Risk Analysis and Management of Moored Ships in Ports

The risks associated with mooring of ships are a major concern for port and maritime authorities. Sea waves and extreme weather conditions can lead to excessive movements of vessels and mooring loads affecting the safety of ships, cargo, passengers, crew or port infrastructures. Normally, port activities such as ships’ approach manoeuvres and loading/unloading operations, are conditioned or suspended based solely on weather or wave forecasts, causing large economic losses. Nevertheless, it has been shown that some of the most hazardous events with moored ships happen on days with mild sea and wind conditions, being the culprit long waves and resonance phenomena. Bad weather conditions can be managed with an appropriate or reinforced mooring arrangement. A correct risk assessment must be based on the movements of the ship and on the mooring loads, taking into account all the moored ship’s system. In this paper, the development of a forecast and warning system based on the assessment of risks associated with moored ships in port areas, SWAMS ALERT, is detailed. This modular system can be scaled and adapted to any port, providing decision-makers with accurate and complete information on the behaviour of moored ships, movements and mooring loads, allowing a better planning and integrated management of port areas.

Download Full-text

WARNING SYSTEM FOR NAVIGATION AND MOORED SHIPS IN PORTS

Revista de Engenharia Térmica ◽

10.5380/reterm.v16i2.62207 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

L. V. Pinheiro ◽

C. J. Fortes ◽

P. Lopes ◽

P. Poseiro ◽

J. A. Santos

Keyword(s):

Container Terminal ◽

Warning System ◽

Modular System ◽

Test Case ◽

Sea Waves ◽

Mooring Lines ◽

System A ◽

User Friendly ◽

System Prototype ◽

Port Areas

This paper describes the SWAMS ALERT system; a forecast and warning system based on the assessment of risks associated with navigation and moored ships in port areas. This system is based on HIDRALERTA, a previously developed system for overtopping and flooding in coastal and port areas. The basic idea is to use 72-hour sea waves’ forecasts and simulate their effect on ships, either in port approach maneuvers or when they are moored inside.This modular system consists of four modules: I – Sea waves characteristics; II - Navigation and mooring in port areas; III - Risk assessment and IV - Warning System. The system is implemented on a fully interactive user-friendly web platform.The system prototype was tested in the Azorean island of Terceira. A generic container ship and a specific berth in the container terminal of the Praia da Vitória port were chosen, as well as a generic mooring layout with six mooring cables and two fenders. This test case illustrates some of the system’s capabilities, namely its ability to forecast, not only wave characteristics on the specific site of the moored vessel, but also forces on mooring lines and fenders and the risk of pre-set thresholds being surpassed.

Download Full-text

Optimization of Flight Rescheduling Problem under Carbon Tax

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12145576 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (14) ◽

pp. 5576

Author(s):

Mohamed Ali Kammoun ◽

Sadok Turki ◽

Nidhal Rezg

Keyword(s):

Carbon Emissions ◽

Traffic Congestion ◽

Carbon Tax ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Optimization Method ◽

Air Traffic ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Aircraft Emissions ◽

Bad Weather ◽

Air Capacity

The flight rescheduling problem is one of the major challenges of air traffic issue. Unforeseen bad weather conditions stimulate air traffic congestion and make the initial scheduling infeasible, resulting in significant economic losses for passengers and airlines. Furthermore, due to rigorous environmental legislations, flight rescheduling becomes a more complicated problem, as it has to deal with flight delays on the one hand, and carbon emissions on the other hand. In this paper, we address the flight rescheduling problem with an environmental requirement subject to the air capacity limitation due to bad weather conditions. A new strategy is proposed to minimize the disruption effects on planned flights, which adopted ground delay, longer route change, flight cancellation, as well speed adjustment to arrive at a scheduled time. Firstly, the objective of this study is to determine the economical flights plan in line with the new available air capacity. Secondly, by considering the environmental impact of the kerosene consumption, we illustrate the contribution of an economical decision to aircraft emissions. Experiment results are provided to show the efficiency of the proposed strategies and genetic algorithm as the used optimization method. Furthermore, the impacts of carbon tax and cost of arrival delay on the flights carbon emissions are studied.

Download Full-text

CNN-based Rain Reduction in Street View Images

London Imaging Meeting ◽

10.2352/issn.2694-118x.2020.lim-12 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (1) ◽

pp. 78-81

Author(s):

Simone Zini ◽

Simone Bianco ◽

Raimondo Schettini

Keyword(s):

Character Recognition ◽

Optical Character Recognition ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Specific Interest ◽

Optical Character ◽

Street View ◽

In The Wild ◽

Bad Weather ◽

Detection And Recognition

Rain removal from pictures taken under bad weather conditions is a challenging task that aims to improve the overall quality and visibility of a scene. The enhanced images usually constitute the input for subsequent Computer Vision tasks such as detection and classification. In this paper, we present a Convolutional Neural Network, based on the Pix2Pix model, for rain streaks removal from images, with specific interest in evaluating the results of the processing operation with respect to the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) task. In particular, we present a way to generate a rainy version of the Street View Text Dataset (R-SVTD) for "text detection and recognition" evaluation in bad weather conditions. Experimental results on this dataset show that our model is able to outperform the state of the art in terms of two commonly used image quality metrics, and that it is capable to improve the performances of an OCR model to detect and recognise text in the wild.

