Ship and Offshore Structure Design in Climate Change Perspective

Global warming and extreme weather events reported in the past years have attracted a lot of attention in academia, industry, and media. The ongoing debate around the observed climate change has focused on three important questions: will occurrence of extreme weather events increase in the future, which geographical locations will be most affected, and to what degree will climate change have impact on future ship traffic and design of ships and offshore structures? The present study shortly reviews the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, AR4, (IPCC 2007), the IPCC SREX ‘‘Summary for Policymakers’’ report (IPCC 2012) and other relevant publications regarding projections of meteorological and oceanographic conditions in the twenty-first century and beyond with design needs in focus. Emphasis is on wave climate and its potential implications on safe design and operations of ship structures.