AT-819 Shipping in the Arctic (10 ECTS)

Grade:	Letter grade (A through F)
Course Cost:	None
Course Capacity Min/Max:	10/25 students (AT-319/819 in total)
Credit reduction / overlap:	AT-319 (10 ECTS) and AGF-319/819 (5 ECTS)
Language of instruction:	English
Examination support material:	Bilingual dictionary between English and mother tongue

How to apply

Nataly Marchenko

Research Associate

nataly.marchenko@unis.no

Course requirements

Enrolment in a relevant PhD programme. Knowledge at bachelor level in one or more of the disciplines: Mathematics, physics, geoscience, biology, engineering, economy, law, or relevant social sciences.

Academic content

The course is interdisciplinary, providing lectures on climate, sea ice, weather, environment, navigation, technology (including vessel types, winterization, green energy, digitalization), infrastructure (harbours, communication, services), economy, regulations, and geopolitics related to shipping in the Arctic. The lectures will address how the human factors combined with the natural environment have impact on shipping activities. The different actors involved in the specialized fields and how they interact with each other will be presented. The lectures will give a historic summary, a present state-of-the-art and future perspectives of Arctic shipping from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Learning outcomes

The students will have attained advanced interdisciplinary knowledge about the factors that determine types, quantities and routes of Arctic ship traffic. The course shall give the students deeper academic understanding of how climate, environmental, and socioeconomic drivers have impact on shipping in the Arctic where sea transportation is expected to grow in the future. The reduction of the Arctic sea ice and the demand for energy gives new opportunities for shipping routes between Europe, Russia, Asia, and North America. Especially, the exploitation of hydrocarbon and other resources as well as tourism and scientific exploration generate more ship traffic in Arctic regions. The presence of sea ice, darkness, limitations of bathymetric charts, lack of infrastructure and communication services put severe limitations on how ships can operate. The students will attain advanced knowledge on how shipping is constrained by regulations, environmental risks, economic risks and geopolitical situations.

Upon completing the course, the students will:

Learning activities

The course extends over ca 6 weeks including compulsory safety training, and is run in combination with AT-319.

Required advanced reading will provide a survey of relevant issues and background knowledge as well as selected case studies. Lectures will provide a foundational disciplinary framework for analysis. Group exercises as well as excursions and fieldwork will be used to apply knowledge from lectures and written material.  Individuals will be tasked with compiling a subset of the information required by their group in the self-study time through assignments. Groups will have ample time to integrate their knowledge and assessment into a written recommendation in the form of a white paper and an oral presentation on their recommendation.

The excursions and field work vary from year to year but is based on available ship, visits to Longyearbyen Harbour, Tourist companies, and other involved in shipping activities actors.

Compulsory learning activities

• Seminars, assignments, fieldwork, presentations

All compulsory learning activities must be approved to attend the exam.

Assessment

All assessments must be passed in order to pass the course.

Each assessment is graded and subsequently combined into a single grade. Partial grades for each assessment will be available.

Student life