Page 40: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2022)

Event | Maritime Risk Symposium 2022 2022 SHIPPING & PORT ANNUAL

Maritime Risk Symposium 2022:

The Importance of Inland Systems to the MTS

By Dr. Joe DiRenzo III and Dr. John Hummel he 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) is sched- tegic look at multiple issues of interest to those in industry uled to be held Nov. 15-17, 2022, hosted by Argonne and government, internationally and for future research by

National Laboratory at the Argonne campus in Lem- think tanks and academia. MRS 2022 is structured around a

Tont, Illinois. MRS is an annual international event series of panels that will address issues critical to the MTS. focused on risks involving the global maritime transportation There will also be several keynote speakers, which include system (MTS). For the MRS, the U.S. Coast Guard partners both Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers senior lead- with the sponsor, the Transportation Research Board of the ers. The panels and their leadership include:

National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the hosting agency. MRS began in 2011 and has grown ¯_ Mission Assurance for the MTS in a Changing in size, scope and interest. The MRS event will be followed World – Moderator, Rear Adm. Tom Atkin, USCG retired by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Evergreen strategic planning event Mission Assurance refers to the process to protect or en- on Nov. 17. Evergreen is the Coast Guard’s process to look at sure the continued function and resilience of capabilities and strategic issues into the future. This year’s event will be the assets – including personnel, equipment, facilities, networks, third time Evergreen has been held in conjunction with MRS information and information systems, infrastructure and sup- and will look at river system risk and disruptions. ply chains – critical to the performance of the Maritime Trans- portation System in any operating environment or condition.

MRS 2022 Theme

While there have been signi? cant efforts to improve the resil-

The theme of MRS 2022 is “The Importance of Inland Sys- ience of individual systems in the maritime domain, especial- tems to the MTS.” The United States has more than 25,000 ly electricity, there needs to be a more holistic approach to the miles of navigable waters, which can carry around 630 mil- entire MTS and the interconnectivity of the different domains lion tons of cargo annually. Barges carry the bulk of the com- (maritime, cyber, space, air and land).

modities on the inland river networks while freighters carry the commodities on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Sea- ¯_ Long-term Resilience Planning and Climate Ad- way. About 60 percent of U.S. farm exports travel through aptation for Maritime Transportation Infrastructure – inland waterways. Disruptions to this collective maritime Moderator, Dr. Henry Willis, RAND Corporation system would have serious impacts on the nation’s economy Maritime transportation infrastructure is threatened by nu- and its logistics system. In Europe, the dependence on river merous and increasing effects of climate change. These increas- systems is even more pronounced with disruptions causing ma- ing risks are evident in ? ooding of inland and coastal infrastruc- jor rami? cations. In July, headlines in the international media ture and changes in water availability threatening navigability underscored that decreasing river depths have wreaked havoc of waterways and infrastructure operations. Climate adaptation with goods and services movement – especially fuel along riv- has risen on the list of challenges that planning must account for ers like Germany’s Rhine. One example of this disruption: Coal to ensure the effectiveness, ef? ciency and resilience of mari- plants in Germany are not getting their shipments because the time transportation infrastructure now and in the future.

Rhine River, which is over 800 miles long, is at its lowest point This panel brings together perspectives from the Coast Guard, since 2007. The commerce depending on this maritime “super its partners in the maritime transportation sector and insights highway” is signi? cant. from the research community to discuss what the community

Another classic example of the signi? cant economic im- knows about the risks from climate change, how the sector is pacts a disruptions of the river systems within the MTS was incorporating adaptation into long-term resilience planning, demonstrated when the container ship Evergreen blocked the and what knowledge is needed to inform those efforts.

Suez Canal for six days in March 2022. The BBC had estimat- ed that economic losses from the shipping delays triggered by ¯_ Supply Chain Challenges to the MTS – Moderator, the blockage were on the order of $6.7 million per minute. Ms. Allison Bennett-Irion, Argonne National Laboratory

The 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium will provide a stra- This panel will explore how decarbonization goals and as- 40 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • September 2022

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