Abstract

The sea and the coasts are drivers of Europe’s economy as many of the economic activities as well as large part of trade depend on the sea. At the European level there is strong political pressure to enhance the growth of maritime economy sectors. The European Union has developed the Integrated Maritime Policy to support the sustainable development of the seas and oceans. The aim is to reach a good environmental status of European seas by 2020. The value of this study is to provide fresh insight into the topic by examining the empirical relationship between the sustainable Blue Growth and Marine Spatial planning. The purpose is to make a relatively short introduction to questions like what is the potential of sustainable Blue Growth, how can maritime spatial planning (MSP) contribute to sustainable Blue Growth, and what are the cross-border elements of MSP. The experiences of previous MSP projects, EU policy reports and scientific articles with MSP in their focus are used as a source to answer these questions. So far there have been only recommendations towards sustainable Blue Growth, and each country remains responsible for designing and determining the format and content of maritime plans. MSP processes should be developed both at national and international levels. Renata Kozak

Abstract

The main focus of the paper is on the container system development in the Baltic Sea Region studying cotemporary changes and organisation, as well as explaining the main driving forces of this situation. The Baltic Sea is a transport corridor between Eastern and Western Europe. Over the last decade maritime transport in the Baltic Sea area has changed significantly. The disintegration of the Soviet Union forced Russia to start developing its own Baltic ports and terminals and to find new routes to export its oil and gas. The Baltic ports have welcomed a remarkable growth, especially in oil transportation and containerised flows. The geographical configuration of the region naturally places it away from major global shipping lines. This situation is accentuated by the organisation of maritime regular lines, centred in Northern European ports. For this reason, the regional container network is mainly made up of feeder services. Document type: Article

Abstract

"jats:p"Shipping activities, oil production and transport in the sea, oil handled in harbors, construction and exploitation of offshore oil and gas pipelines have a number of negative impacts on the marine environment and coastal zone of the seas. In 2004-2014 we elaborated several operational satellite monitoring systems for oil and gas companies in Russia and performed integrated satellite monitoring of the ecological state of coastal waters in the Baltic, Black, Caspian, and Kara seas, which included observation of oil pollution, suspended matter, and algae bloom at a fully operational mode. These monitoring systems differ from the existing ones by the analysis of a wide spectrum of satellite, meteorological and oceanographic data, as well as by a numerical modeling of oil spill transformation and transport in real weather conditions. Our experience in the Baltic Sea includes: (1) integrated satellite monitoring of oil production at the LUKOIL-KMN Ltd. D-6 oil rig in the Southeastern Baltic Sea (Kravtsovskoe oil field) in 2004-2014; (2) integrated satellite monitoring of the “Nord Stream” underwater gas pipeline construction and exploitation in the Gulf of Finland (2010-2013); (3) numerical modeling of risks of oil pollution caused by shipping along the main maritime shipping routes in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Proper, and in the Southeastern Baltic Sea; (4) numerical modeling of risks of oil pollution caused by oil production at D-6 oil rig and oil transportation on shore via the connecting underwater oil pipeline. Document type: Article