In January 2023 the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an intergovernmental organization established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) granted already thirty contracts for exploration of Deep Seabed Mining, but exploitation has not started yet because ISA has not finalized its regulations, expected in 2025. This article intends to address to what extent is the current deep Seabed mining regime factoring risks and uncertainties in a just and sustainable manner in the current legal framework on environmental liability embedded in the green energy transition's processes with the EU as case study and inquiry if there are baseline or best practice to learn from. It unravels which type of precautionary approach fits and is just. Deep Seabed Mining is also a social justice, ethical dilemma demanding equitable and shared solutions to the benefit of current and future generations because activities of this kind can destroy ecosystems that can take decades to regenerate, if not causing irreversible damage. Law and technology, but also technology will be crucial as new methods guaranteeing an "environmentally benign Deep Seabed Mining" will determine how liability law will be shaped.
Large and remote offshore wind farms (OWFs) usually use voltage source converter (VSC) systems to transmit electrical power to the main network. Submarine high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables are commonly used as transmission links. As they are liable to insulation breakdown, fault location in the HVDC cables is a major issue in these systems. Exact fault location can significantly reduce the high cost of submarine HVDC cable repair in multi-terminal networks. In this paper, a novel method is presented to find the exact location of the DC faults. The fault location is calculated using extraction of new features from voltage signals of cables' sheaths and a trained artificial neural network (ANN). The results obtained from a simulation of a three-terminal HVDC system in power systems computer-aided design (PSCAD) environment show that the maximum percentage error of the proposed method is less than 1%.
For design validation of offshore structures and conceptualisation of wave energy converters, physical model testing performed in wave basin laboratories is often applied. In such cases, knowledge about the wave conditions is of great significance. For validation of the wave condition in such tests, different methods for estimation of the directional wave spectra may be applied. However, different assumptions are imposed in the methods and deviations here from providing uncertainties in the results. The following paper quantifies the influence of nonlinear effects on the accuracy of the estimated directional wave spectra. This is done by analysis of idealised, synthetically generated waves based on second order wave theory and secondly with simplified amplitude dispersion included. The present analyzes show that the uncertainties of the directional wave spectra are proportional to the level of nonlinearity present in the wave field.
The aim of this paper is to provide the foundations for the development of a spatial decision-support toolset that combines cumulative impacts and ecosystem service supply assessments to support what-if scenario analysis in a maritime spatial planning context. Specifically, a conceptual framework for a toolset has been designed in order to introduce a new approach for place-based assessments of change in relative ecosystem service supply in multiple services at a time due to changes in cumulative impacts. Central to the toolset are two pre-existing approaches for relative ecosystem service supply and cumulative impact assessments and tools that facilitate them. The tools take advantage of available data from various sources, including geodata and expert knowledge, and have already been proven to support maritime spatial planning in a real-world context. To test the new approach and demonstrate the outputs, an ecosystem service supply assessment was done manually using the two currently separate tools. The results of the test case ecosystem service supply assessment for the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea are also presented in this paper and illustrate the assessment steps and data needs. Although presently the focus of the illustrative assessment is the Gulf of Riga, the toolset will be able to accommodate analysis of cumulative impacts and service supply of any location, leaving the scope of the assessment to be determined by the objectives of the assessment as well as data availability (i.e., geospatial data availability and extent of expert knowledge).
The core function of UNCLOS is to provide a legal order for the oceans and their peaceful uses. This includes providing a legal framework for upholding law and order at sea, as this is a precondition for peaceful use. Part One of this volume deals with different perspectives of upholding law and order at sea; and Chapter 2 creates a backdrop for the following chapters dealing with these various issues. The chapter presents some perspectives on the system of law and order at sea and sets the following chapters in context with themes such as the scope of UNCLOS and its limitations, the adaptability of the convention to new developments, the role of the zonal system created under the convention and the influence of state practice on the system of upholding law and order at sea. By doing so, Chapter 2 also creates a line to the following parts of this volume; and some of the perspectives raised in Chapter 2 will be revisited in the final part (Part Four) of this volume, dealing with UNCLOS as a system of regulation and connected methodologies.
