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Maritime accidents frequently occur in the Philippine archipelagic waters, often resulting in significant loss of life. These incidents highlight the urgent need for improvements in the country's maritime safety systems. By utilising accident data from the Philippine Coast Guard and the GISIS IMO databases, spatial analytical approaches were employed to determine incident distribution patterns and resulted in an overall depiction of the likelihood component of risk across the country's territorial waters. Kernel density and hotspot analysis revealed areas where incidents were concentrated and where statistically significant hotspots occurred. The Maxent tool was used to develop risk likelihood models for the incident locations using environmental rasters representing wind speed, significant wave height, depth, surface current, land distance and port distance. Model performance metrics including the AUC, TSS and Kappa were used to compare the two datasets and provide confidence on model robustness. Variable contribution figures showed that land distance is the most influential variable, with the majority of high-risk areas predominantly located near population centres. The resulting maps provide an intuitive and informative depiction of the characteristic patterns of maritime accidents in the country, identify areas of high risk requiring immediate attention and offer valuable insights to support strategies for improving and enhancing the country's maritime safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety of people working at sea is a subject on which many studies have been carried out. One of the current improvements that has been implemented is the possibility of assigning medical support assistance vessels during specific periods of time, whilst undergoing certain activities or peak seasons in the industry such as fishing seasons. This article proposes an aid system that will support decision making when determining the positioning of such vessels at configurable time intervals, thus shortening the emergency response time. Real data from the vessels, such as coordinates, number of crew, type of fishing gear, etc., are used to carry this out. With the scope of testing the system out, real data from the Spanish fishing fleet in the Bay of Biscay and the medical support assistance vessels available to the Spanish State have been used throughout different seasons. The results obtained convey the "standby" positions for these vessels. The following study of this comparative positioning enables us to calculate the differences between the coordinates calculated by the system and the real positions specified throughout the fishing season. The study also reviews the possibility of improving the emergency response time that would be gained, by increasing the number of medical support assistance vessels for the same area, during the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most maritime accidents are caused by human error. To reduce these errors, increase safety, protect the marine environment, reduce the administrative burden, and optimize maritime trade, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) decided to implement a concept called e-Navigation. The term e-Navigation refers to the integration of the most modern information and communication systems, both on board and ashore. The research scope of this work is the safety of navigation of the ship during the port entrance. Particularly in this case, the elements that affect the safety of the ship during port entrance are analyzed in a case study of New York port. An adaptive model based on the Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was created, which evaluates the decision-making elements and risk assessment for port entry. The model is adaptable in the context of the different port requirements. With the presented model, all entities (ships, shipping companies, and service providers) have insight into the estimated decision to enter the port based on the given elements. Further research needs to be continued on the issue of comparing the proposed model with similar models, and how much reliance on the model burdens or facilitates the Master's decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Familiarisation is an important factor of safety on technologically advanced ships. International Safety Management Code (ISM Code) states that the Company should establish procedures to ensure the familiarisation process, but the exact way in which familiarisation should be carried out and the duration of the process are not determined. Familiarisation is often regarded as formality although it should not be the case at all. Non-compliance with the required familiarisation procedures and flaws in the safety system often result in human error. The latter is a major cause of numerous sea accidents. The research published has revealed that shipping companies and seafarers often fail to follow the prescribed procedures and perform familiarisation inadequately. This research is based on a survey of Croatian and Montenegrin deck and engine officers. The survey results indicate weaknesses in the familiarisation and handover processes on board ships. Therefore, suggestions are made for enhancing the existing procedures, aiming at a more efficient familiarisation and handover, particularly aboard technologically advanced ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navigational charts are essential tools for marine navigation. But how accurate are the navigational charts that we use when going sailing? Do we really know how much faith can be placed in them? All charts, whether paper or electronic, contain data, which varies in quality due to the age and accuracy of individual surveys. In general, remote areas away from shipping routes tend to be less well surveyed, and less frequently, while areas of high commercial traffic are re-surveyed frequently to very high levels of accuracy, particularly where under-keel clearances are small. It is quite accurate to consider a chart as a jigsaw of individual surveys pieced together to form a single image. Having the necessary skills to determine how much confidence should be placed in the surveys, which combine to form a chart, should be a requirement for any sailor venturing into unfamiliar waters. When the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) developed the S-57 standard for Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs), this problem was recognized and it was decided that the quality of survey data used to compile ENCs had to be encoded within a composite data quality indicator 'Category of Zone of Confidence' (CATZOC) to assist seafarers in assessing hydrographic survey data and the associated level of risk of navigating in a particular area. According to IHO S-67, the accuracy of Electronic Navigational Charts is not impressive and leaves much to be desired. The author discusses these apparent shortcomings of ENCs and present erroneous approaches to this problem, so common in the seafaring community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navigational charts are a basic source of information for seafarers. But how accurate and reliable are they? How much trust and confidence can be put in them? Unfortunately, the answer is not so simple; it is far more complicated than merely saying that one chart is accurate and reliable while another is not. However, any seafarer navigating in unfamiliar waters should have the necessary skills. It is a great challenge - some may say an impossibility - to keep the thousands of navigational charts up to date. But exactly how out of date, how inaccurate, are the chart data? Chart users will have a better idea now that the Hydrographic Office is gradually implementing a new chart feature called the Zone of Confidence (ZOC) box which replaces the Source Diagram that is currently in use on large-scale charts. Source Diagrams, and now the improved ZOCs, assist seafarers in assessing hydrographic survey data and the associated levels of risk of navigating in a particular area. According to the new edition of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) specifications, S-4 navigational charts will provide more information on ZOCs. The current paper discusses these new regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper