Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ARCSAR (Arctic and North Atlantic Security and Emergency Preparedness Network)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-02-29
The overall aim of ARCSAR is to fast‐track uptake of existing innovations and knowledge by practitioners, predict future needs for innovation and knowledge, and identify priorities for security and standardization across the Arctic and North-Atlantic (ANA) region. To establish international best practice and develop innovation platforms for the professional security and emergency response institutions in the region.
ARCSAR will look into the need for enhanced measures to emergency response capability related to search and rescue (SAR) and environmental protection.
The focus is on increased interaction in targeted networks between the professional institutions, academia and the innovators in the preparedness service and equipment industry. To monitor research and innovation projects and recommend the uptake and the industrialization of results, express common requirements as regards innovations that could fill in capability and other gaps and improve their performance in the future, and indicate priorities as regards common capabilities, or interfaces among capabilities, requiring more standardization.
In more recent times, the Arctic has experienced a significant increase in human activity and interactions. The region is becoming a highly important economic trade route with increasing infrastructure. New shipping routes are opening up due to changes in the ice coverage, providing new routes for the transport of goods from east to west. Fossil fuel exploration and infrastructure development has resulted in a 63% increase in shipping activity between 2018 – 2019. With economic drivers such as reduced transit times and increased fuel efficiency available to ship owners, as the Arctic becomes more accessible, so too will the likelihood of increased shipping activity. Demands from consumers for extreme tourism has resulted in a significant increase in tourism activity and cruise ship traffic throughout the region. The increase of mainstream traffic within these regions pose a number of safety challenges. Environmental considerations such as variable and dynamic ice cover, ice build-up on vessels, harsh sea conditions, extreme climates, 24hr darkness during winter, and remoteness/disconnections from SAR infrastructure pose a number of major challenges for ANA stakeholders. The increased activity requires more open cooperation among governments, industry, and security organisations across many jurisdictions.
ARCSAR will look into the need for enhanced measures to emergency response capability related to search and rescue (SAR) and environmental protection.
The focus is on increased interaction in targeted networks between the professional institutions, academia and the innovators in the preparedness service and equipment industry. To monitor research and innovation projects and recommend the uptake and the industrialization of results, express common requirements as regards innovations that could fill in capability and other gaps and improve their performance in the future, and indicate priorities as regards common capabilities, or interfaces among capabilities, requiring more standardization.
In more recent times, the Arctic has experienced a significant increase in human activity and interactions. The region is becoming a highly important economic trade route with increasing infrastructure. New shipping routes are opening up due to changes in the ice coverage, providing new routes for the transport of goods from east to west. Fossil fuel exploration and infrastructure development has resulted in a 63% increase in shipping activity between 2018 – 2019. With economic drivers such as reduced transit times and increased fuel efficiency available to ship owners, as the Arctic becomes more accessible, so too will the likelihood of increased shipping activity. Demands from consumers for extreme tourism has resulted in a significant increase in tourism activity and cruise ship traffic throughout the region. The increase of mainstream traffic within these regions pose a number of safety challenges. Environmental considerations such as variable and dynamic ice cover, ice build-up on vessels, harsh sea conditions, extreme climates, 24hr darkness during winter, and remoteness/disconnections from SAR infrastructure pose a number of major challenges for ANA stakeholders. The increased activity requires more open cooperation among governments, industry, and security organisations across many jurisdictions.
By the end of the project (29/02/2024) the project has submitted all deliverable, organized and hosted all event, and reached all milestones described in the Grant Agreement.
Impact at the end of the project
The ARCSAR project team has disseminated its findings, lessons learned and documents in a variety of fora throughout the project. Some examples of this effort are:
• EU regional days, with JRCC Northern Norway presenting the project to a variety of regional stakeholders from the public and private sector.
• Arctic Frontiers two years in a row, where ARCSAR members organized sessions and seminars, and results of the work conducted under WP2 were presented by Dylan Jones from University of Portsmouth.
• Arctic Circle Assembly 3 years in a row, with an organized side session where we have presented the work conducted under ARCSAR, but also given voice to other projects stemming from ARCSAR.
• Norwegian Research Council events (January 2023) presenting the project to the Norwegian ministry of justice and public security, the Norwegian Police Directorate, the Norwegian Armed forces, and other public bodies.
• UArctic Annual Conference 2023, at which MTU presented ARCSAR to the assembled representatives of the 200+ affiliated institutions.
• ARCSAR Case Study Book, under publication.
These efforts have resulted in a wide audience learning about ARCSAR, and interest being generated in follow-on work to pursue further objectives.
Arctic Lessons Learned Arena: Through ARCSAR a need was identified by SAR practitioners for a method to capture and share information and knowledge gained from their experiences. Therefore, ARCSAR Network members created the Arctic Lessons Learned Arena, which is a platform to share after-action reports and lessons learned from both real incidents and SAR exercises. Financing was secured from the Norwegian and Canadian governments. The Arctic Council’s Emergency Planning Preparedness and Response (EPPR) Working Group led the project to develop the Arena; and the UArctic Network of Universities involved in Arctic related research is also involved. The Arctic Lessons Learned Arena represents an enduring legacy of ARCSAR for valuable information sharing among SAR practitioners. https://lla.ac/
Harmonised Guidelines for Nuclear and Radiological Accident Management in ANA Region: In 2019, none of the Nordic countries had procedures to handle maritime SAR operations in nuclear and radiological pollution / risk environments. This was pointed out by an ARCSAR report and a group of ARCSAR Network members decided to address this gap. Since then, in a series of projects: harmonized guidelines to handle this type of incident have been created; action cards for practitioners have been developed; and education modules on the topic are in the process of being developed, including a deeper dive into risk analysis and perception.