We numerically simulate the hydrodynamic response of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) using CFD. The FOWT under consideration is a slack-moored 1:70 scale model of the UMaine VolturnUS-S semisubmersible platform. This set-up has been experimentally tested in the COAST Laboratory Ocean Basin at the University of Plymouth, UK. The test cases under consideration are (i) static equilibrium load cases, (ii) free decay tests and (iii) two focused wave cases with different wave steepness. The FOWT is modeled using a two-phase Navier-Stokes solver inside the OpenFOAM-v2006 framework. The catenary mooring is computed by dynamically solving the equations of motion for an elastic cable using the MoodyCore solver. The results of the static and decay tests are compared to the experimental values with only minor differences in motions and mooring forces. The focused wave cases are also shown to be in good agreement with measurements. The use of a one-way fluid-mooring coupling results in slightly higher mooring forces, but does not influence the motion response of the FOWT significantly.
Discusses the challenges of raising finance to build and convert low- and zero-emission ships as required by international law and policy to mitigate climate change.
Purpose: In the shipping industry, both sales and purchases of second-hand ships and freight transport services are prevalently tailor-made and traded with intense bilateral negotiations. Price bargaining is the key step of this negotiation process and plays a crucial role in determining mutually agreed prices. Despite its cruciality and applicability, the price bargaining has yet received due conceptual and/or theoretical attention in the shipping literature. This paper attempts to conceptually examine the role of bargaining in shipping transaction prices and subsequently puts forward directions for future research. In doing so, the paper focuses on two types of transactions taking place in shipping markets: asset market trading of second-hand vessels and service market trading shipping freights.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper begins with a systematic literature review of price bargaining in the field of economics and management disciplines from a game-theoretic perspective. This approach does logically lead to the establishment of a conceptual framework for price bargaining in shipping sub-markets as a step toward having taken into consideration a variety of heterogeneities commonly present in trading activities and market dynamics.
Findings: A set of research areas has been consequently identified where price bargaining and mechanisms for the shipping freight and asset markets could be further explored and analyzed in a way to make better pricing decisions under a more tangible framework.
Research limitations/implications: One of the critical challenges when using bargaining mechanisms to make a decision on pricing shipping services and assets is how to operationalize the study for empirical investigation as some of the factors are internal information of the players and are not adequately revealed to externals: that is, an imperfect information sharing case. The current study aims, however, not to conduct an empirical analysis but to initiate a conversation among maritime economists by bringing their attention to this not-yet fully explored and potentially impactful field of research and by asking them to treat bargaining from a perspective for pricing shipping assets and services. It is claimed that, by doing so, one could better understand price differences between individual contracts.
Originality/value: This study would be considered the first in its kind to provide a detailed survey of the bargaining theory and models from a game theoretical perspective as a theoretical lens to understand its importance and relevance in pricing shipping assets and services. It also provides a simplified operational case on utilizing bargaining in practically pricing freight services.
We contribute to theorizing global human resource strategy by analyzing the mobility of workers laid off due to the failure of a MNC employer. The job opportunities of laid-off workers are affected by their industry legitimacy. Focusing on scarce specialized workers, we propose that prospective MNC employers share an interest in retaining such workers' legitimacy. However, in the light of organizational failure, they may suffer from cross-border legitimacy loss conditioned by their former employer's MNC structure—specifically, their former organizational units or geographical locations. We present an illustrative case study of traders laid off by a spectacular bankruptcy in the global bunker industry. This inspires a discussion of how MNC top management can manipulate worker legitimacy following an organizational failure. Managerial Summary: Strategic hiring of globally mobile scarce specialized workers is central to global human resource strategy. We analyze what drives the legitimacy and mobility of such workers after being laid off by a bankruptcy of their former employer. We demonstrate that laid off workers experience comparatively high legitimacy loss when they were previously assigned to an MNC organizational unit or geographical location where other workers were suspected of being responsible for failure. This weakens their bargaining position vis-a-vis a prospective employer. We present an illustrative case study of traders laid off by a spectacular bankruptcy in the global bunker oil industry.