Computational Science and Techniques

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) appears as a specific space in which ports, maritime transport and the entire shipping cluster are crucially important. The BSR is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world, and maritime transport has contributed to its prosperity. After the collapse of the USSR, the Baltic Sea recovered its role as a contact and transit area. The opening up of the eastern shore to the market economy has brought about the reactivation of its maritime system, which over the years never stopped being a major element in the production of regional integration. Discourses on Baltic unity are often based on the importance of maritimity and maritime trade, but there is also a significant regional diversity in the shipping industry. Nowadays, the emergence of new directions in specialisation, and of new decision makers in ports, allows for new expectations and issues for Baltic ports. The author shows how, in this special Baltic context, ports and maritime stakeholders interact, participating in regional development and integration, but also by pursuing differentiated trajectories.

The research analyses the beach litter monitoring programme in Latvia and provides suggestions for its improvement seeking to provide necessary information for effective marine litter management on the Latvian coastline of the Baltic Sea. The beach litter monitoring programme has been enacted since 2012 by NGO “FEE Latvia” and current research has been focused on the situation assessment and particularly provides analyses on a number and distribution of the surveyed beaches, the frequency and timing of the monitoring, litter classification and counting methodology, as well as the possible programme development using the NGO work based on the citizen science approach. The results allow to elaborate several suggestions on how to improve the programme in order to provide lacking information in Latvia on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework directive of European Union, and to advise local municipalities in their coastal waste management practices. The suggestions include the increasing number of monitoring sites, a prioritization of the EU Master list classification protocol and an increase of sites with higher frequency of monitoring (3 times per year). Moreover, in the conducted public survey, the beach visitors demonstrated good understanding of marine litter and highly prioritized the issue. The increased interest can add public participation to further development of this applied here citizen science approach.

The article presents aspects of the cultural function of Nordic Bronze Age hanging vessels, on the basis of their distribution and production in the Baltic Sea region. Depositions with hanging vessels and related objects show for some regions a similar understanding of the right use and ritual knowledge.

It has always been technically and economically challenging to build constructions on a shoreline. For that reason, those constructions can be used and maintained for a long time, and today contain interesting archaeological information. Despite this, at the time of carrying out repairs, archaeologists are not usually consulted, and the history of a construction is seen as unimportant. However, with this case study of a log-barrier embankment from the early 20th-century Suomenlinna fortress, a new approach is available, challenging the way archaeologists collect data. The data collected from the site can be used together with the archaeological interpretation to aid in the plan for the reuse of the site.

The article presents the latest data on ships sunk in Lithuanian territorial waters of the Baltic Sea obtained during archaeological research conducted by the Underwater Archaeology Group of Klaipėda University. The article contains detailed descriptions of the ways these ships were wrecked as found in historical sources from the 14th to the early 20th century, the localisation of newly found remains of wooden ships, data of their study and possibilities for dating them.