In June 2008, ABP Marine Environmental Research (ABPmer) successfully implemented an ABP Group wide Marine Safety and Management System using research carried out in the European Project \u2018Maritime Navigation and Information Services\u2019 (MarNIS). The focus of the new system is the implementation of a \u2018Port Assessment Toolkit\u2019 with adapted services to suit the needs of the ABP Port Group. ABP owns and operates a network of 21 ports around the United Kingdom and is responsible for the safe and efficient management of marine safety within their harbour areas. Whilst the ABP Group has been compliant with the national standard for port marine safety since its inception (the MCA\u2019s Port Marine Safety Code) a system to assist the whole Group in reaching a common standard for risk management and reporting was desired. This need was answered by research undertaken by the ABPmer through the consultancy\u2019s participation as a partner in the European research project \u2018MarNIS\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n
European research leads the way<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong>MarNIS, an integrated research project in the 6th Framework programme, brought together 50 partners to develop maritime navigation and information services on a Pan-European basis. The European project has delivered a number of innovative concepts for the next generation of integrated maritime information services, bringing together traffic monitoring, search and rescue, pollution control and vessel risk profiling under one roof. ABPmer, in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam, developed the concept of a port management support tool for Harbour Masters and Vessel Traffic Managers in European ports. The best way to demonstrate the concept of a \u2018Toolkit\u2019 was the development of a prototype version as a tangible output of the research work. Along with other leading Ports and European research organisations, the prototype toolkit concept was field tested and further developed using industry best practice, Formal Safety Assessments concepts (IMO) and risk management ideas developed within IALA and PIANC. This culminated in a finalised concept \u2018Toolkit\u2019 and a prototype software package which demonstrated how the concept would be applied to the European ports industry.<\/p>\n \n MarNIS port assessment toolkit<\/strong><\/p>\n The \u2018Toolkit\u2019 focuses on four key functional areas: Nautical Safety, Environmental Protection, Crisis Management and Port Business. The \u2018Toolkit\u2019 itself comprises three interconnected modules.<\/p>\n The starting point is the Port Data Module<\/strong>, designed to provide a common basis of understanding through the use of standard questions in respect to port functional areas.<\/p>\n The core of the port assessment process is embodied in the Operational Risk Management Module<\/strong> providing the user with an overview of ranked hazards. Each hazard is linked to an auditable sequence of risk assessments providing an overview of incident causes, existing risk controls and possible future risk control options. The final module is the Accident and Incident Reporting Module<\/strong> providing a database for collating marine incidents.<\/p>\n Whenever an actual accident or incident is registered, the system will alert the user that a comparable hazard has already been assessed and should be reviewed, or conversely that such an assessment does not exist and therefore needs adding.<\/p>\n Customising the Toolkit<\/strong><\/p>\n To provide the ABP Group with a tailored system, a number of customisations were made to the \u2018Toolkit\u2019. These included database functions to allow multiple Port locations to use the system whilst access common data tables. In addition to the enhanced database functions; the accident\/ incident reporting module was tailored to the requirements of the UK reporting standard specified by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) with additional functionality to geo-reference incidents for later analysis. The ABP Group also requested tailored versions of report formats, customised risk control, cause and hazard lists to provide a common standard for all ports within the Group. The use of the Port Assessment Toolkit has allowed ABP to manage its marine safety responsibilities more efficiently with standardised reporting and post incident review. In addition, the ABP Group can now share best practise amongst its Ports as the software application allows for a transparent view of risk management and accident\/incident reporting allowing a strategic review to be carried out by Marine Managers without the need for port-by-port data gathering.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n About ABPmer:<\/strong><\/p>\n ABPmer is a leading UK marine environmental consultancy providing specialist services to the ports and harbour sector. Our technical capabilities and expertise enable us to offer our clients a wide range of services tailor-made to their needs including: environmental impact assessment, sensitivity analysis, numerical model studies, dredging studies and disposal advice, ship maneuvering, berthing and mooring advice, marine risk management and port safety assessment. Web: http:\/\/www.abpmer.co.uk\/<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n About the Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n Monty Smedley is a Marine Scientist with over 10 years experience working for ABPmer. Monty\u2019s areas of expertise are Marine Risk, Navigational and Mooring Advice, Dredging Monitoring and Marine Consents.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Port Assessment Toolkit Website:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Port Assessment Toolkit is freely available as a product of European Research. The following link provides more information on the Toolkit and download: http:\/\/www.abpmer. net\/MarNIS\/ A customised version of the Toolkit provides users with greater versatility for reporting and data capture. This personalisation service can be provided by ABPmer, in addition, technical support services, a help manual and updates are also available \u2013 for further information please contact us at enquiries@abpmer.co.uk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Working with the European Maritime Navigation and Information Services (MarNIS) Project, ABPmer has developed a port management support tool for harbour masters and vessel traffic managers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects-initiatives-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9980"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}