Open Risk II risk management tools welcomed in the Arctic

The OpenRisk II project disseminated its results to the Arctic community at a dedicated session of the Arctic Circle Assembly 2026 which took place 8 –10 October in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by up to 2500 participants from over 70 countries. Dissemination to the Arctic, currently at the center of international interest, provided opportunities to further increase the added value of the project to the Baltic Sea countries- many of which are also Arctic states.

The session organized by the project, “Can the Baltic Inspire the Arctic? New Tools for Maritime Risk”, gathered stakeholders to discuss the use and further development of the three main OpenRisk II deliverables in the Arctic context. To set the scene, the representatives of the project partners, Hermanni Backer Johnsen (Åbo Akademi University), Valtteri Laine (Traficom), Jon Arve Røyset (Norwegian Coastal Administration), Emil Kotta (University of Tartu) and Liangliang Lu (Aalto University), presented an overview of the project results and outlined ideas of their potential Arctic use. The focus was especially on the three tools for better risk management: AISyRisk Baltic with a dedicated module on ice navigation risk, the EcoSensitivity tool and the R-Mare Matrix, a tool for enhanced overall risk management performance.

During the following interactive discussion moderated by Hermanni Backer Johnsen, the participating research institutions, national authorities and intergovernmental organizations including the Secretariat of the Arctic Council Working Group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME), expressed clear interest in the project results.

As an example of Arctic processes benefiting from the OpenRisk II results the participants highlighted the upcoming second Arctic maritime Shipping Assessment (AMSA 2) which could include a risk assessment section drawing on methodologies and tools developed by the project. This includes the AISyRisk Baltic and its ice module, opening up the possibility for a transboundary arctic maritime risk assessment, as well as the Ecosensitivity tool, enabling state of the art assessment of ecosystem impacts of spills in the Arctic if provided with localized data. The AISyRisk Baltic ice module can also support the ongoing PAME project ‘Review of the Polar Operational Limit Assessment Risk Indexing System (POLARIS)’. While POLARIS has an operational use as a tool for voyage-planning risk assessment, the ice module can be used to check its real-world utility in reducing navigational risk. In addition, the participants noted the utility of the R-Mare matrix to develop organizational risk management capacity also in the Arctic state maritime authorities.

The OpenRisk II partner institutions will continue to develop the Arctic use of project results also after the project implementation period ending 31 October 2026.

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