Arctic shipping and polar seaways

Climate change in the Arctic triggered a series of discourses about the opening-up of a previously unreachable region. Navigation remains however difficult in the Arctic, transits are still very limited, as sea-ice still is a major constraint. How did the development policies of both the North West Passage and the Northern Sea Route unfold ? What are the recent trends in Arctic shipping ?

Commercial Arctic shipping through the Northeast Passage:routes, resources, governance, technology, and infrastructure

The Russian and Norwegian Arctic are gaining notoriety as an alternative maritime route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and as sources of natural resources. The renewed interest in the Northeast Passage or the Northern Sea Route is fueled by a recession of Arctic sea ice coupled with the discovery of new natural resources at a time when emerging and global markets are in growing demand for them. Driven by the expectation of potential future economic importance of the region, political interest and governance has been rapidly developing, mostly within the Arctic Council. However, this paper argues that optimism regarding the potential of Arctic routes as an alternative to the Suez Canal is overstated. The route involves many challenges: jurisdictional disputes create political uncertainties; shallow waters limit ship size; lack of modern deepwater ports and search and rescue (SAR) capabilities requires ships to have higher standards of autonomy and safety; harsh weather conditions and free-floating ice make navigation more difficult and schedules more variable; and more expensive ship construction and operation costs lessen the economic viability of the route. Technological advances and infrastructure investments may ameliorate navigational challenges, enabling increased shipping of natural resources from the Arctic to global markets.Albert Buixadé Farré, Scott R. Stephenson, Linling Chen, Michael Czub, Ying Dai, Denis Demchev, Yaroslav Efimov, Piotr Graczyk, Henrik Grythe, Kathrin Keil, Niku Kivekäs, Naresh Kumar, Nengye Liu, Igor Matelenok, Mari Myksvoll, Derek O'Leary, Julia Olsen, Sachin Pavithran.A.P., Edward Petersen, Andreas Raspotnik, Ivan Ryzhov, Jan Solski, Lingling Suo, Caroline Troein, Vilena Valeeva, Jaap van Rijckevorsel and Jonathan Wightin

EDB-plan for NIVA 1989-92

Planen beskriver EDB-virksomheten i dag og definerer mål og strategi for EDB-tjenester framover. Opplæring, teknologisk kursendring og avklaring av ansvarsforhold er fokusert spesielt. Tiltakene som foreslås er forankret i instituttets virksomhetsplan for at EDB-verktøyet skal utnyttes bedre av NIVA som organisasjon

A Science Plan for a Summer Marginal Ice Zone Experiment in the Fram Strait/Greenland Sea: 1984

This document describes a plan for a mesoscalel experimen to study the physical processes by which ice, water and atmosphere interact in the outermost parts of a polar icefield, the region known as the marginal ice zone (MIZ). During the last two decades a series of large projects culminating in the Arctic lee Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX, Pritchard 1980) yielded considerable understanding of the growth, motion and decay of sea ice in the interior of the Arctic Ocean. With these experiments concluded, and coupled nonlinear sea ice dynamic- thermodynamic models in hand (Hibler 1979, Coon 1980), attention shifted to the problem of understanding the processes which occur near the open ocean boundaries of polar icefields, and which determine the advance and retreat of the sea ice edge. The exchanges which take place in this zone affect hemispheric climate and have a significant effect on naval operation and commercial fisheries