UK Arctic Strategy (name TBC): References to the work of ARCSAR via written evidence submitted by the University of Portsmouth have been incorporated into a recent publication by the UK House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee: ‘Our friends in the North: UK strategy towards the Arctic’. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5804/ldselect/ldintrel/8/8.pdf .
Cruise Ship Evacuation Video: Through the experiences and observations gained during the ARCSAR LIVEX22 exercise, a need was identified for improved guidance to cruise ship passengers, regarding how to evacuate a vessel in the event of an emergency. Therefore, funding was secured and at the time of writing an Evacuation Video is being developed, by collaboration between ARCSAR partners JRCC-Norway and AECO, the Arctic Expedition Cruise Organisation; with involvement also of the Arctic Council’s EPPR Working Group.
University Masters Student Exchange: In 2023 two of the ARCSAR university partners – University of Portsmouth, UK & Nord University, Norway – began a structured collaboration on themes arising from ARCSAR. The first element is a programme of Masters student exchange, aimed at students who will become the next generation of emergency managers in their respective countries or organizations. The second element is a programme of staff exchange. The third element is a project to address monitoring of critical infrastructure and deployment of underwater assets, development of which is underway at time of writing.
The academic and managerial implication results of deliverable D2.1 were published in the European Journal of Operational Research during this reporting period:
Jones DF, Labib A, Willis, KO, Costello J, Ouelhadj D, Ikonen, E & Dominguez-Cainzos, M (2023), Multi-criteria mapping and prioritization of Arctic and North Atlantic maritime safety and security needs, European Journal of Operational Research, 307, 827-841, doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.09.002
The ARCSAR project team has disseminated its findings, lessons learned and documents in a variety of fora throughout the project. Some examples of this effort are:
• EU regional days, with JRCC Northern Norway presenting the project to a variety of regional stakeholders from the public and private sector.
• Arctic Frontiers two years in a row, where ARCSAR members organized sessions and seminars, and results of the work conducted under WP2 were presented by Dylan Jones from University of Portsmouth.
• Arctic Circle Assembly 3 years in a row, with an organized side session where we have presented the work conducted under ARCSAR, but also given voice to other projects stemming from ARCSAR.
• Norwegian Research Council events (January 2023) presenting the project to the Norwegian ministry of justice and public security, the Norwegian Police Directorate, the Norwegian Armed forces, and other public bodies.
• UArctic Annual Conference 2023, at which MTU presented ARCSAR to the assembled representatives of the 200+ affiliated institutions.
• ARCSAR Case Study Book, under publication.
These efforts have resulted in a wide audience learning about ARCSAR, and interest being generated in follow-on work to pursue further objectives.
Arctic Lessons Learned Arena: Through ARCSAR a need was identified by SAR practitioners for a method to capture and share information and knowledge gained from their experiences. Therefore, ARCSAR Network members created the Arctic Lessons Learned Arena, which is a platform to share after-action reports and lessons learned from both real incidents and SAR exercises. Financing was secured from the Norwegian and Canadian governments. The Arctic Council’s Emergency Planning Preparedness and Response (EPPR) Working Group led the project to develop the Arena; and the UArctic Network of Universities involved in Arctic related research is also involved. The Arctic Lessons Learned Arena represents an enduring legacy of ARCSAR for valuable information sharing among SAR practitioners. https://lla.ac/
Harmonised Guidelines for Nuclear and Radiological Accident Management in ANA Region: In 2019, none of the Nordic countries had procedures to handle maritime SAR operations in nuclear and radiological pollution / risk environments. This was pointed out by an ARCSAR report and a group of ARCSAR Network members decided to address this gap. Since then, in a series of projects: harmonized guidelines to handle this type of incident have been created; action cards for practitioners have been developed; and education modules on the topic are in the process of being developed, including a deeper dive into risk analysis and perception.
UK Arctic Strategy (name TBC): References to the work of ARCSAR via written evidence submitted by the University of Portsmouth have been incorporated into a recent publication by the UK House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee: ‘Our friends in the North: UK strategy towards the Arctic’. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5804/ldselect/ldintrel/8/8.pdf .
Cruise Ship Evacuation Video: Through the experiences and observations gained during the ARCSAR LIVEX22 exercise, a need was identified for improved guidance to cruise ship passengers, regarding how to evacuate a vessel in the event of an emergency. Therefore, funding was secured and at the time of writing an Evacuation Video is being developed, by collaboration between ARCSAR partners JRCC-Norway and AECO, the Arctic Expedition Cruise Organisation; with involvement also of the Arctic Council’s EPPR Working Group.
University Masters Student Exchange: In 2023 two of the ARCSAR university partners – University of Portsmouth, UK & Nord University, Norway – began a structured collaboration on themes arising from ARCSAR. The first element is a programme of Masters student exchange, aimed at students who will become the next generation of emergency managers in their respective countries or organizations. The second element is a programme of staff exchange. The third element is a project to address monitoring of critical infrastructure and deployment of underwater assets, development of which is underway at time of writing.
The academic and managerial implication results of deliverable D2.1 were published in the European Journal of Operational Research during this reporting period:
Jones DF, Labib A, Willis, KO, Costello J, Ouelhadj D, Ikonen, E & Dominguez-Cainzos, M (2023), Multi-criteria mapping and prioritization of Arctic and North Atlantic maritime safety and security needs, European Journal of Operational Research, 307, 827-841, doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.09.002