PACINNO

The Seaport Risk Assessment Toolbox is a publication that compiled available standards and methods to identify, analyse and evaluate risks in and of seaports. Seaports are confronted with risks that may affect the operational, economic and technical dimensions. The types of safety, operational and environmental risks include, for example, leakages of hazardous materials, fires on passenger ships at port, oil spills in port areas as well as explosions of gases or chemicals. The toolbox developed under the leadership of Hamburg University of Technology enables port operators and rescue services to standardise risk management at seaports across the Baltic Sea.

The report creates an overall picture of the communicational and regulatory challenges related to safety and security issues for major seaports in the Baltic Sea Region. This includes, e.g. challenges related to the different national/regional legal frameworks and to communication between different rescue authorities and between seaports . It suggests improvements to be made in the near future (five years’ time span) to mitigate emergencies and accidents in seaports. For example, the report revealed that one of the challenges in safety and security regulation is that interpretation of regulations is not uniform and, interpretation of regulations varies among the countries in the Baltic Sea region. EU directives and lower-level regulations could be more precise, and there could be more detailed interpretation directions included. The report was published by Turku School of Economics of the University of Turku.

The study maps the outlook for transport and logistics in the Baltic Sea region by the year 2030. Several factors anticipated to affect the region’s competitiveness by 2030 were identified, of which the most important ones are the growing importance of environmental aspects in conducting business, significant technological advances, increasing taxation and regulation, increasing prevalence of cyber threats, and a shortage of skilled blue-collar labour. The study is based on data surveying a multinational expert panel of 96 participants from the Baltic Sea region. It was published by Turku School of Economics of the University of Turku.