New safety evaluation study for Gulf of Finland

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The Kotka Maritime Research Centre (KMRC) has started an EU-funded project called SAGOF as a way of evaluating the increase in traffic in the Gulf of Finland between 2007 and 2015.
      The project is based on an expected growth in volumes of traffic in the Gulf of Finland by 2015, and on the impact that the growth would have on the environment, and on the increased risk of collisions at sea.
      One part of the study is to set up models with which it will be possible to anticipate possible places where a ship might hit a reef, or when two vessels might collide, says Professor Pentti Kujala of the ship laboratory at the Helsinki University of Technology.
      “Very few similar studies have been made in the Gulf of Finland, and never before has it been this systematic”, Kujala says.
     
To help in drawing up models, the project will use the Gulf of Finland Reporting, or GOFREP system, which reveals the position and speed of every ship in the Gulf of Finland. GOFREP was first taken into use in 2004.
     
About ten ships run aground in the Gulf of Finland each year. The strong growth in shipping in the Gulf of Finland adds to the risk of accidents.
      “When risk areas can be anticipated, it will be possible to concentrate the follow-up of transport on certain especially risk-prone routes”, Kujala says.
      The three-year multidisciplinary project involves KMRC, as well as the University of Helsinki, the University of Turku, the Helsinki University of Technology, and the Kymeenlaakso Polytechnic.
      Most of the funding will come from the European Regional Development Fund.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  GOFREP to reduce danger of ships colliding in Gulf of Finland (27.10.2004)

Links:
  Kotka Maritime Research Centre - SAGOF research project
  GOFFinnish Maritime Administration - GOFREP

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