Progress in operational modeling in support of oil spill response

Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident of a massive blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists from government, industry, and academia collaborated to advance oil spill modeling and share best practices in model algorithms, parameterizations, and application protocols. This synergy was greatly enhanced by research funded under the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), a 10-year enterprise that allowed unprecedented collection of observations and data products, novel experiments, and international collaborations that focused on the Gulf of Mexico, but resulted in the generation of scientific findings and tools of broader value. Operational oil spill modeling greatly benefited from research during the GoMRI decade. This paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of the related scientific advances, remaining challenges, and future outlook. Two main modeling components are discussed: Ocean circulation and oil spill models, to provide details on all attributes that contribute to the success and limitations of the integrated oil spill forecasts. These forecasts are discussed in tandem with uncertainty factors and methods to mitigate them. The paper focuses on operational aspects of oil spill modeling and forecasting, including examples of international operational center practices, observational needs, communication protocols, and promising new methodologies

Europe's Space capabilities for the benefit of the Arctic

In recent years, the Arctic region has acquired an increasing environmental, social, economic and strategic importance. The Arctic’s fragile environment is both a direct and key indicator of the climate change and requires specific mitigation and adaptation actions. The EU has a clear strategic interest in playing a key role and is actively responding to the impacts of climate change safeguarding the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem, ensuring a sustainable development, particularly in the European part of the Arctic. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has recently completed a study aimed at identifying the capabilities and relevant synergies across the four domains of the EU Space Programme: earth observation, satellite navigation, satellite communications, and space situational awareness (SSA). These synergies are expected to be key enablers of new services that will have a high societal impact in the region, which could be developed in a more cost-efficient and rapid manner. Similarly, synergies will also help exploit to its full extent operational services that are already deployed in the Arctic (e.g., the Copernicus emergency service or the Galileo Search and rescue service could greatly benefit from improved satellite communications connectivity in the region).JRC.E.2-Technology Innovation in Securit

All at Sea

Master's thesis in Risk management and societal safetyThe Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security emphasized in their 2016-2017 report to the Parliament, that the need for a common understanding of preparedness concepts and knowledge of how cross-institutional organizations use concepts and definitions is a prerequisite for understanding and interaction in preparedness and crisis response measures. The concept of civil preparedness means national measures to maintain or establish effective transportation during times of tension, crisis, and war, in which merchant ships and thus naval cooperation plays a crucial role. The thesis purpose is to discuss the research question: to what extent can differences in risk perspectives within organizations in naval cooperation affect risk communication and civil preparedness in the high North? In order to do so, investigating and associate prominent risk perspectives to organizations with roles and tasks to naval cooperation was necessary. A scenario of a military invasion of Northern Norway published by the Norwegian Directorate of Civil Protection (DSB) is used for the thesis purpose because the concept of naval cooperation includes risk communication between stakeholders which is responsible for civil preparedness. In such a scenario the concept of naval cooperation will be in force and coincides with the DSB scenario. This enables an illumination of the research question. The empirical data identifies that the representative organizations have splayed risk perspectives. This is represented within their own sectors and within the sectoral levels of communication. Based on five pre-defined risk perspectives, the overall prominent risk perspective seems to be a mix of ideas and concepts of risk. This applies both to the investigated organizations as well as the numerous documents, regulations, guidelines, and directives, also to the different organizations from the top level, to the educational system and at the operational level. The empiricism holds consensus with a risk and vulnerability analysis of Norwegian food supply, which concluded that the greatest weakness is associated with the delegation of responsibilities between actors. and one of the suggested measures to improve civil preparedness is to examine the possibility of establishing a joint emergency plan for crises. An important element in such joint emergency plan, also consistent with the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security 2016-2017 report to the Parliament, is the need for a common understanding of preparedness concepts, knowledge of cross-institutional organizations conceptual use of concepts and definitions in preparedness as a prerequisite for understanding and interaction in naval cooperation for civil preparedness

Vessel Traffic Services, towards e-Navigation : the role of Oceanic VTS in global maritime surveillance

