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Maritime shipping is considered the most efficient mode of transport in economic and environmental terms. However, its impacts on climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and on human health from air pollutants released near residential centres cannot be ignored. Over the last decades, regulatory bodies have been developing policies that seek to further improve the sector's environmental performance and at the same time new technologies improve the efficiency of vessels. Operational practices of shipliners and port authority initiatives are also relieving the sector's impacts. While there has been significant research on the environmental impacts of maritime transport, there has been relatively little work focusing on the effects of maritime activity in the proximity and at ports. This thesis presents a transferable framework that allows the estimation of emissions pollutant generation near the port focusing on CO2, SO2, NOx and BC emissions. The most relevant emissions reduction actions are considered and their effects on the environmental footprint of the port are modelled. The thesis emphasizes on the implementation of speed reduction programmes near the port, use of cold ironing at berth, and the effects of fuel quality regulation, considering the perspectives of the port authority, and the ship operator. The thesis considers the emerging environmental and economic trade-offs due to the different emissions reduction actions. A non-linear convex optimization model is formulated that minimizes fuel consumption in a sequence of port calls where in some areas speed limits or fuel regulations are in place. The results show that there is no universal port policy that can simultaneously minimize the environmental impact of all ships without economic or environmental penalties. This indicates that there is great scope of improvement in existing policies, and that regulators will need to decide what their priorities should be in improving the system. The achievements of this thesis can be beneficial to policy makers, port authorities, and shipping companies that wish to improve their environmental performance without sustaining environmental and economic penalties to do so.

The research examines intersections between globalisation and climate change in the (re)emergence of a 'Northern Sea Route' through the Russian Arctic, which some speculate could soon rival or replace the Suez Canal as major global trade artery. The research explores shifts in the contemporary shipping system, a relatively underexplored area of mobilities research, examining the affordances and risks posed to shipping and resource extraction activities by melting Arctic sea-ice, as sections of the maritime Arctic become increasingly integrated into global circuits. The research examines actual and potential developments surrounding the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in the Russian Arctic, examining the ways geopolitics, geoeconomics and geophysical processes collide in the ‘Anthropocene Arctic’.

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There has been an increasing recent work in the assessment of risk in the maritime transportation systems. Maritime transportation of goods (solid or liquid) has been since ancient times the main way of interrelation between nations and people and has given relatively substantial development in economic and financial growth. Risk is inherent in the marine transportation systems due to highly unpredictable multi functional operation in which uncertainties are very difficult to be optimized. The presence of uncertainty in maritime activities is well recognized and two types of uncertainty considered for ship operations, aleatory uncertainty, which represents the randomness of the system itself including conditions and working factors, and epistemic uncertainty, which represents the lack of knowledge about the system including human factors. This paper explores the challenges of a decision making risk modelling tool for Specific Activity Risk Management as well as for Corporate Risk Management and develops a systematic way for quantification and valuation of risk levels through a ranking and an auditing method of shipping activities and implemented SQEOH management systems core elements respectively. The paper concludes to the proposal of an Integrated Risk Management System (IRMS) plan based on a) auditing of a weighted matrix of 20 Critical Core Elements (CCE) for Corporate Risk Management (CRM) which will identify weak risk level areas and enhance effectively and cost efficiently control options of Maritime Management for reducing level of risk at all stages, and b) by risk correlation and ranking of the shipping activities as a Specific Activity (SAR) risk assessment with associated causes categories and risk index level so as an integrated auditing and ranking system is created for maritime risk management (lAS MAR). The main merit of this work is the development of a risk management plan in a systematic way based on identified shipping activities with associated causes and hazards and core elements of implemented management system standards for quality (ISO 9001), safety of crew (ISM, OHSAS 18001) and ship (ISM), environmental protection (ISO 14001) and occupational health (OHSAS 18001) in order to model the correlated uncertainties for the assessment of Corporate risk (CRM) and Specific Activity risk (SIR) in a hierarchical, sequential and iterative process which will improve results of risk priorities and risk based decision making process (RBOM) in relation to consequences for severity level to Property, Human life and Environment. Possibility and actuality of cause correlation with risk indexes improves the quality characteristics of risk assessment and provide an alternative reliable interpretation of traditional determination of likelihood or frequency index by taking causes parameters in to consideration in order to be able to compare and evaluate them to select the best alternative. The developed system is a tool that assists ship managers (decision makers) in managing their risks of maritime activities systematically in real world and reduces their potential losses for specific activities or in corporate management level or combined. Its use by Ship managers, operators and employees will improve considerably "risk awareness and safety culture" and will develop sufficient knowledge and understanding of how to create an inventory of Shipping activities could lead to an incident in terms of perceived risk, to identify associated hazards (HAZIO) and finally to evaluate and manage the risks and prioritize the risk control options (RCO) in order avoid /eliminate/ mitigate consequences and to predict causes categories which are important mainly contributing to accidents in marine transportation systems resulting severe environmental damage and large-scale loss of life. This new culture introduced promotes in general the duty of care in safety, quality, environmental, occupational health and safety issues to ship and shore personnel. IASMAR was developed as a method of decision modelling that would be compatible with maritime implemented and activity, task and goal oriented management system for which specific critical activity and corporate risk management integrated and provide a feasible and effective decision making process timely supported for improving cost saving, adopting new requirements and handling successfully liabilities for crew and ship's property. It is also a self assessment plan based on core elements affecting risk awareness and management implementation in combination with corporate experience and performance levels for problem solving of preventive or mitigating plans and providing a risk based decision modelling in action and in real world for demonstrating continuous improvement in implemented management systems. IASMAR is a plan, which quantifies and predicts the area and causation chain of an undesired event resulting from loss control or oversights and omissions within the management system. The correlation between the determined risk success score, the risk reduction level and the possibility of an event clearly defines the use in prediction of incidents and consequently the risk reduction. Various stakeholders are interested for that and its benefits such as Ship-owners, Charterers, Insurance companies, Financial organisations, P+I clubs, Port authorities, Flag states and suppliers. The IASMAR project-rating index developed under the guidance and within the forthcoming implementation of Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) and possibility theory.

