The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly ...

This study presents a deep learning framework to support regional ship behavior prediction using historical AIS data. The framework is meant to aid in proactive collision avoidance, in order to enhance the safety of maritime transportation systems. In this study, it is suggested to decompose the historical ship behavior in a given geographical region into clusters. Each cluster will contain trajectories ...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) technology has found its way into several civilian applications in the last 20 years, predominantly due to lower cost and tangible scientific improvements. In its application to structural bridge inspection, UAVs provide two main functions. The first, being the most common, detect damage through visual sensors. The 2 D image data can be used to quickly establish a basic ...

Longyearbyen has been hit by two avalanches in 2015 and 2017 causing severe damages to housing and two fatalities. In this study we investigate organised learning processes regarding emergency preparedness and response following the avalanches. Longyearbyen provides a case of particular interest as climatic change rapidly is altering the environmental conditions, including the risk of avalanches.< ...

The article is an analytical state-of-the-art review of the Russian Federation’s critical infrastructure policy, starting from the 1990s but zooming in on the current situation. The article discusses what does critical infrastructure mean in the Russian context. It explores the country’s threat scenarios in this field, and asks what part is played by cyber security threats in this context. Further, ...

The Arctic is frequently framed as a region of disaster and conflict, as well as of opportunity and cooperation. Disaster diplomacy is one approach for examining how dealing with disasters might or might not affect conflict and cooperation, yet little work on Arctic disaster diplomacy has been completed, especially regarding specific bilateral relations. This paper contributes to filling in this gap ...

The time required for rescue is a critical factor for surviving a marine incident. The regulatory framework, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Polar Code, utilizes a risk-based approach. It states that the vessel operators are to define the time required for rescue but never less than 5 days. Based on experience from the classification society DNV GL, utilization of the minimum requirement ...

This study approached a physically based, semi-distributed SWAT model to test the model sensitivity to the spatial distribution of precipitation. Ten scenarios of precipitation from five scattered rain gauges in an Arctic watershed Målselv in northern Norway were used as inputs to run the SWAT model. Streamflows were simulated. The model runs at monthly time interval based on the historical data of ...

Floating glacial ice features of various sizes pose a substantial threat to the structural integrity of offshore structures in ice-prone regions. Relatively small ice feathers, e.g., bergy bits and growlers, are a major concern because they are more difficult to detect by marine radars and perform concurrent ice management operations, especially in extreme sea states.<p> <p>This two-part companion ...

The Arctic region is the most sensitive region to climate change. Hydrological models are fundamental tools for climate change impact assessment. However, due to the extreme weather conditions, specific hydrological process, and data acquisition challenges in the Arctic, it is crucial to select suitable hydrological model(s) for this region. In this paper, a comprehensive review and comparison of ...