Baltic Sea ice conditions, clearly and reliably – Baltice.org renewed as a modern situational awareness service

In practice, Baltice.org provides situational awareness from multiple angles: during the winter season, ice and weather information is typically updated daily, and the content covers the entire Baltic Sea area. The service also includes practical guidance and reporting practices that are essential for ensuring safe and smooth traffic in ice conditions.

– Icebreaking assistance is provided during the winter season for merchant vessels arriving in Finland from all over the world. In addition to information on assistance restrictions and ice conditions—which are crucial for keeping traffic flowing—the site also provides ice routes and guidance to support safe navigation, says the system’s responsible person, Mika Nyrhilä.

A renewal combining user focus, clear data visualisation, and operational reliability

Weasel Software renewed the Baltice.org web service in cooperation with Väylävirasto and Sweden’s Sjöfartsverket. The renewal highlighted two priorities: supporting users’ decision-making and presenting data clearly and reliably—because in the day-to-day reality of winter navigation, information is only valuable if it can be found quickly and understood easily.

Baltice.org describes itself as “a single point of access to up-to-date winter navigation information in the Baltic Sea area”. Succeeding with a service like this requires deep domain understanding as well as the ability to build a modern, easy-to-adopt and maintainable web service that can handle both usage peaks and evolving needs.

– Working with Weasel Software on developing the site has been professional, and their expertise across different areas of implementation has been excellent, Nyrhilä praises.

Delivery approach: understanding first, then a prototype, and finally a modern service

The renewal was carried out in a genuinely user-centred way and in a multi-stakeholder environment. Key user groups—such as shipping agents—need a situational picture that connects directly to port call scheduling and operational planning. In addition, the service supports a broad Baltic winter navigation ecosystem, where information comes from multiple official sources.

– Together with Väylävirasto, Sjöfartsverket, and the shipping agents using the service, we defined the service needs and usability using service design. First, a prototype was created, after which the service was implemented as a modern, easy-to-use web service, with special attention to mobile users. It is provided to customers as an easy-to-maintain cloud service on AWS (Amazon Web Service), says Robert Sundell, Project Manager at Weasel Software.

A service that supports smooth winter shipping – openly and practically

Baltice.org also states that users can follow vessels and ports and receive notifications by email—an example of how situational awareness is brought closer to users’ everyday work and rhythms.

At the same time, the service provides ice and weather information updated during the winter season, along with guidance that directly contributes to safety and operational predictability.

Photos: Janne Pesonen