Download Full-text

Selecting Biomonitors of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition: Guidelines for Practitioners and Decision Makers

Nitrogen ◽

10.3390/nitrogen2030021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 308-320

Author(s):

D. Nayeli Martínez ◽

Edison A. Díaz-Álvarez ◽

Erick de la Barrera

Keyword(s):

Environmental Pollution ◽

Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen ◽

Nitrogen Emissions ◽

Vascular Epiphytes ◽

Ecophysiological Response

Environmental pollution is a major threat to public health and is the cause of important economic losses worldwide. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is one of the most significant components of environmental pollution, which, in addition to being a health risk, is one of the leading drivers of global biodiversity loss. However, monitoring pollution is not possible in many regions of the world because the instrumentation, deployment, operation, and maintenance of automated systems is onerous. An affordable alternative is the use of biomonitors, naturally occurring or transplanted organisms that respond to environmental pollution with a consistent and measurable ecophysiological response. This policy brief advocates for the use of biomonitors of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Descriptions of the biological and monitoring particularities of commonly utilized biomonitor lichens, bryophytes, vascular epiphytes, herbs, and woody plants, are followed by a discussion of the principal ecophysiological parameters that have been shown to respond to the different nitrogen emissions and their rate of deposition.

Download Full-text

Development of an early warning system for loose automobile tires

Science Progress ◽

10.1177/0036850420940880 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 103 (3) ◽

pp. 003685042094088

Author(s):

Huibo Wu ◽

Fei Song ◽

Kainan Wu ◽

Cheng Chen ◽

Xiaohua Wang

Keyword(s):

Early Warning ◽

Early Warning System ◽

Traffic Accidents ◽

Warning System ◽

Working Environment ◽

Vehicle Body ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Control Module ◽

Alarm Signal ◽

Monitoring Module

The looseness of tires or even falling off from cars will lead to serious traffic accidents. Once it occurs, it will bring casualties and huge economic losses to society, seriously affecting the traffic safety. To mitigate such possible safety concerns, an early loosening warning system is developed in this article. The system consists of the tire monitoring module and the working control module. The tire monitoring module is installed on the tire and is designed with no power supply. The control module is installed in the vehicle body. Signal transmission between the two modules is achieved through wireless radio frequency. In the driving, once the tire is loosened, the monitoring device will send out the alarm signal automatically and wirelessly. After the driver gets the alarm signal, he can immediately perform the emergency processing, parking, and inspection, which can avoid traffic accidents caused by it. This article introduces the detailed structure, working principle, and operation process of the system. This early warning system has simple structure, high reliability, and is easy to use. It can be used in the common working environment of automobiles. Meanwhile, it is also the foundation of intelligent connected vehicle.

Download Full-text

The Message of “APEC Blue” for the Prevention and Control of Urban Air Pollution in China

Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies ◽

10.1142/s2345748116500275 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 04 (04) ◽

pp. 1650027

Author(s):

Rong ZHU

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Emergency Response ◽

Prevention And Control ◽

Urban Air Pollution ◽

Pollution Prevention ◽

Warning System ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Control Measures ◽

Atmospheric Pollutant ◽

And Control

Analysis of the meteorological conditions for atmospheric pollutant dispersion before and after the 2014 APEC meeting shows very significant effects of air pollution prevention and control measures on the meeting. It proves that the proper measures to control air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region are: establishing a regional emergency response mechanism to reduce emissions in the case of heavy air pollution, strengthening the local emergency response measures for emission reduction, and enhancing the early warning system for weather conditions conducive to heavy air pollution.

Download Full-text

The Utility Model of Early Warning System for Train Operation

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.325-326.1249 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 325-326 ◽

pp. 1249-1252

Author(s):

Shi Yi

Keyword(s):

Early Warning ◽

Early Warning System ◽

Warning System ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Vibration Sensor ◽

Utility Model ◽

Photoelectric Detection ◽

Train Operation

The utility model of early warning system for train operation detects and analysis all the information from the weather detection, photoelectric detection, vibration sensor and signal of the tracks comprehensively. It determines the position of the train by the weighted coefficients and controls the interval signal and locomotive signal accurately. This system should be barely affected by the weather conditions, the results detected by this system are reliable, and it can ensure the train operates safely.

Download Full-text

Weather effects on intrahabitat movements of the western green lizard, Lacerta bilineata (Daudin, 1802), at its northern distribution range border: a radio-tracking study

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z00-103 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 78 (10) ◽

pp. 1831-1839 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

P Sound ◽

M Veith

Keyword(s):

Activity Patterns ◽

Strong Dependence ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Distribution Range ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Second Phase ◽

Northern Distribution ◽

Radio Transmitters ◽

Movement Parameters ◽

Bad Weather

Daily activity patterns of male western green lizards, Lacerta bilineata (Daudin, 1802), at the edge of their northern distribution range in western Germany after the breeding season from June to October were recorded using implanted radio transmitters. Different activity indices discriminating between stimulation, duration, and length of movement were correlated with actual weather conditions (d0) and with weather conditions on the 2 previous days (d-1 and d-2). The lizards' dependence on weather showed two different phases throughout the study period. During the first period and in the period preceding a drastic change of weather in midsummer, weather had no significant influence on movement parameters. After that event, temperatures dropped and a strong dependence on weather of all movement parameters except those indicating displacements became apparent. Thresholds for 50% activity during this second phase were a maximum temperature of 17°C and a minimum humidity of 35%. Two days after periods of bad weather, the influence of weather conditions increased again. This can be explained by physiological deficits that require compensation during the period of marginal weather conditions prior to hibernation. Displacement movements were significantly longer than home-range movements and were neither triggered nor modulated by the weather. They must therefore represent activities such as patrolling territory boundaries.

Download Full-text