The oceans have received extraordinary international attention in global policy and research. New insecurities and uncertainties, ranging from intensifying interstate disputes to persistent piracy and overfishing as well as to pollution, deoxygenation and climate change imply that the oceans are increasingly seen as being in crisis. This revolution in thinking about and addressing the oceans is driven by new ideas of why the oceans need political attention and care. In this article we demonstrate how four key new ‘blue paradigms’—maritime security, blue economy, ocean health and blue justice—have evolved and turned the oceans into a new area of priority. Each of these paradigms drives global ocean politics in different directions, which implies risks of fragmentation and conflicts. We work out the key differences between paradigms, investigating their underlying problematization, priorities and communities of practices involved. This provides a new map for navigating the complexity of global ocean politics useful for policy-makers and scholars. Thinking through paradigms also establishes a new analytical framework that allows for identifying conflicting priorities, tensions between ocean communities of practice, and ideas of how these can be managed. We conclude with a call for creative thinking of how synergies between the blue paradigms can be achieved in strategy, planning and research.
This chapter presents the latest development in digital platforms for data sharing in Maritime Informatics as discussed in chapter 1—Responding to humanitarian and global concerns with digitally enabled supply chain visibility. Specifically, we use the TradeLens digital data sharing platform as a case study to illustrate the key actors in containerised global transport and the technical set-up (including the utilisation of a hybrid cloud, permissioned blockchain, and data exchange standards), the benefits and challenges for the individual types of actors, and the overall potential and future challenges of the TradeLens platform.
The potential of data sharing platforms is dependent on the wide adoption of the ecosystem. Today, there is a high interest for the TradeLens ecosystem, and many actors have already adopted the platform, due to the vast variety of benefits it provides to all actors in global trade. Regardless, some actors seem to face internal obstacles to adopting the platform, which are either low or high technical advancement. For these actors, a paradigm shift is necessary to move from a reactive to a proactive scheme enabled by a near real-time supply and logistics data network. Finally, we discuss the challenges of network collaboration.
In this study, we investigate the barriers and enablers companies face when they seek to establish a fully decarbonized supply chain from the ground up. While recent research on sustainable supply chain management has advanced our understanding of how existing supply chains can become more sustainable, there is less research on fully decarbonized supply chains that are designed carbon neutral to produce carbon neutral products. This research aims to expand that frontier by investigating the case of the emerging supply chain delivering fossil-neutral e- methanol to the shipping industry.
A fuel levy is one of the market-based measures (MBMs) currently under consideration at the International Maritime Organization. MBMs have been proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the shipping sector and reduce its emissions. This paper analyses the economic and environmental implications of two types of levy on shipping bunker fuels by means of an analytical model built on the cobweb theorem. A unit-tax per ton of fuel and an ad-valorem tax, enforced as a percentage of fuel prices, are examined. In both cases, a speed and fuel-consumption reduction equivalent to an improvement in the energy efficiency of the sector would be expected as a result of the regulation enforcement. The speed reduction in the unit-tax case depends on fuel prices and the tax amount, whereas in the ad-valorem case it relies upon the enforced tax percentage.
Both schemes lead to industry profit decline, the extent of which depend on the structure of the levy and market conditions. Since there is concern that the costs resulting from the policy will be passed from shipping companies to their customers along the supply chain, the paper dwells on how the costs arising from the enforcement of the levy will be actually allocated between ship-owners and operators, and cargo-owners. In a market characterised by high freight rates and with no or limited excess capacity, a higher percentage of the total tax amount is transferred from ship-owners to shippers. In case of a recession the opposite happens.
In near coast navigation, buoys and beacons convey essential information about dangers. At night-time, selected buoys send out individual blink-sequences that are marked in sea charts. International regulations require that navigation officer on watch makes visual confirmation of objects and their type in order to navigate safely. With rapid developments of highly automated vessels, this duty needs be carried out by algorithms that detect and locate objects without human intervention. At night-time, this requires algorithms that decode blink sequences and are able to classify from this information. The paper investigates this problem and suggests an algorithm that solves the problem. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) are developed for classification. A dedicated architecture is suggested that includes both temporal and color decoding to obtain unique precision. We demonstrate how networks are trained on synthetically generated data, and the paper shows, on real-world data, how the suggested approach yields 100.0% accurate results on 44 real-world recordings while being robust to inaccuracy in actual blink sequences. Comparison with baseline signal processing and with a recent state-of-the-art 3D CNN model shows that the new blink-sequence classifier outperforms alternative algorithms. A showcase of the results of this work is available in this video: https://youtu.be/KEi8qNnKV2w.
