic, But, again, the actual development has been moderate and not related to international transits but conditions in Greenland itself.