The most promising way to exploit offshore natural resources is the overwater one which requires the construction of unique offshore ice-resistant platforms. At the same time, operating in the seas of the North and the Russian Far East is constrained by the fact that the ice pressure and the effect of drifting ice cover on engineering structures has not been properly researched. The ice force, as a rule, is prevalent and it determines the principal mass and size properties of the struc-tures.

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... searches have shown that the heterogeneity of ice cover in the horizontal plane being taken into consideration, one can considerably specify the design values of the ice pressure and effect to reduce them as against the recommendations of normative instruments. The article contains a con-cise justification for taking into consideration the spatial heterogeneity of the properties of ice cov-er. It presents the results of long-term field researches in the heterogeneity of ice cover carried out in the Novik Bay and the Amur Bay of the Sea of Japan.