Due to its strategic location, the Gulf of Trieste is a critical and heavily congested area. The position, the shape and the fact that there are several very busy ports around the gulf present a challenge that requires the most optimal organisation of traffic in this small and very sensitive area.
The risk assessment of a maritime accident in the Gulf of Trieste is at the core of this thesis, the assessment was carried out using the IWRAP (International Waterway Risk Assessment Programme) tool. In addition, the assignment assesses the suitability of the current precautionary area. The current arrangement is characterised by a large number of intersecting waterways, sailings in different directions on the same waterway and high waterway complexity in a very small area. All of this increases the likelihood of an accident.
When Albania, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro submitted a proposal to the International Maritime Organisation in London in 2003 for the establishment of traffic separation schemes in the Adriatic Sea, the part of the proposal relating to the Gulf of Trieste included a roundabout. However, this proposal was rejected by the experts, mainly due to Italy's desire to build a gas terminal in that area. Since the introduction of a roundabout would have made this impossible, the solution was to establish a precautionary area, which, according to some maritime law experts, would have allowed the gas terminal to be built.
Since Italy subsequently withdrew from building the gas terminal, a re-evaluation of the current organisation and establishment of a roundabout is in order, the aim being reducing the risk of a maritime accident in this highly congested area.
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