Global gateways as telecoupled human and natural systems: The emerging case of the Bering Strait

Waloven, Sydney; Kapsar, Kelly; Schwoerer, Tobias; Berman, Matthew; Schmidt, Jennifer I.; Viña, Andrés; Liu, Jianguo

doi:10.1007/s13280-023-01835-2

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…In the realm of maritime economics, numerous studies delve into the economic characteristics of marine chokepoints, evaluating their substantial value within the entire domain [12][13][14][15]. Scholars within the maritime trade sector commonly utilize shipping and trade data to investigate these strategic passages.…”

Section: The Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Importance of the Marine Chokepoint: Evidence from Tracking the Global Marine Traffic

Wang,

Du,

Peng

2023

Sustainability

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The significance of international maritime chokepoints and the exploration of their safety and security are intricately linked to the expansion of the maritime economy, the maintenance of political and social stability, and the safeguarding of state interests. Limited efforts have been dedicated to comprehensively assessing the extent of chokepoints’ influence or establishing a global ranking of their importance using dependable maritime data. In light of the growing significance of oceans and seas in the realms of economy and society, there is a pressing need to afford heightened attention to the importance of chokepoints. In this paper, 15 critical chokepoints from around the world are studied, and the method of Location Quotient is used to calculate the influence of their radiation range utilizing the Automatic Identification System (AIS); this study charts the worldwide spatial and temporal dimensions of maritime transport spanning from 2012 to 2022. The conclusion of this study reveals the following key findings: (1) Maritime shipping trajectories exhibit fluctuating growth over time, with traffic hotspots predominantly located in continental border zones, gradually decreasing from the equator toward the poles; (2) The regions with active maritime traffic do not exhibit a positive correlation with the hotspots; instead, there is a pattern of “strong in the north, weak in the south, strong in the east, weak in the west”; (3) The Strait of Gibraltar and the Strait of Malacca are identified as the globally most strategically valuable straits for maritime shipping; (4) There is significant variation in the influence range of strategic passages, and countries with mutual dependencies may have competitive relationships.

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Section: The Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Importance of the Marine Chokepoint: Evidence from Tracking the Global Marine Traffic

Wang,

Du,

Peng

2023

Sustainability

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“…Given its remoteness, challenging weather conditions, and high operational costs associated with operating in and around sea ice, it is logical that economic and policy factors play a key role in driving vessel-ice interactions in the Pacific Arctic. Political and economic connections between distant systems and the Arctic create telecoupled systems whereby vessel-ice interactions in the Pacific Arctic are impacted by distant decision-making and global economic factors (Pizzolato et al 2014;Aksenov et al 2017;Waloven et al 2023). Thus, national and international policies (e.g., bans on fishing activities), investments in natural resource development (e.g., mines, oil, and gas), and infrastructure development (e.g., ports, pipelines) can have substantial impacts on both the overall amount of vessel traffic as well as the degree of vessel-ice interactions in the study area.…”

Section: Vessel-ice Interactions Occur Along Established Transportati...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping vessel traffic patterns in the ice-covered waters of the Pacific Arctic

et al. 2023

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Recent climate change has caused declines in ice coverage which have lengthened the open water season in the Arctic and increased access to resources and shipping routes. These changes have resulted in more vessel activity in seasonally ice-covered regions. While traffic is increasing in the ice-free season, the amount of vessel activity in the marginal ice zone (ice concentration 15–80%) or in pack ice (>80% concentration) remains unclear. Understanding patterns of vessel activities in ice is important given increased safety challenges and environmental impacts. Here, we couple high-resolution ship tracking information with sea ice thickness and concentration data to quantify vessel activity in ice-covered areas of the Pacific Arctic (northern Bering, Chukchi, and western Beaufort Seas). This region is a geo-strategically critical area that contains globally important commercial fisheries and serves as a corridor for Arctic access for wildlife and vessels. We find that vessel traffic in the marginal ice zone is widely distributed across the study area while vessel traffic in pack ice is concentrated along known shipping routes and in areas of natural resource development. Of the statistically significant relationships between vessel traffic and both sea ice concentration and thickness, over 99% are negative, indicating that increasing sea ice is associated with decreasing vessel traffic on a monthly time scale. Furthermore, there is substantial vessel traffic in areas of high concentration for bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), and traffic in these areas increased four-fold during the study period. Fishing vessels dominate vessel traffic at low ice concentrations, but vessels categorized as Other, likely icebreakers, are the most common vessel type in pack ice. These findings indicate that vessel traffic in areas of ice coverage is influenced by distant policy and resource development decisions which should be taken into consideration when trying to predict future vessel-ice interactions in a changing climate.

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Canadian Arctic Shipping Governance: Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge in Area-Based Management Frameworks and Tools

Aporta,

Beveridge,

Wang

2024

Area-Based Management of Shipping

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The need for Indigenous rights to be recognized and for reconciliation to occur is becoming increasingly engrained in the fabric of Canada. From the perspective of Indigenous peoples in Canada, reconciliation is seen as a process of decolonization. With the launch of the Oceans Protection Plan in 2016, the narrative of Indigenous engagement was brought directly to the topic of shipping governance. But the question remains: how to achieve reconciliation in concrete and tangible ways through policies and governance procedures? Importantly, reconciliation is not a discrete state or a destination, but a continuous process.In Canada, area-based approaches are becoming more common in the regulation of marine affairs, including shipping. The increasing prevalence of area-based, ecosystem-based approaches is resulting in the development and application of decision support systems (DSSs) that are designed to process, visualize, integrate, and communicate information. While the significance of such DSS cannot be overestimated, a less discussed fact is that the knowledge of coastal communities is remarkably difficult to represent unless it is adapted to the language and requirements of these tools and systems. In practice, this results in decreasing the value of observational, “local” knowledge while increasing the significance of quantifiable “scientific” observations or measurements. This chapter proposes that the ways of treating local knowledge in area-based management can facilitate or hinder processes of reconciliation in the context of ocean governance.

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Global gateways as telecoupled human and natural systems: The emerging case of the Bering Strait

Cited by 3 publications

References 110 publications

Assessing the Importance of the Marine Chokepoint: Evidence from Tracking the Global Marine Traffic

Assessing the Importance of the Marine Chokepoint: Evidence from Tracking the Global Marine Traffic

Mapping vessel traffic patterns in the ice-covered waters of the Pacific Arctic

Canadian Arctic Shipping Governance: Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge in Area-Based Management Frameworks and Tools

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