Contribution to Safety of Maritime Transport

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Contribution to Safety of Maritime Transport

The safety of maritime transport is of highest interest to Bremen because of the importance of its maritime economic activities in shipping and logistics. In addition, Bremen has a strong competency in polar and climate research. This example shows how these needs and strengths can be combined in the development of applications and services provide valuable support to the safety of shipping e.g. in icy waters. 
 

Services based on space technologies can contribute to enhancing the safety of maritime transport. Although shipping in Northern waters can bring significant economic advantages (through fuel savings due to shorter routes and thus fewer emissions), it remains a hazardous endeavour. An integrated ship routing support service potentially consists of several components:

  • Ice services (sea ice maps operationally derived from Earth observation data)

  • Tracking of ships by terrestrial, as well as future satellite based, Automatic Identification System (AIS)

  • Ship detection by Earth observation data (all weather radar images)

  • In-situ component: analysis of voyage data (speed, course etc) for route optimization

  • Weather forecast data derived from Earth observation systems (wind, waves etc).

Each of these components represents an area of regional competency applied to the specific application “Safety of Maritime transport”. The intention is to transfer scientific innovations via demonstrated user driven applications towards an operational service in selected core areas of competency.

Bremen's competencies in GMES provide the following regionalbenefits:

  1. Cost avoidance of shipping accidents and efficiency gains in route planning

  2. Environmental benefits in the North and Baltic seas as well as coastal zones

  3. Technological benefits through a high level of innovative activity finding solutions for the maritime sector

  4. Economic benefits through the growth of local industry providing GMES services.


© OHB-System AG
Wave hights in meters along the route of the research vessel Polarstern on its way from Bremerhaven to Cape Town (blue = low waves, red = high waves)


© Beluga Shipping GmbH
The "Beluga Foresight" navigates the icy waters, following an ice breaker (© Beluga Shipping)


© ESA
CRYOSAT-2

 

Operational status several aspects are covered contributing to this application at all levels:

I. Demonstrator-level:
The research vessel “Polarstern” belonging to the Bremerhaven based research institute AWI was tracked by satellite AIS during a voyage to the Antarctic. The voyage was also supported by real time transmission of in-situ weather data via satellite communication to a processing centre in Bremen (German DeMarine project).

II. Research-level:
a. On-going research by AWI (i. e. measurement of ice thickness, modeling of ice pressure), contributes to ship routing in Polar Regions.
b. The development of detection services covering ships and man-made objects using Earth observation data contributes to maritime safety (German DeMarine project).

 

Future developments and Needs
All these components shall be combined in an integrated approach to contribute to the enhancement of safety in shipping, here with strong focus on polar environments. In a further step, ship routing support as a contribution to the safety of maritime transport can be extended to cover global shipping routes. The applications and services developed have strong links to GMES and can potentially become a GMES Downstream service.
 

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Economic dimension for Bremen:
While Bremen as a two-city state covers only a relatively small geographic area, traditionally it has connections worldwide which are further driven by its vibrant maritime and space sectors. Bremen's ports and maritime/marine sector is one of its most important economic drivers. Shipping, harbour, transport and logistics secure every fourth job in Bremen. In total, about 86.000 jobs in Bremen and Bremerhaven are directly or indirectly connected to the port and the container trade.

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Contact

Volker Schumacher
CEON GmbH
Tel.: +49 (0)421 24420-1290
Fax.: +49 (0)421 24420-1294
schumacher [at] ceon-bremen [dot] de
www.ceon-bremen.de
Robert-Hooke-Straße 7
28359 Bremen, Germany

 

Dr. Stéphane Estable
Astrium GmbH
Tel.: +49(0)421 539-5574
Fax: +49 (0)421 539-285574
stephane [dot] estable [at] astrium [dot] eads [dot] net
www.astrium.eads.net
Airbus Alle 1
28199 Bremen, Germany
 

Carsten Borowy
OHB-System AG
Tel.: +49 (0)421 2020-8
Fax: +49 (0)421 2020-700
borowy [at] ohb-system [dot] de
www.ohb-system.de
OHB-System AG
Universitaetsallee 27–29
28359 Bremen, Germany
 

Dr. Daniel Steinhage
Alfred-Wegener-Institute for
Polar- and Marine Research
Tel.: +49 (0)471 4831-1198
Fax: +49 (0)471 4831-1924
Daniel [dot] steinhage [at] awi [dot] de
www.awi.de
Am Handelshafen 12
27570 Bremerhaven, Germany

 

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