The course is interdisciplinary, providing lectures on climate, sea ice, weather, environment, navigation, technology, infrastructure, economy, regulations, and geopolitics related to shipping in the Arctic. The lectures will address how 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 an historic summary, a present state-of-the-art and future perspectives of Arctic shipping.
The course will provide knowledge of the factors that determine how shipping is expected to evolve in shorter and longer perspectives. The course will also give the students an interdisciplinary view of the issues related to shipping in the Arctic where sea transportation is expected to grow in the future.
The reduction of Arctic sea ice gives new opportunities for exploitation of energy and other resources as well as opening up of new sea transport routes between Europe, Asia and North America. These are factors that will stimulate increased ship traffic in the Arctic. On the other hand, the presence of sea ice, darkness, limitations of bathymetric charts, infrastructure and communication services put severe constraints on how ships can operate. Furthermore, shipping is also constrained by regulations, environmental risks, economic risks and geopolitical situations.
The applicant must be enrolled at a Norwegian institution of higher education or an accredited international institution of higher education. The minimum academic prerequisite is 60 ECTS in general natural sciences, in addition to course specific requirements listed in each course description.
The application deadline is April 15.