# From Ethnographic Research to Big Data Analytics--A Case of Maritime Energy-Efficiency Optimization  
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1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 41702 Gothenburg, Sweden 12 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden 2  
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3 Institute of Telematics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany, 3  
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4 Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, 41702 Gothenburg Sweden; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (M.L. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.N.M.) 4  
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4 Correspondence: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]; Tel. : +46-(0)31-772-34-15  
maintaining at least the same level of transportation services, is considered as a significant contributor as it could lead to reductions of 25% to 75% of CO\({}_{2}\) emission, according to an IMO GHG study [4]. In addition to the environmental concerns, decreases in fuel consumption are also important to the economic sustainability of shipping companies [5]. There are multiple factors that could impact EE revealed by previous maritime research, such as optimizing weather routing (e.g., reducing resistance considering the wind, waves and current), minimizing rudder usage with adaptive autopilot settings, optimizing quantity of ballast water carried and optimizing trim and draft for lowest hull resistance [6; 7]. Some research suggests that the most significant saving comes from voyage speed optimization--by lowering the speed by 10% the vessel can save approximately 20% in propulsion fuel consumption [6]. It has also been observed that the ship's crew usually have a direct and considerable impact on EE through their operational practices [3; 8; 9]. For example, as punctuality is critical for ferry vessels, the crew need to find the proper balance between fuel consumption at lower speeds and the direct and indirect costs of delayed port arrival [3]. However, insufficient knowledge and awareness of the practitioners and management are commonly identified to be one of the most critical gaps in making energy-saving decisions [5; 7; 10; 11; 12; 13]. The challenges in the maritime energy field are characterized by elements such as compromised quality and low level of awareness of information [13; 14], inadequate data analysis and actionabilities of improved operational measures [15], under-developed management standards [16], information asymmetries and power structures within organizations [17]. In the maritime organizational context these gaps are usually multiplied as the today's shipping industry essentially operates under a top-down management system [11] in which the practitioners' voices were not typically considered in ship-shore communications [18]. All these considerations constitute the complexity in the EE domain. But what methodological tools do researchers possess to understand the complexity existing within the domain? The application of ethnographic research can contribute to a better understanding of EE practices, however, these approaches have been largely ignored within a technology-driven industry. In the maritime EE domain, an important advantage for taking such an epistemological approach is to move researchers closer to the tacit knowledge, norms, understandings and assumptions that are considered by the ship's crew during their work and are influential in forming the basis for decisions and practices that support systems design [19]. The importance of applied ethnography is frequently underestimated within a sociotechnical perspective. One example is that speed is usually considered as an important factor for EE which is relevant to decreased time to port. However, with in-depth interviews, it was revealed that ship-shore-port communication, time constraints for ship operators, means for predicting energy use, consequences of the breach of the rules of punctuality, as examples, all play a role in this complex sociotechnical system [3].