Maritime policy in Scotland

This paper begins by defining the meaning of the term ‘maritime policy’. Since devolution in the UK, the opening of the new Scottish parliament in 1998 and the creation of the Scottish Executive, little effort has been made to establish a distinct maritime policy for Scotland. As was evident prior to devolution, the primary emphasis from any maritime policy perspective has continued to be a focus on lifeline island ferry services. This ignores significant developments in several other key maritime transport sectors, and this paper provides examples of areas that require some form of policy response, including intra-European short sea shipping, UK coastal shipping, urban/river transport and global container shipping. Long-standing institutional bias against maritime transport coupled with subsidy devoted almost entirely to land transport systems has resulted in a quite distorted marketplace. This suggests that a maritime policy is now imperative if maritime transport is to play a more significant role in the overall transport system. Further discussion centres on the need to consider, from a Scottish policy perspective, the role of various state-sponsored maritime service providers and how these bodies might fit better within evolving policy. The conclusion is that formulation of a maritime policy by the Scottish Executive is overdue and that a degree of restructuring of transport responsibilities within the Executive, combined with adequate resource allocation towards the maritime industry, will be necessary in order that market distortions can be overcome, so enabling Scotland to fully exploit the competitive and environmental advantages that maritime transport can provide.     

Perceptions of foreign exchange rate risk in the shipping industry

This is an analysis of the impact of exchange rate risk on the performance of major shipping companies from two important maritime nations, Japan and Norway. For the shipping industry, such risk is exacerbated by freight rates fixed in US dollars which must then be converted into numerous other currencies. The appreciation of the Yen against the US dollar has been such that Japanese companies have been impelled to insulate themselves from exchange rate movements by natural hedging. For Norway, where fluctuations of the Krone against the US dollar have been less dramatic, exposure has been maintained, allowing an element of speculation. In both cases the market indicates that exchange rate risk is a significant factor in the determination of corporate performance.     

Shipboard safety: exploring organizational and regulatory factors

ABSTRACT

How vessel crews perceive safety on board (shipboard safety) is a useful indication for the general safety level. In this study a theoretical model was explored, involving factors that could possibly influence shipboard safety. Based on a survey questionnaire (n = 244), safety climate, shipowner efficiency demands and regulatory activities were investigated as influencing factors. Structural equation modelling gave support to the theoretical model and the findings illustrate that simultaneous involvement of various levels of the maritime system (crews, shipowners, regulators) can be effective for safety improvements. The study indicates that shipboard safety is affected by actions and prioritization by external actors through safety climate. It suggests that the maritime industry will profit from monitoring safety climate as part of the ongoing risk considerations, as a supplement to reactive parameters such as accident statistics.     

Evaluating the service requirements of dedicated container terminals: a revised IPA model with fuzzy AHP

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the service requirements of dedicated container terminals (DCTs). In this article, the service attributes (SAs) of DCTs were first discussed. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model was then constructed to measure the users’ perceived importance and dissatisfaction for each of the SAs. Based on these two measurements, a revised importance-performance analysis model was proposed to identify the SAs that should be improved. To validate the model, the dedicated container terminal of Evergreen Marine Corp. (EMC DCT) at Kaohsiung Port and its users were empirically investigated. With respect to the empirical results, managerial implications of the findings in improving service quality for the EMC DCT are discussed.     

Implementing green supply chain practices: an empirical investigation in the shipbuilding industry

ABSTRACT

Environmental concerns have become important in the shipbuilding industry. Governmental expectations about environmental and social performance are much higher than in the past. Public authorities penalize companies that do not comply with the rules. Shipbuilding companies face these challenges by introducing new technologies into their business processes. They do not only start initiatives to green their own business processes but also those of their supply chain partners. This form of environmental management is called Green Supply Chain Management (GrSCM) and its importance is increasingly recognized. Although GrSCM is growing, companies are experiencing difficulties engaging suppliers in environmental activities.

This empirical study analyses drivers for supply chain participation of suppliers in the shipbuilding industry. We explain the participations of suppliers in GrSCM practice by investigating influencing factors including governmental involvement in greening the supply chain, customer requirements towards green issues, feeling of social responsibility, competitive advantage by going green, and GrSCM readiness. Hypotheses are tested with partial least squares, using survey data of 93 suppliers of two leading shipbuilding companies. We found GrSCM readiness, competitive advantage, and social responsibility to be significant drivers in supplier participation. No significant support was found for governmental involvement and customer requirements.     

Numerical prediction of the modal response of flexible cylinders in cross-flow with a current dependent form of damping

A quadratic eigenvalue problem (QEP) was posed in order to study the dynamics of flexible cylinders in cross-flow, simulating slender offshore structures such as risers, catenaries or tendons. The Euler–Bernoulli equation was used to model the structure assuming a fluid loading model, and yielding a quadratic eigenvalue problem that included a form of damping dependent not only on the structural damping itself, but also on the free stream velocity and the fluid force coefficients. We solved the QEP using the finite element method. We also derived a simplified analytical solution in this work for comparison with the QEP, however this solution does not consider changes in tension along the length of the cylinder as the QEP does. In our study, the QEP solutions were first validated against the simplified analytical solution, and also against a well-known experimental dataset obtained in 2003, in which a flexible circular cylinder model was used to model the dynamics of a riser undergoing multi-mode vortex-induced vibrations.     

Full scale ice sea trials of Korean ice breaking research vessel ‘Araon’ on the big floes near Antarctica

A speed sea trial was performed in the Amundsen Sea in February and March of 2012. The Korean ice breaking research vessel “Araon” was used to check speed performance on the big floes. Two of ice trial cases were carried out. We describe the time history of location, the engine power, and the revolutions per minute during the ice trial, and the trajectory of the ship. Additionally, the measured ice properties are considered and discussed. The ice trial results were analyzed according to variation in ice thicknesses, ice strength, propulsion power, and the speed level of the ship. Our analysis results are compared to model test results and ice trial results. A correction to the target ice thickness was used to compare the power and speed relation in the same ice thickness because it is easy to know the relative speed performance of the ship. The Hamburgische Schiffbau-Versuchs Anstalt method was applied for the correction. The speed of Araon in big floes was higher than the speed in level ice. The speed after the correction at 10 MW of power and 103 cm of ice thickness was 5.4 knots based on analysis results.     

Some economic aspects of conflicts over land use in the coastal zone

Abstract

Recent land use legislation pays particular attention to the coastal zone where age‐old conflicts have recently accelerated. Flexibility is required in policy because visible conflicts are tied into complex physical and social systems which may require changing patterns of land use over time. Public policy is altering property rights and a thorough understanding of the economic and social roles played by those rights is required. Economic models can be used to understand some major changes such as types of alteration of the environment, but may be ignored or misused unless a better understanding of coastal decision processes is developed.     

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems from Autonomous to Cooperative Approach

Abstract

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have been one of the most active areas of ITS studies in the last two decades. ADAS aim to support drivers by either providing warning to reduce risk exposures, or automating some of the control tasks to relieve a driver from manual control of a vehicle. ADAS functions can be achieved through an autonomous approach with all instrumentation and intelligence on board the vehicle, or through a cooperative approach, where assistance is provided from roadways and/or from other vehicles. In this article, recent research and developments of longitudinal control assistance systems are reviewed including adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning and avoidance, and platooning assistants. The review focuses on comparing between autonomous systems and cooperative systems in terms of technologies used, system impacts and implementation. The main objective is to achieve common understanding on ADAS functional potentials and limitations and to identify research needs for further studies.