and to improve operational safety. The safety aspect is directed 

 especially at eliminating collisions and stranding, which cause 

 enormous losses to the shipping industry each year and contribute to 

 high operating costs. These programs deal with automated ships, 

 advanced navigation/communication systems, computer-aided 

 cargo operations and management, advanced prots, terminals, and 

 intermodal systems, and ice-transiting systems. 



MARITIME TECHNOLOGY 



The objectives here are to provide technical support to ongoing 

 programs in advanced ship development operations. These include 

 projects in hydrodynamics and ship structural research, propulsors, 

 and maintenance and repair; to develop technical innovations 

 through marine science and ship component development, e.g., new 

 propulsion and transmission systems, marine nuclear power plants 

 and other components; and to develop systems which will reduce 

 and control ship-generated pollution. 



National Science Foundation 



The National Science Foundation supports basic and applied 

 oceanographic research at academic, non-profit, and industrial 

 institutions, as well as in Federal agency laboratories. Seven offices 

 within the Foundation fund research programs as well as provide 

 support for the ships and equipment necessary to carry them out. 



The International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE) is the 

 Foundation's major directed marine research effort. Its basic 

 objective is to accelerate understanding and prediction of the oceans 

 and their resources through support of large-scale, multi- 

 institutional, international projects. Programs are in four areas: 

 Environmental Quality, Seabed Assessment, Environmental 

 Forecasting, and Living Resources. 



The Oceanography Section of the Division of Environmental 

 Systems supports individual investigators in physical, chemical, 

 and biological oceanography, submarine geology and geophysics, 

 and physical limnology. Fundamental knowledge of marine 

 problems and processes stems from these diverse research projects. 

 The Atmospheric Section supports programs in air-sea interactions 

 with primary emphasis on projects with meteorological significance. 

 Marine population and ecological studies are emphasized in 

 Biological Oceanography, while support from the Division of 

 Biological and Medical Sciences is directed toward experimental 

 studies of individual marine organisms. 



Research in coastal zone regions is the marine science emphasis 

 within the Foundation's Research Applications Directorate (RANN). 

 The emphasis of the coastal zone program is to provide an integrated 

 research effort into four broad areas: (1) estuarine effects of waste 

 discharge and dumping, (2) effects of engineering construction 



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