Commercial shipping is very old – certainly there is evidence of trading ships existing more than 2500 years before the Christian era. To a very large extent the shipping industry has been self-regulating throughout this very long history. Traditionally ships would be subject to the laws, rules and regulations of the flag state to which they belonged. They would also be obliged to comply with the local laws of the countries they visited. During the period from the early 17th century to the latter part of the 20th century it was quite true that ‘Britannia ruled the waves’. The Merchant fleet of Great Britain dominated international trade – along with the fleets of other colonial powers such as France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. The merchant marine was a vital factor in the development of international trade, the expansion of the Empire and the prosperity of the nation – as well as a number of individual businessmen. Anyone who had sufficient funds could purchase a vessel and enter the business of shipping. Britain became a centre for the development of maritime law and marine insurance and since it was so influential in international trade it was very much the British Rules that applied internationally. The ships were often armed with cannons and carried marines – they were run very much along the disciplined lines of the Royal Navy. Against this background the Shipowners were allowed to run their companies with little supervision by the government – provided they obeyed the law. International maritime conventions started to be developed during the late 19th century and early 20th century. However it was not until the years following the Second World War, with the formation of the United Nations that formally agreed sets of rules and regulations started to appear which would be recognised and complied with by all signatory nations. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS) establishes the general rights and obligations of the flag State. Within the United Nations two specialised agencies deal with maritime affairs; the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and they have a responsibility for devising and developing conventions and guidelines under which ships can be regulated. In general, matters concerning safety at sea, pollution prevention and training of seafarers are dealt with by IMO, whereas the ILO deals with matters concerning working and living conditions at sea. While IMO and ILO set the international regulatory framework for ships, each member State bears the responsibility for enforcing the international conventions it has ratified on the ships flying its flag. However, the industry was still allowed to regulate itself within the confines of these conventions once ratified by their flag states as well as other elements of the domestic law of that country. Up until the period following the Second World War almost all merchant ships would fly their own national flag. However, led by the United States, an increasing number of Shipowners re-registered their ships and their companies in countries where their application of rules and regulations were a little more relaxed or provided tax advantages – these were the so called Flags of Convenience (FOC’s) or Open Registries. From inception the FOC’s were perceived by many as an opportunity to lower the very high, but costly, standards that had been maintained on board the national flag fleets. Even so, during those post war years there were fleets to rebuild and trades to reestablish which meant that the merchant ships were fully employed in helping to bring the world back to normality. In the late 1960’s, when I first went to sea, a 15,000 ton general cargo ship would typically have a complement of 65 officers and crew on board. Most officers, if not crew members, would be on long term company contracts and it was not at all unusual for a seafarer to remain with the same family shipping company for his entire career. The loyalty, which was reciprocal as between employer and employee, was very strong – the ships were well run with good, well-qualified and motivated seafarers. However, by the late 1980’s and into the 1990’s the industry was changing almost beyond recognition. During this period there seemed to be an explosion of accidents that manifested themselves in a measurable sense as marine insurance claims. Insurance premiums rose between 200 and 400% during a three-year period – reflecting the enormity of the problem. A number of very high profile incidents appeared on the front pages of the national press and headline news on T.V. – in 1987 the cross channel ferry ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’ turned on her side in the harbour entrance of Zeebrugge in Belgium with 190 people killed; in 1989 the dredger ‘Bow Bell’ collided with and sank the river boat ‘Marchioness’ on the River Themes which resulted in 51 deaths; in the same year the super-tanker ‘Exxon Valdez’ ran onto rocks in Alaska spilling many thousands of tons of oil into the sea; in 1990 a fire broke out in the passenger ship ‘Scandinavian Star’ which caused the deaths of 158 people. There were many more high profile incidents which occurred during that period – there were many more very serious incidents which were not so high profile but equally shocking; dozens of large bulk carriers disappeared with all hands, within a matter of weeks of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in 1987 a collision occurred in the Philippines which resulted in the inter-island ferry ‘Dona Paz’ sinking with the loss of over 4000 lives. For reasons that will become apparent the international shipping industry was perhaps no longer capable of regulating itself and action was needed to reverse the downward spiral of maritime calamity. It was against the background of this catastrophic situation that I first became involved in looking at the problem of maritime accidents and felt compelled to consider what I could contribute to help remedy the situation.