This thesis presents the study and analysis of the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), from its origins to the present, with further evaluation of future trends. Examining the current trend in terms of technologies that are being applied in the maritime sector, the dissertation focuses on the future to draw a new paradigm. This envisages a scenario at a planetary level, following a single global traffic management system, which would create a model of the global VTS Operator. A new assignment is proposed, according to this third dimension, with Port VTS being the first level, the Coastal VTS second, and with the Oceanic VTS projected into the future, which is a substantial proposal. The foundation is based on EU projects, the most ambitious of which, currently underway, being Sea Traffic Management (STM), with a scope greater than Europe, and also on IALA VTS and ENAV Committee Working Groups, concerning the future of VTS. The study includes the reference documentation from the IMO, in resolution format, and that of the IALA, under Standards, Recommendations and Guidelines. From the first recognition of the IMO to the present, the guidelines for VTS have undergone three updates, which are analysed and compared. VTS are considered aids to navigation, AtoN, which contribute to safety of life at sea, safety and efficiency of navigation and protection of the marine environment, and are linked to ship traffic activity. Both their attributions and the implementation of VTS centres have increased over time. In addition to this, the evolution of the tools used by the VTS is examined, from its earliest stages with only two pieces of equipment, the VHF radio, and the radar. The VTS system began by looking at the air traffic model but, later, the maritime nature created necessary differentiation in terms of management and procedures. Digital technologies applied to the maritime sector take air traffic controllers’ models as a reference, and the current VTS Operator profession will acquire analogies, such as sharing route plans and checking digital inputs. This highly specialised profession is facing the challenges of satellite technology, global interconnection, and the arrival of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). New technologies bring the possibility of sharing information and controlling traffic on a global scale, beyond the territorial sea, and this scenario will make standardisation increasingly necessary throughout the maritime sector. The identification of various models of traffic management, examination of systems operating specifically in the Spanish State and reflection on the diversity that prevails is also included. Based on fieldwork, the thesis determines that the future complexities that will emerge from maritime traffic will require exhaustive risk assessment and analysis. The challenges to be faced involve maritime communications via satellite and digital technology, in the context of ‘e-Navigation’ (coined by the IMO), which will provide emerging tools, such as VDES (next generation of AIS), and a planetary-scale information exchange framework for VTS worldwide.Aquesta tesi presenta l'estudi i l'anàlisi dels Serveis de Tràfic Marítim (VTS) des dels seus orígens fins al present, avaluant tendències futures. Examinant el corrent actual en referència a les tecnologies que s'estan aplicant al sector marítim, la tesi s’orienta al futur per delinear un nou paradigma. Un escenari a nivell planetari, que segueix un únic sistema de gestió de tràfic global, i que crearà un model d'operador VTS global. Es proposa una nova assignació acord a aquesta tercera dimensió, sent el VTS Port, el primer, el VTS Costaner, el segon, i es projecta a futur el VTS Oceànic, que és la proposta substancial. La fundació es basa en projectes de la UE, on és el més ambiciós i actualment en marxa el Sea Traffic Management (STM), amb un abast superior a l'europeu i amb els grups de treball del Comitè VTS i ENAV de la IALA sobre l’esdevenidor del VTS. L’estudi inclou documentació de referència procedent de la IMO, en format resolucions; i la procedent de la IALA, sota estàndards, recomanacions i directrius. Des del primer reconeixement de la IMO fins ara, les directrius per als VTS han passat per tres actualitzacions, que s'analitzen i es comparen. Els VTS es consideren ajuts a la navegació, AtoN, que contribueixen a la seguretat de la vida humana al mar, la seguretat i l'eficiència de la navegació i la protecció del medi marí i estan vinculats a l'activitat del trànsit de vaixells, i tant les seves atribucions com la implantació de centres VTS han augmentat al llarg de temps. A més a més d'això, s'examina l'evolució de les eines utilitzades pel VTS, des de les seves primeres etapes amb només dos equips, la ràdio VHF i el radar. El sistema VTS es va iniciar fixant-se en el model aeri, però posteriorment la naturalesa marítima els va diferenciar pel que fa a gestió i procediments. Les tecnologies digitals aplicades al sector marítim prenen com a referència models similars als controladors aeris, i l'actual professió d'Operador VTS assolirà analogies com ara compartir plans de ruta amb els vaixells i comprovació d'inputs digitals. Una professió altament especialitzada que s'enfronta als reptes de la tecnologia satel·litària, la interconnexió mundial i l'arribada dels vaixells marítims autònoms de superfície (MASS). Les noves tecnologies porten la possibilitat de compartir informació i controlar el tràfic a escala global, més enllà del mar territorial, i aquest escenari farà que l'estandardització sigui cada cop més necessària a tot el sector marítim. Es considera la identificació de diversos models de gestió del tràfic, els sistemes que operen específicament a l'Estat espanyol i la reflexió sobre la diversitat que preval. A partir d'un treball de camp, la tesi determina que les complexitats que emergiran del tràfic marítim requeriran avaluació i anàlisi de riscos exhaustius. Els reptes que cal afrontar són aquells que inclouen les comunicacions marítimes via satèl·lit i la tecnologia digital en el context de l'e-Navegació, encunyat per la IMO, que proporcionaran eines emergents, com els VDES (propera generació de l’AIS), i un marc d’intercanvi d’informació a escala planetària per als VTS de tot el món.Postprint (published version

