130
Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
these cases, there needed to be a safety margin manually added to the beach line ( and
also around buoys and markers moored on water deeper than 3 m).
The app has now also been ported to the iOS ( Apple) platform. In 2020, the decision was taken to start a second phase of the development with the same actors and
financed by the Norwegian Coastal Administration. This time, the test area will be
outside Tønsberg on the Norwegian south coast and the test will focus on technical
benchmarking and reliability of the app.
DISCUSSION
The intention of this project has not been to develop an application to replace traditional navigation methods but to create a “ last line of defence” against accidents.
However, it will be difficult to prevent a few boaters from using it as a sole means
of navigation. The question is: If we develop a “ simple, stupid” application, which
facilitates boating for leisure mariners without navigational training, – do we then
lure new “ unfit” groups of people out on the sea, which in the end might lead to more
accidents? And, do we contribute to the de-skilling of leisure mariners?
Let us make a parallel with professional navigation. Traditionally, ship’s positions
were acquired by measuring the angles to the sun or terrestrial landmarks. After
some calculations, you obtained a “ historical” position, where the ship recently was.
This position was then manually plotted onto the paper chart. There were abundant
opportunities of making errors during the measurement, the calculations or during
the plotting, let alone that overcast days or bad visibility sometimes made measuring
the sun height impossible.
When the radio-based Decca and Loran systems and later the global positioning
system came, the measuring process was automated and only the manual plotting into
the chart remained until Electronic Chart Display and Information System ( ECDIS)
allowed the officer to have the ship’s position automatically plotted on the chart in
real time. In 1989, the IMO issued the first provisional performance standards for
ECDIS ( IMO, 1989) and in 1995 the US Coast Guard presented an early human factors study ( Smith et al., 1995). It concluded that “ ECDIS had the potential to improve
upon the safety of navigation, compared to conventional procedures”, and that “ there
was strong evidence that the use of ECDIS increased the accuracy of navigation,
[…], and reduced the proportion of time spent on navigation, with a corresponding
increase in the proportion of time spent on the higher risk collision avoidance task.
In addition, ECDlS was shown to improve geographic ‘ situational awareness’ and to
reduce navigation ‘ errors’ ” ( Smith et al., 1995, P.VIII). Spontaneous comments such
as “ Navigation goes away as a task” were made by the participants.
However, this was achieved at the cost of what we call de-skilling. No longer
did the mariners need to train their skills in taking sun heights with the sextant or
bearings with a pelorus. They became more dependent on the automatic systems.
In an article in the Journal of Navigation, Edmund Hadnett ( 2008) from the Port of
London Authority reacted to the d e-skilling of navigators in dependence on modern bridge technology leading to “ o ver-confidence in situation awareness, encouraging individuals to take far greater risks than was previously the case where a good
look-out and a safe speed were intrinsic parts of watch-keeping”. Hadnett ( 2008)
Sensemaking in Safety Critical and Complex Situations
these cases, there needed to be a safety margin manually added to the beach line ( and
also around buoys and markers moored on water deeper than 3 m).
The app has now also been ported to the iOS ( Apple) platform. In 2020, the decision was taken to start a second phase of the development with the same actors and
financed by the Norwegian Coastal Administration. This time, the test area will be
outside Tønsberg on the Norwegian south coast and the test will focus on technical
benchmarking and reliability of the app.
DISCUSSION
The intention of this project has not been to develop an application to replace traditional navigation methods but to create a “ last line of defence” against accidents.
However, it will be difficult to prevent a few boaters from using it as a sole means
of navigation. The question is: If we develop a “ simple, stupid” application, which
facilitates boating for leisure mariners without navigational training, – do we then
lure new “ unfit” groups of people out on the sea, which in the end might lead to more
accidents? And, do we contribute to the de-skilling of leisure mariners?
Let us make a parallel with professional navigation. Traditionally, ship’s positions
were acquired by measuring the angles to the sun or terrestrial landmarks. After
some calculations, you obtained a “ historical” position, where the ship recently was.
This position was then manually plotted onto the paper chart. There were abundant
opportunities of making errors during the measurement, the calculations or during
the plotting, let alone that overcast days or bad visibility sometimes made measuring
the sun height impossible.
When the radio-based Decca and Loran systems and later the global positioning
system came, the measuring process was automated and only the manual plotting into
the chart remained until Electronic Chart Display and Information System ( ECDIS)
allowed the officer to have the ship’s position automatically plotted on the chart in
real time. In 1989, the IMO issued the first provisional performance standards for
ECDIS ( IMO, 1989) and in 1995 the US Coast Guard presented an early human factors study ( Smith et al., 1995). It concluded that “ ECDIS had the potential to improve
upon the safety of navigation, compared to conventional procedures”, and that “ there
was strong evidence that the use of ECDIS increased the accuracy of navigation,
[…], and reduced the proportion of time spent on navigation, with a corresponding
increase in the proportion of time spent on the higher risk collision avoidance task.
In addition, ECDlS was shown to improve geographic ‘ situational awareness’ and to
reduce navigation ‘ errors’ ” ( Smith et al., 1995, P.VIII). Spontaneous comments such
as “ Navigation goes away as a task” were made by the participants.
However, this was achieved at the cost of what we call de-skilling. No longer
did the mariners need to train their skills in taking sun heights with the sextant or
bearings with a pelorus. They became more dependent on the automatic systems.
In an article in the Journal of Navigation, Edmund Hadnett ( 2008) from the Port of
London Authority reacted to the d e-skilling of navigators in dependence on modern bridge technology leading to “ o ver-confidence in situation awareness, encouraging individuals to take far greater risks than was previously the case where a good
look-out and a safe speed were intrinsic parts of watch-keeping”. Hadnett ( 2008)