The management of human resources (HR) in the shipping industry is a continuing object of cost management due to the fact that labour cost is becoming an increasingly larger element of overall operational costs. While the fleet of merchant vessels constantly increases in size and the global supply of suitable seafarers shrinks, shipping organizations struggle to administrate their personnel more efficiently. Third-party ship management companies may employ thousands of seafarers of a number of different nationalities and with varying terms and conditions of employment. Each one of these employees has an individual record detailing personal circumstances, qualifications, reports on ability, travel arrangements from country of origin, immigration formality requirements, etc. These aspects engender an extremely complex and cost-conscious environment, within which advanced, tailor-made information technology (IT) tools and optimized cost-efficient administrative shoreside working processes are a prerequisite for reliable and efficient HR management. The main aim of this project is to investigate the administrative environment of one of the world’s largest crew management companies, ‘Marlow Navigation’ and to develop appropriate functional IT instruments and methods aiming at improving productivity and quality of work. Methodology: A questionnaire survey was conducted to gather data related to the administrative productivity of Marlow and the use of available IT applications. The approach consisted of two steps: 1) Descriptive statistics were used to provide quantitative descriptions of questionnaire results (problem identification); and 2) qualitative analysis, through ‘focus group discussion’, was used to identify the specific administrative areas where changes might be effected. Findings: Enhanced administrative productivity and improved quality of work were accomplished through an integrated system of crew management based on specialized IT instruments, innovative workflow and employees’ multidisciplinary knowledge. Originality/value: The proposed key variables of the HR management system can serve as a model for other business organizations, providing a basis for innovative progression with the potential for differentiation from traditional commercial shipping practices.

In comparison to the amount of research that has been carried out on Royal Navy affairs and its ports and dockyards, few studies have been done on the day to day operations of merchant shipping and civilian ports, especially in the eighteenth century. This thesis attempts to partly redress this by examining at depth the workings of the Port of Bristol and its shipping in this period, using contemporary records where they have survived and a system of cross-referencing where they have not. The physical structure and amenities of the port were subject to close examination, not only to establish whether they were suitable for their purpose, but to observe the effectiveness of the systems that were in place regarding their use. Similarly, the deposition of shipping in the port was scrutinised to establish whether or not it contributed to the recognised problem of congestion at the port. The reality was that the facilities and systems put in place by the managers of the port, the Society of Merchant Venturers, were mainly effective but they could not overcome the adverse conditions set by the port having one of the highest ranges of tide in the world. However, there was another factor and that was the perspectives of the users of the port, the shipowners and merchants of the city. It was established that Bristol shipowners still adhered to the traditional system of owning ships as an element of a merchant’s business interests rather than in their own right, and this meant that there was little flexibility in both ways of working and the areas ships traded to, with the result that the facilities of the port were subjected to seasonal inundations contributing to congestion. The management of the ships involved in the most important trade of the port, the West Indian, was examined at all levels and they and their crews were far from being used to their full potential. In effect the conservative attitude to trade of the Bristol merchant was exacerbating the fundamental problem of the port, its unmanageable tides.