A Survey On Ice Navigation Research

Abstract

Changes in maritime commercial routes have been occurring at a small-scale since the 20^th century. As a consequence of global warming, more feasible Arctic navigation routes have been opened for commercial vessels. Therefore, shipping and operations on the ice navigation routes are emerging issues in the Arctic trading activities. There is, however, a lack of literature exploring ice navigation. Hence, this paper tries to synthesize the published efforts concerning ice navigation on the Arctic Ocean. In this work, we consider the navigation-oriented studies including characteristics of sea ice along with the focus of the current research concerns as well as shipping and operations in the Arctic Ocean. The emphasis is placed on issues relating to ice extent and concepts for navigating vessels in the Arctic Ocean, in addition to ice navigation in ice covered waters. Also, we address the challenges one may face during these operations and we aim to improve the awareness of the special education for navigators in the Arctic environment. Consequently, we declare the research gaps for the further Arctic navigation studies.