A better perspective

Data analytics, while offering greater and better insights into risks and opportunities than old fashioned intuition, can still be a ‘dark art’ – but some are now finding ways to make it cut to the chase.

James Cutler of emapsite explains that seeing what’s going on, in and around a port is often best visualised on a map. Sounds obvious, but to get something as multi-layered as a port represented takes sophistication.

“In changing environments such ‘views’ of the site necessitate collation, storage, retrieval and visualisation of data,” he says. Actually, it’s a lot to take in, though people are actually quite good at understanding dynamic information – if it’s presented in the right way.

The beauty of combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the internet is that different layers of information can be fed in to multiple workstations and mobile units, giving different users an up-to-date picture of conditions from cargo movements to wave heights. Mr Cutler adds that this might start to answer the truism that “the best thing to be done with your information probably won’t be done by you”.

One of its more interesting uses has been in the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The region has had a particular problem with the dumping of hydrocarbons from the bilges or tanks of shipping within the 12 mile limit, near sensitive ecological and marine cultivation areas. By combining remotely sensed data with ship movement data within a GIS it is possible to locate both the dump and the offending vessel: but the authorities have decided to go even further.

In order to effectively pursue a shipping line for damages caused by this action, and not waste time in expensive and lengthy legal battles, they have decided that it should be able to actually put a monetary value on the damage caused by any release, enabling the swift return of compensation for the communities – and also acting as a deterrent for offences.

Setting up and then implementing an approach such as this with its emphasis on ‘quantifiable’ results takes investment, time and political will: “Now the principle has been recognised and tested it is there to be rolled out for other ports and marine environments”, says Mr Cutler.

The other side to this is that in some places even government departments jealously guard their information – seeing it as commercially, or even politically sensitive information.

“Security, inertia and poor data management and publishing practices too can be an issue,” says Justin Saunders of emapsite, “You may have won a contract to build a port – but sometimes you find there’s very little information volunteered by the local or even central government about the immediate environment or even other projects under build. It can mean a waste of time and money.”

He adds that mapping can help identify potential conflict issues and options to avoid or reduce them, lessening risk as well as downstream quibbling. A port or its investors can also identify possibilities for expansion establishing a good idea of both the pros and cons early on, mitigating risk and costs before initiating scoping and feasibility studies.

“Basically, if you can bring together the required data in a visual map form, you can see what a project is going to conflict with before you sit down with consultants,” he says.

In Jeddah itself this mapping was also used to avoid the potential problems of setting up facilities in a wadi – a dry riverbed – that seems innocuous enough until one of the area’s relatively rare but dramatic flooding rains which can carry off everything in its way, including cars and certainly port infrastructure.

Further, map-based approaches have also been used to evaluate potential fish farming sites – keeping them out of the way of navigation lanes. It has been useful too, for oil and gas pipeline routing, alongside the management of sensitive habitats and natural resources. Mr Saunders explains the maps bridge two approaches: one is simply using them as a way to gather and visualise information, useful for project information that is not easily pulled together through any other means. The other is bringing it in as an integral piece of the risk management and site analysis process.

Definitely seeing it as part of a ‘risk management’ strategy, the Jeddah authority is ensuring that port projects, necessary for the health of the economy, can avoid the environmental or domestic stumbling blocks that have dogged so many developments. “There are many cases where an application is lodged, but the path forward is blocked by health and safety or environmental issues and concerns or groups that hadn’t previously been visible to the planners,” says Mr Saunders.

GIS has also had its place in more dramatic events. Following the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan a year ago, reinsurance advisor Willis Re gathered critical information for its clients using an online system called eNCOMPASS, which could bring policies, hazards and other related spatial information together.

Professional uses require a lot of detail, collated from multiple data sources, showing up things like shallow water bathymetry. Further, by combining mapping with satellite imagery a port planner can see if there is an area of natural low (or high) sedimentation. This, as Mr Saunders points out, is “very useful”: dredging is a significant element in any port development project as well as a large part of long term channel maintenance, so minimising both its initial and ongoing drain on resources is a big bonus.

Mr Saunders concludes: “You get an idea of the dredging potential from these maps, and you are able look at the depth even before you send a survey team out there. It costs less in money and development time than sending a team into the field, which can cost a thousand dollars a day. It doesn’t mean you can avoid the surveys, but it shows up the better, more likely spots before you start.”