Publication #30 out! HAZARD Seaport Risk Assessment Toolbox & Survey Study on Risk Management in BSR Seaports

To mitigate the effects of emergencies in Baltic Sea Region (BSR) seaports, the HAZARD Project has been active 2016–2019 to improve the status of risk management at major BSR seaports. A core part of this risk management is the identification, analysis and evaluation of risks.

Work package 4 of HAZARD, led by Hamburg University of Technology, has aimed firstly to analyse the current state of risk assessment in seaports using a comprehensive interview study. The study revealed that there is no standard implemented process for risk assessment. Additionally, stakeholders at the interviewed major BSR seaports use different methods for identification, analysis and evaluation of risks. The HAZARD survey study verified and expanded these results based on 108 full responses from seven countries including Germany, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Denmark.

Therefore, it is necessary to install a proper standard risk management process with suitable understandable methods that can be used to proactively identify, analyse and evaluate different sources of risks at seaports. The applicable methods, from the interview study and the co-operation with the OpenRisk Project, have been integrated in the online Toolbox. The other methods have been extracted from a comprehensive literature review for risk assessment methods in seaports.

HAZARD Publication 30/2019 explains in detail all components of the Toolbox with an associated user manual. The Toolbox (available online at: https://hazard.logu.tuhh.de/) enables the selection of suitable risk assessment methods that could be applied in seaports. Different workshops were carried out among the project partners to validate the successful applicability and usability of this Toolbox. This dynamic Toolbox enables its users to suggest new methods or update the current content, which facilitates a continuous improvement process that is necessary when working with emerging risks. The publication can be accessed through the following link: HAZARD Publication 30 HAZARD Seaport Risk Assessment Toolbox.

The HAZARD comprehensive survey study was carried out during the period November 2018–June 2019 and was translated into five languages. The dissemination process of the survey was greatly supported by the HAZARD Partners and their network at BSR.

The study can be accessed using the following link: HAZARD Survey Study on Risk Management in BSR Seaports. The study comprises the following sections:

1. Risk management requirements
2. International standards/guidelines
3. Risk specific regulations
4. Risk assessment methods
5. Risk handling methods
6. Risk monitoring
7. Risk communication