Maritime operational risk management using dynamic barriers

The safe operation of any vessel is challenged by the constraints posed through design, proper maintenance and operation of the available safety barriers ensuring their effectiveness. This requires a direct linkage between barrier performance and operational risk management accounting for barrier degradation and ensuing corrective actions. This paper demonstrates a comprehensive approach to Dynamic Barrier Management, by illustrating how barrier performance information and their respective functions is (a) collated, (b) aggregated through parametric models for identifying barrier relative importance, function criticality and in defining a set of key safety indicators, and (c) is intuitively visualised for providing real-time guidance to crew and shoreside management. The approach is demonstrated by considering watertight doors as Dynamic Barriers preventing excessive transient- and progressive-flooding on a cruise vessel during operation. It is further discussed how these methods can be generalised into a framework, enabling operational risk management and subsequent decision support.