1997

Hellevaara, Matti

The symposium proceedings include ten technical papers on maritime safety from both technical and human factors point of view. The first paper gives a state of art -presentation to previous and current activities of Maritime Institute of Finland on this topic. The second and third paper presents the status and targets of the comprehensive, still on-going maritime safety project carried out for the Finnish Board of Navigation. Other papers describe selected special topics of maritime safety. The modern safety and risk assessment methods are becoming in the maritime operations as important and widely utilised as on the other branches of society and industry. The formal safety assessment (FSA) and the failure effect and mode analysis (FMEA) are the basic tools for authorities, classification societies and inter-governmental organisations in design and development of rules and guidelines for the new technical innovations and operational procedures. The technical aspects, e.g. stability, structural strength and the modern aids of navigation are essential to safe shipping but the understanding and controlling of human factors is the basement for safe maritime operations. The modern simulation techniques are a very effective tool to study the human factors in complex teamwork and communication situations both during the normal and emergency operations. The symposium on Maritime Safety '97 describes the current research activities of Maritime Institute of Finland and its co-operators, VTT/Safety Engineering and the Ship Simulation Unit of the Maritime Safety Training Centre, on primary areas of the maritime safety.