Stage 1 – Scope, context and criteria

Navigating ships in arctic waters pose additional risk influencing factors and challenges beyond what the shipping industry are used to from world-wide operations. Potential threats may come from ice, low temperature, remoteness, high latitude and rapidly changing and severe weather conditions.

It is essential that these factors form an integral part in the early stages of the risk management process. The Polar Code has identified and categorized hazards which may lead to elevated levels of risk due to increased probability of occurrence, more severe consequences, or both. These sources of risks are defined in this Guideline as Arctic Risk Influencing Factors (ARIFs):

1. Ice, as it may affect hull structure, stability characteristics, machinery systems, navigation, the outdoor working environment, maintenance and emergency preparedness tasks and malfunction of safety equipment and systems;
2. Experiencing topside icing, with potential reduction of stability and equipment functionality;
3. Low temperature, as it affects the working environment and human performance, maintenance and emergency preparedness tasks, material properties and equipment efficiency, survival time and performance of safety equipment and systems;
4. Extended periods of darkness or daylight as it may affect navigation and human performance;
5. High latitude, as it affects navigation systems, communication systems and the quality of ice imagery information;
6. Remoteness and possible lack of accurate and complete hydrographic data and information, reduced availability of navigational aids and seamarks with increased potential for groundings compounded by remoteness, limited readily deployable SAR facilities, delays in emergency response and limited communications capability, with the potential to affect incident response;
7. Potential lack of ship crew experience in polar operations, with potential for human error;
8. Potential lack of suitable emergency response equipment, with the potential for limiting the effectiveness of mitigation measures;
9. Rapidly changing and severe weather conditions, with the potential for escalation of incidents; and;
10. The environment with respect to sensitivity to harmful substances and other environmental impacts and its need for longer restoration.

The scope of the risk management activity should be defined in Stage 1. The list below shows the specific elements that should be defined, as well as considerations that are relevant for Arctic Marine Risk Assessments.

• Objectives and decisions that need to be made;
• Outcomes expected from the steps to be taken in the process;
• Time, location, specific inclusions and exclusions;
  • How can arctic seasonal variations be assessed?
  • What are the geographical boundaries?
• Appropriate risk assessment tools and techniques;
  • How can ARIFs be assessed in the risk assessment?
  • What methods/technique are available?
  • What input data do we need for decision-making and from where can we get data?
• Resources required, responsibilities and records to be kept;
  • Does our risk assessment team have resources with relevant knowledge and experience from arctic operations?
• Relationships with other projects, processes and activities.
  • Can we learn from other risk assessments made for arctic waters?
  • Best practices?

The external and internal context is the environment in which the organization seeks to define and achieve its objectives.

The context of the risk management process should be established from the understanding of the external and internal environment in which the organization operates and should reflect the specific environment of the activity to which the risk management process is to be applied (ISO 31000:2018)

A detailed list of elements to be included in the external and internal context are defined in ISO 31000, chapter 5.4.1

The organization should specify the amount and type of risk that it may or may not take, relative to objectives. It should also define criteria to evaluate the significance of risk and to support decision-making processes. Risk criteria should be aligned with the risk management framework and customized to the specific purpose and scope of the activity under consideration (ISO 31000:2018).