Ecosystems are viewed as important sources of innovation. While contracts, rules, policies, and industrial standards have been identified as important for coordinating and aligning inter-firm relationships, tools for the collective, collaborative orchestration of ecosystems have yet to be fully identified and articulated by scholars. The core contribution of this paper, the authors contend, is that corporate foresight tools, as applied at the level of the ecosystem, have the potential to orchestrate ecosystems. To this end, the authors examine the practical use of corporate foresight tools, in this case, roadmapping and scenario planning, as employed by ECOPRODIGI, an Interreg Baltic Sea project designed to advance the EU's strategy for eco-efficient Sustainable Blue Economy in the Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) shipping ecosystem. Results demonstrate how ecosystem-level foresight significantly differs from traditional foresight centered around a focal firm. Corporate foresight tools, as applied to an ecosystem: 1) Target a diverse set of ecosystem actors beyond the segment's focal firm, including complementary firms, investors, and non-market actors; 2) Engage ecosystem actors, rather than only the focal firm, in shared strategy development based on a diverse mix of foresight tools; and 3) serve to orient and reify the ecosystem by charting the collective anticipation of innovations, policies, etc., in a shared set of future options. In the end, the authors find that corporate foresight tools operate as constitutive elements of ecosystems, that is, the tools help enact the ecosystem not as an abstract concept but as a shared, lived reality.
In the European Union, Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has been regarded as a means of promoting the sustainable growth of the blue economy. Consequently, where the planning outcomes affect the business operations in marine areas, commercial and industry stakeholders should have an important role in the planning process. However, the business perspective in MSP has gained little attention in stakeholder involvement literature. The aim of this study is to elaborate on the business sector's interest and involvement in MSP in the Baltic Sea region. The findings are based on the first-hand experiences of MSP authorities and experts. Furthermore, perspectives from two sea-use sectors, maritime transport and marine tourism, have been investigated using online questionnaires to discover their views. The study focuses on the questions of who to involve and what are the driving forces promoting business sector involvement. Even though MSP is a form of broad-scale planning, the results indicate that all spatial and organizational scales from local to international and from small enterprises to umbrella organizations should be considered when designing approaches to business stakeholder participation. The planning authorities need to consider what are the benefits and challenges of involving different types of business stakeholders. Planners often rely on organizations that represent business stakeholders and individual companies. It is resource effective to interact with representatives as they are considered to have a broad and general knowledge of the respective sector's interests. However, in some cases it is beneficial to also integrate individual companies, especially in local or regional contexts.
In this article, we examine the relations between global value chain governance and environmental upgrading in maritime shipping. Drawing from interviews with global shipping companies and major buyers of shipping services (cargo-owners), we reveal the key issues and challenges faced in improving the environmental performance of maritime transportation. Contributing to the Global Value Chain (GVC) literature, we compare and analyze the influence of three main external drivers on environmental upgrading in the tanker, bulk and container shipping segments: regulation, cooperation and buyer demands. Our findings suggest that environmental upgrading is more likely to occur when global value chains are characterized by unipolar governance and where the lead firms are consumer-facing companies with reputational risks. Furthermore, environmental upgrading in shipping is not likely to materialize without clear and enforceable global regulation and stronger alignment between regulation and voluntary sustainability initiatives.
Objective: To promote the physical and mental health of employees in a maritime setting and provide knowledge and tools to assist seafarers in managing daily challenges.
Materials and methods: The intervention drew on a goal-based approach, including workshops, coaching,health checks, interviews, and questionnaires.
Results: A process evaluation was used to explore intervention challenges and barriers. Results show that an intervention at sea is complex and needs flexibility. Findings varied, and the main challenges were low participation in one group and lack of continuity due to Covid-19. Data showed a significant positive shift in how the crew rated perceived stress and a statistically significant increase in intake of salad, fish, and vegetarian food.
Conclusions: Workplace interventions in poor health status settings are complex, necessary, and possible, and management’s participation is crucial. Increased awareness was achieved. Learning outcomes: The results showed some positive changes, such as lower stress levels and more intake of salad, fish, and vegetarian food. Flexibility is important for workplace interventions. Work place interventions contribute to health and wellbeing with appropriate management support.
Around 70% of our planet is covered by water. Just as human activities on land require planning, planning is also needed at sea. How can the space at sea be allocated to activities for use and protection in a space-saving way? How can we think across the different sectors so that marine planning is more coherent? These are questions that I am working to answer in my Ph.D. at Aalborg University, Copenhagen.