Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

An Analysis of Sea Ice Hazard Factors and Their Influence on Seaports Operationin Ice Region of Bohai Sea
Xue-qin Liu 1,2, Yu-jin Zhang 1, Li-na Song 1, Wen-qi Shi 1, Dan-zhu Yu 1, Shuai Yuan 11

National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Dalian, China
2Key Laboratory for Ecological Environment in Coastal Areas, National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, China

Due to the rapid development of the regional economy, the throughputof the ports in the ice region has increased significantly. Although theseports play pivotal roles in facilitating growth in the Northeast Asian
Economic Circle through international freight shipment, the systems
also face increasing risks from seasonal ice disasters, which can cause
damage to port infrastructure and major disruptions to port operations.
Pierre and Olivier (2015) assessed the relevance of the Northern Sea
Route (NSR) for bulk shipping. Aksenov et al. (2017) analyzed thechange of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the navigability of Arctic sea
routes on the future. Nair et al. (2010) established a framework toevaluated port resilience under five disruption scenarios (including
earthquake and flooding). As a result, how to ensure the safety of port
infrastructure and operations in ice areas and minimize the negative
impact of sea ice disasters has always been the most concerned issue
for port authorities and disaster management agencies.

ABSTRACT
Floating ice is one of the potential hazards threatening the safety of sea
ports operation in winter. In this study, the monitoring data of the ice
conditions around Yingkou Port in ice zone in China was analyzed. The
analysis results showed that there was a significant negative correlation
between cargo throughput change and the magnitude level of sea ice.
When the ice thickness is more than 15 cm, it can cause serious impacts
on port operations unless tugboats and icebreakers are deployed toremove sea ice from the channel. When the ice thickness is more than
30 cm, it would require icebreaker to operate 24 hours to break the ice.
According to ten years of monitoring, the maximum ice thickness inthis sea area exceeded 30 cm almost every year.

KEY WORDS: Sea ice disaster; seaport operation; ice region; ice
Specifically, Port of Yingkou, which is located in Liaodong Bay in thenorthern of Bohai Sea in China, was selected as the research object.
Although its cargo throughput volume has increased substantially due
to a rapid regional economic development, the port has alsoexperienced rising challenges due to the uncertainty of severe sea ice
disaster events (Liu et al., 2020). From 2010 to 2020, our teamconducted ice condition monitoring around Yingkou Port for 10
consecutive years. In this study, based on the monitoring data, thecharacteristics of ice conditions near the sea port were analyzed inorder to provide the basis for early warning, risk management, and safe
operation of port in the ice zone in winter.

condition.

INTRODUCTION
Ports play an important role in a nation’s economic system. Sea port isan important node of the transportation network, an important gatewayof domestic and international trade. According to data released by theMinistry of Transport of the People's Republic of China in 2021, sevenof China's top 20 seaports in terms of throughput are located inseasonally frozen seas and need to cope with the impact of sea ice inwinter. About one-fifth of China's continental coastline is in seasonallyicy seas. Bohai Sea in northern China is a seasonal ice-covered sea withthe lowest latitude in the northern hemisphere. In fact, sea ice disaster isconsidered to be one of the most serious natural disasters in northern
China (Eicken et al., 2015; Xu et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2016). This isbecause it can affect the implementation of human activities on thecoast and the safe operation of projects, such as damaging coastal
engineering buildings and offshore facilities, crushing and damaging
ships, and blocking ports and waterways (Yuan et al., 2015; Liu et al.,2019). The prevention of sea ice disasters in coastal engineering has
always been the focus of attention in the north of China. The ice period
in the Bohai Sea usually lasts 3 – 4 months in the winter season, which
has a certain impact on port operations in the ice area almost everywinter.

STUDY AREA AND DATA SOURCES
Study Area
Our investigation focuses on the characteristics of sea ice conditions
near Yingkou Port (Fig. 1). The port is considered as one of the largest
seaports in the Bohai Sea area with an annual throughput of 362 million
tons and 6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit). It also serves asa major gateway for freight transportation in northern China, as itprovides regular vessel shipping services with connections to more than
140 seaports in 50 countries. The sea area where Yingkou Port islocated generally begins to freeze in mid-November and ends in Marchof the following year. The average freezing period for many years is 951223