Mediated Bordering: Eurosur, the Refugee Boat, and the Construction of an External EU Border

The external border of the EU remains under permanent construction. The author engages with two of its primary building sites - the European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur) and the Refugee Boat. She analyzes how the function and quality of the EU's current political border is crafted, shaped, produced and eventually stabilized through these two mediators. Eurosur and the Refugee Boat mediate a level of Europeanization which has hitherto - and would otherwise have - been impossible. While Eurosur mobilizes the limits of border policing in various ways, the Refugee Boat functions as the vacillating European Other to legitimize both control and humanitarian interventions. The study shows the specific, if not constitutive, ambivalences of EU border policies, and explores the emergence of viapolitics

Governance of Arctic Shipping

This open access book is a result of the Dalhousie-led research project Safe Navigation and Environment Protection, supported by a grant from the Ocean Frontier Institute’s the Canada First Research Excellent Fund (CFREF). The book focuses on Arctic shipping and investigates how ocean change and anthropogenic impacts affect our understanding of risk, policy, management and regulation for safe navigation, environment protection, conflict management between ocean uses, and protection of Indigenous peoples’ interests. A rapidly changing Arctic as a result of climate change and ice loss is rendering the North more accessible, providing new opportunities while producing impacts on the Arctic. The book explores ideas for enhanced governance of Arctic shipping through risk-based planning, marine spatial planning and scaling up shipping standards for safety, environment protection and public health

Toponym Disambiguation in Information Retrieval

In recent years, geography has acquired a great importance in the context of Information Retrieval (IR) and, in general, of the automated processing of information in text. Mobile devices that are able to surf the web and at the same time inform about their position are now a common reality, together with applications that can exploit this data to provide users with locally customised information, such as directions or advertisements. Therefore, it is important to deal properly with the geographic information that is included in electronic texts. The majority of such kind of information is contained as place names, or toponyms. Toponym ambiguity represents an important issue in Geographical Information Retrieval (GIR), due to the fact that queries are geographically constrained. There has been a struggle to nd speci c geographical IR methods that actually outperform traditional IR techniques. Toponym ambiguity may constitute a relevant factor in the inability of current GIR systems to take advantage from geographical knowledge. Recently, some Ph.D. theses have dealt with Toponym Disambiguation (TD) from di erent perspectives, from the development of resources for the evaluation of Toponym Disambiguation (Leidner (2007)) to the use of TD to improve geographical scope resolution (Andogah (2010)). The Ph.D. thesis presented here introduces a TD method based on WordNet and carries out a detailed study of the relationship of Toponym Disambiguation to some IR applications, such as GIR, Question Answering (QA) and Web retrieval. The work presented in this thesis starts with an introduction to the applications in which TD may result useful, together with an analysis of the ambiguity of toponyms in news collections. It could not be possible to study the ambiguity of toponyms without studying the resources that are used as placename repositories; these resources are the equivalent to language dictionaries, which provide the di erent meanings of a given word.Buscaldi, D. (2010). Toponym Disambiguation in Information Retrieval [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/8912Palanci

Mediated Bordering

The external border of the EU remains under permanent construction. Sabrina Ellebrecht engages with two of its primary building sites – the European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur) and the Refugee Boat. She analyzes how the function and quality of the EU's current political border is crafted, shaped, produced and eventually stabilized through these two mediators. Eurosur and the Refugee Boat mediate a level of Europeanization which has hitherto – and would otherwise have – been impossible. While Eurosur mobilizes the limits of border policing in various ways, the Refugee Boat functions as the vacillating European Other to legitimize both control and humanitarian interventions. The study shows the specific, if not constitutive, ambivalences of EU border policies, and explores the emergence of viapolitics

The InflateSAR Campaign: Developing Refugee Vessel Detection Capabilities with Polarimetric SAR

In the efforts to mitigate the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the European sea borders, this work builds detection capabilities to help find refugee boats in distress. For this paper, we collected dual-pol and quad-pol synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over a 12 m rubber inflatable in a test-bed lake near Berlin, Germany. To consider a real scenario, we prepared the vessel so that its backscattering emulated that of a vessel fully occupied with people. Further, we collected SAR imagery over the ocean with different sea states, categorized by incidence angle and by polarization. These were used to emulate the conditions for a vessel located in ocean waters. This setup enabled us to test nine well-known vessel-detection systems (VDS), to explore the capabilities of new detection algorithms and to benchmark different combinations of detectors (detector fusion) with respect to different sensor and scene parameters (e.g., the polarization, wind speed, wind direction and boat orientation). This analysis culminated in designing a system that is specifically tailored to accommodate different situations and sea states