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Efficient, Safe and Sustainable Traffic at Sea (EfficienSea)
Efficient, Safe and Sustainable Traffic at Sea
(EfficienSea)
Start date: Dec 31, 2008,
End date: Jan 23, 2012
PROJECT
FINISHED
The overall aim of EfficienSea was to improve maritime safety in the Baltic Sea region through concise and coordinate actions. Partners represented driving forces in the region for the development of improved of safety measures. We all worked for safe, sustainable and efficient traffic at sea and together we developed tools to make it happen. EfficienSea included 16 partners from six countries in the Baltic Sea region and EfficienSea were the largest ever Interreg project, a result of many ambitious partners, strong partnership, and ambitious scope and level of influence. EfficienSea was approved in fall 2008 in the first call of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. The budget was 8 million € and funding was provided by the EU (the European Regional Development Fund), the Norwegian government and partner organizations.EfficienSea falls under the Baltic Sea Region Programme priority Baltic Sea as a common resource, where the objective is to improve the management of Baltic Sea resources in order to achieve a better environmental state. The priority focuses on joint transnational solutions declining the pollution of the Baltic Sea and improving sustainable management of the sea as a common resource. The Lead Partner was the Danish Maritime Authority (Søfartsstyrelsen), DMA. The Lead Partner was liable to the contract with EU. DMA carried out project, financial and communication management on behalf of the project. DMA was also work package leader for WP4 e-Navigation.EfficienSea was a Strategic Project, picked as one of three out of the 24 projects approved in 2009. Three projects were identified as particularly strategically important for the whole Baltic Sea region and strongly supported by national authorities as well as international actors such as HELCOM and EMSA. EfficienSea was appointed as a flagship project within the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. EfficienSea, aimed at the Baltic Sea becoming a pilot region for e-Navigation by establishing e-Navigation trial zones, contributes to the strategy’s priority area no. 13 on maritime safety and security. The role of EfficienSea in the strategy was that the Baltic Sea should “become a pilot region for e-Navigation”. Achievements: EfficienSea was an ambitious and comprehensive project with a large scope of activities, ranging from Enhanced navigation (e-Navigation), human resources subjects to risk management tools. e-Navigation is a concept that is expected to revolutionize the maritime domain and aims at simplifying navigation and reducing abundant information to mariners, with the view to improve maritime safety. e-Navigation was a central topic within the EfficienSea project and much of the work was focused on it. Thus, the e-Navigation activities aimed at contributing to the development of a future global standard for e-Navigation within the International Maritime Organization and other relevant international structures. Further, the EfficienSea project was preparing and maturing the participating maritime institutions for major future investments needed to implement e-Navigation in the Baltic Sea region. The entire Baltic Sea served as a test bed for e-Navigation with special focuson the sound between Sweden and Denmark, Bay of Gdansk and Gulf of Finland. EfficienSea has developed prototypes for e-Navigation services and while doing so, assessing the required infrastructure for the system. EfficienSea has furthermore identified common maritime recruitment concerns in the participating countries and developed a communication plan to address these challenges. The project has worked on the possibility of a common trainee programme, carried out a series of seminars and workshops, produced a number of film clips with focus groups comprised of maritime students, and explore communication via social media. EfficienSea has also worked on several issues related to the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which is used to keep track of the movement of vessels in the Baltic Sea. The project has started the development of an AIS planning tool, to be used by AIS authorities, for improved management of AIS resources and optimizing the AIS system capacity.EfficienSea has also addressed the problems of invalid transmitted AIS data and has worked on a tool to help ensuring the quality of AIS data for purposes of statistical and risk analysis. EfficienSea has furthermore developed a tool box for simulation of effects and risks of increased maritime traffic. The tool box is expected to improve risk management capabilities. EfficienSea has also developed risk identification algorithms for Decision Support System tools aiming at improving the continuous traffic safety evaluations made by Vessel Traffic Service operators, and enabling operators to communicate more with vessels in specific need of information or assistance. The dynamic risk tools were coordinated with the e-Navigation development of services and software.