Weather Risk In Marine Operations: An Approach For Using Risk Indicators From Offshore Environment Perspective

Abstract

The safety of marine operations is largely dependent on the weather conditions. The conditions which exist at the location of operations, during the period when the operations are planned for execution, determine the feasibility of preforming them successfully. Weather events are difficult to predict and have a potential to cause great damage. Weather forecasts, environmental load design and weather monitoring are some tools which provide valuable information but all these methods have uncertainties associated with them. Also, many other sources of information can be used to reduce the possible damage. Risk to which any system or operation is exposed can be described with the help of risk indicators. One single indicator is not sufficient to describe the risk in any activity. Development of multiple indicators, which cover all the aspects of risk in marine operations, is necessary. Indicators specific to weather risk in marine operations are described. A model to evaluate the total risk indicator, which uses knowledge from multiple indicators from different sources, is suggested for presenting the actual total risk picture.