Assessment of Present and Planned Polar Research and Supply Vessels

Abstract

Polar research vessels are currently being planned or build by many nations engaged in polar science. This includes for example the British newbuilding RRS Sir David Attenborough and Australia’s RSV Nuyina. The study explores the field of Polar Research and Supply Vessels (PRSV) and investigates the possibilities of assessing their capabilities. An exploratory research approach is used to identifies sources of information and collects them into a database. Established models for performance assessment in the academic literature are presented. Links are drawn between those models, PSRV characteristics and the research field. An adapted model is created and applied on the data collected, providing the ability to assess capabilities of PRSV. The assessment is based on the four aspects size, icebreaking, logistic and science, each using several attributes from the database to provide a normalised score between 0 and 100. Data of five PRSV are used on this model and visualised in a radar diagram. Results show general applicability of the model and further development and refinement can result in a useful contribution for this focussed research field.