NAPA partners with industry leaders to increase passenger ship safety in European Commission funded FLARE project

The Flooding Accident Response project, FLARE, will target a risk-based methodology for “live” flooding risk assessment and control, by developing a generic and holistic risk model with potential application to both newbuildings and existing ships 

Helsinki, Finland 11 December 2019 – NAPA, the leading maritime software, services and data analysis provider, has joined forces with more than twenty industry leaders and academic bodies, as part of the European Commission-funded FLARE project to develop a risk-based methodology that will enable “live” flooding risk assessment and control for the passenger sector.

By drawing on NAPA’s decades of safety expertise and the simulation capabilities of NAPA Emergency Computer, which assesses the vulnerability of an intact ship as well as its survivability in case of a flooding emergency, those in the flood risk workspace can improve their monitoring, assessment and analysis of a “live” flood, and in turn, accelerate ship-shore response. This will enhance the provision of vulnerability monitoring and survivability assessments across the passenger sector.

Esa Henttinen, Executive Vice President at NAPA Safety Solutions, commented, “The concept for NAPA Emergency Computer arose from market demand in the cruise industry, and NAPA Loading Computer originated from collaboration with key stakeholders across the passenger sector.”

Henttinen continued, “NAPA is leading this work into the mitigation of flood risk through similar customer and industry collaboration. Upon completion, it is expected that this methodology will globally align key stakeholders to improve passenger ship safety by increasing its simulation capabilities, and providing more accurate assessments of external factors, such as traffic and volatility of weather conditions.”

The FLARE project commenced in June 2019 and is set to run for three years with the overall aim of developing a generic (all incidents in one model) and holistic (active and passive measures) risk model with potential application to newbuildings and new solutions to existing ships. The project has also received funding from the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Markus Tompuri, Senior Technical Consultant at NAPA Safety Solutions and the NAPA lead on the FLARE project commented, “The highest risk for personnel on-board passenger ships coming from flooding accidents, and as a number of recent incidents have shown, there is an acute need for decision support systems which can enhance the abilities of officers in crisis situations.”

Tompuri continued, “Since its launch in 2015, NAPA Emergency Computer has become the industry benchmark for integrated decision support. It is used by almost all the major cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Line, Viking Ocean Cruises, Genting Cruise Lines, Virgin Voyages, Saga Cruises, Hurtigruten and Lindblad Expeditions. Our partnership with FLARE will enable us to further study and enhance NAPA Emergency Computer’s assessments, and make passenger vessels substantially safer.”

NAPA Emergency Computer provides an integrated decision support solution for increased safety

About NAPA
In its 30 years of operation, NAPA has become a global leader in software, services and data analysis for the maritime industry; providing best in class data-led solutions for safety, efficiency and productivity in both ship design and operations.

NAPA operates globally, with 10 offices across Asia, Europe and the Americas supported by its Helsinki headquarters. To date, NAPA has 420 user organizations for its design solutions and over 2,500 installations onboard vessels. For more information, visit www.napa.fi

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