11 Applications of an Oil Drift and Fate Model for Fairway Design
395
The choice between the SW/SA and the CMB designs is, in essence, the choice
between specialists and all-rounders. Ultimately, it is the task of decision-makers
to pick one or the other fairway, or to choose between an all-seasons solution or a
specialized solution for one season. We only note here that the use of the average
of drift patterns seems to be more critical and challenging for the design process
compared to the pattern of maxima. The latter seems to cover all the design options
and to make comparisons possible. It is not unexpected that combined all-season
designs perform best in the all-year-round comparison because they simply cover
better the seasonal features of the drift. The choice is still not obvious and probably
requires a clear design strategy. If a seasonal design should be picked for an allyear-round application, the SW design is preferable.
11.5.3 Maritime Services for Performance Analysis
Marine transportation is lucrative, but is heavily loaded with demands for ever increasing cargo quantities and shipping efficiency to support a very competitive market. At the same time, ship accidents are among the most disastrous environmental
catastrophes, leaving whole coastlines polluted. What makes ship accidents so devastating and spill combating so challenging is the difficulty to access the source of
a spill in due time, especially in case of heavy weather or subsurface releases. As
marine navigation will alway be risky, management tools like ship routing software
and well developed maritime services might help to reduce the risk of accidents and
the consequences of consecutive spills. As explained in Chap. 1, a proper measure
of risk is the product of the probability of an accident and the cost of its consequences. In the context of ship routing usually only the first factor of this product is
addressed while in the present book the focus is on the possibilities to minimize the
consequences, should an accident happen somewhere. Combining these two viewpoints may jointly address both disaster prevention and impact minimization and
thus together aim at a harmonization of shipping demands and safety requirements.
Maritime services are addressing this issue in two ways: weather routing is making seaborne transport safer, and ship routing contributes to the efficiency of shipping. Statistical analysis of weather-related ship casualties of 150,000 North Atlantic and North Pacific crossings of 26,000 vessels in 1978–1982 indicates that
ship routing applications reduce the casualty rates by 15 %. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) acknowledged this already in 1983 and recommended the
use of weather routing services to operators.
Weather routing and ship routing are two terms that are often used synonymously.
In the context of this chapter, weather routing is dealing with the safety aspects
of maritime traffic, i.e., it is guiding vessels through or around dangerous weather
situations, whereas ship routing is applied to reach direct economical benefit through
planning and use of high-performance routes and the analysis of performance of
existing routes.
Ship routing is a well established maritime service and widely used for ship performance estimations, voyage analysis and route optimizations in relation to travel
395
The choice between the SW/SA and the CMB designs is, in essence, the choice
between specialists and all-rounders. Ultimately, it is the task of decision-makers
to pick one or the other fairway, or to choose between an all-seasons solution or a
specialized solution for one season. We only note here that the use of the average
of drift patterns seems to be more critical and challenging for the design process
compared to the pattern of maxima. The latter seems to cover all the design options
and to make comparisons possible. It is not unexpected that combined all-season
designs perform best in the all-year-round comparison because they simply cover
better the seasonal features of the drift. The choice is still not obvious and probably
requires a clear design strategy. If a seasonal design should be picked for an allyear-round application, the SW design is preferable.
11.5.3 Maritime Services for Performance Analysis
Marine transportation is lucrative, but is heavily loaded with demands for ever increasing cargo quantities and shipping efficiency to support a very competitive market. At the same time, ship accidents are among the most disastrous environmental
catastrophes, leaving whole coastlines polluted. What makes ship accidents so devastating and spill combating so challenging is the difficulty to access the source of
a spill in due time, especially in case of heavy weather or subsurface releases. As
marine navigation will alway be risky, management tools like ship routing software
and well developed maritime services might help to reduce the risk of accidents and
the consequences of consecutive spills. As explained in Chap. 1, a proper measure
of risk is the product of the probability of an accident and the cost of its consequences. In the context of ship routing usually only the first factor of this product is
addressed while in the present book the focus is on the possibilities to minimize the
consequences, should an accident happen somewhere. Combining these two viewpoints may jointly address both disaster prevention and impact minimization and
thus together aim at a harmonization of shipping demands and safety requirements.
Maritime services are addressing this issue in two ways: weather routing is making seaborne transport safer, and ship routing contributes to the efficiency of shipping. Statistical analysis of weather-related ship casualties of 150,000 North Atlantic and North Pacific crossings of 26,000 vessels in 1978–1982 indicates that
ship routing applications reduce the casualty rates by 15 %. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) acknowledged this already in 1983 and recommended the
use of weather routing services to operators.
Weather routing and ship routing are two terms that are often used synonymously.
In the context of this chapter, weather routing is dealing with the safety aspects
of maritime traffic, i.e., it is guiding vessels through or around dangerous weather
situations, whereas ship routing is applied to reach direct economical benefit through
planning and use of high-performance routes and the analysis of performance of
existing routes.
Ship routing is a well established maritime service and widely used for ship performance estimations, voyage analysis and route optimizations in relation to travel