the study of radio communication system design process for systems based on OFDM transmission is considered. The signal propagation model for 1.4 GHz frequency band is discussed, and the study of signal propagation characteristics, important from the point of view of OFDM system design, is presented. The methodology of OFDM interface design is proposed and some characteristics of the OFDM-based radio communication system are analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an application of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique in a safe ship control system. The method developed solves the problem of path planning and collision avoidance of a ship in the open sea as well as in restricted waters. The structure of the developed safe ship control system is introduced, followed by a presentation of the applied algorithm. Results showing the problem-solving capability of the system are also included. The aim of the system developed is to increase automation of a safe ship control process. It is possible to apply the proposed method in Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) control system, what will contribute to the enhancement of their autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density of sea traffic and an increasing number of ships requires the application of new technologies in vessel traffic monitoring in order to find new solutions for existing problems. The solution is identified through application of e-navigation concept by connecting maritime institutions on shore with ships and vessels for better information sharing and integration. The implementation of e-navigation requires adaptation of existing navigation and communication systems to this new concept. The aim of this paper is to present the ECDIS development possibility through requirements of e-navigation, based on end-user needs. Given the large number of devices and systems used in navigation, ECDIS adaptation to e-navigation requirements makes sense only through a thorough understanding of user's needs. By integrating all available information, organizing them into a database, and presenting them in a specific fashion, a suitable platform for decision-making in everyday ship navigation is created. Since the application of ECDIS onboard has become obligatory and ship's primary navigational device, the adaptation to e -navigation requirements would mean also becoming a central decision support system onboard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces methods of dynamic games for automation of ship control in the collision situation, the game control processes in marine navigation and the fundamental mathematical model of the game ship control. First, state equations, control and state constraints and then control goal function in the form of payments: the integral payment and the final one, have been defined. Multi-stage positional, and multi-step matrix, non-cooperative and cooperative, game and optimum control algorithms for a collision situation, have been presented. Te considerations have been illustrated with an exemplary computer simulation of algorithms to determine a safe own ship's trajectory in the process of passing the ships encountered in Kattegat Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collision of ships is the most frequent accident in modern navigation. Provision of up-to-date navigational equipment does not automatically mean fewer collisions. As a matter of fact, there are more collisions because the number of vessels is constantly increasing. Due to the increased traffic density vessels meet at shorter distances, so they have very little time and space left for appropriate collision avoidance manoeuvre. The Collision Avoidance Rules themselves do not represent sufficient guarantee to avoid collisions, since the researches made in the human factor showed that 10 % of all collisions were caused by non compliance with the Rules and 90 % by other human errors. Furthermore, collisions are basically not caused by inadequate interpretations of the Rules, but above all, by wrong interpretations of the situations taking place at sea. This is the consequence of insufficient training on RADAR and Automatic Radar Plotting Aids, and particularly of misinterpretation of the results of radar plotting procedures. Generally all accidents of ships can be divided into two basic categories. First, accidents in which measures for damage control should be taken immediately, and second, those which require a little more patient reaction. And the fact that collisions belong to the first category has encouraged writing of the current paper. The proposed model of optimal collision avoidance manoeuvre. of ships on the basis of electronic data collection was made by means of the navigation simulator NTPRO - 5000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open registry evolution is among the most contentious matters that the maritime industry has known in recent times. Its regime has been in the centre of criticism and disapproval based on several significant legal aspects such as safety, security, labour as well as financial issues. The close registries, which implement strict regulation as regards to ownership, manning, management and administration, are by definition those registries which involve a genuine connection by virtue of national, economical and social ties among the shipowner and its State. In this respect, this study will reflect an analysis of ship's nationality and registration from the legal perspective as well as possible safety implications that close and open registries may cause, which in turn could contribute towards substandard shipping. The authors argue that there are legal issues currently vis-a-vis ship's registration and nationality, and that several open and close registry States are being legally efficient in safety and security aspects while other States have shown deficiencies in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal concept of the nationality and registration of ships has been controversial throughout its existence. This ambiguous legal situation in the maritime realm appears to prevail even in nowadays. Furthermore, open registration regime has been criticized based on numerous important issues such as the legislative framework, safety, security, and employment. On the other hand, close registries, which implement stringent regulations concerning ownership, manning, management and administration and involve a genuine connection by virtue of national, economical and social ties among the ship-owner and its State, generally are considered effective. In light of these considerations, the authors will discuss the ship's nationality and registration from the legal perspective as well as the possible safety implications that close and open registries may cause, which in turn could contribute towards substandard shipping. The authors argue that there are legal issues currently vis-a-vis ship's registration and nationality, and that several open and close registry States are being efficient in legal and safety aspects while other States have shown deficiencies in this respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the last 40years, merchant ships have become safer and a number of new safety measures have been introduced. The purpose of the first part of this study was to investigate the trend of fatalities due to maritime disasters in the Danish merchant fleet over a 40-year period from 1970 to 2009, during which a total of 146 seafarers lost their lives. The relative risk of fatal accidents in the period 1990–2009 compared with the period 1970–1989 was 0.81 (CI: 0.58–1.14). The second part of the study focuses on seafarers who abandoned a merchant ship in the period from 1990 to 2009. The purpose was to investigate factors influencing survival. During the 20-year period 44 incidents were identified involving a total of 267 seafarers. Among these, 51 did not survive. The fatality risk for seafarers on small and large ships was 3.68 and 0.64 per 1000years at risk, respectively. Among the 171 seafarers who were rescued dry, one was injured and did not survive (0.6%). Out of 64 seafarers ending up in the water, 18 (28%) did not survive. Among the remaining 32 seafarers, 23 were with great certainty inside the vessel when it sank and another nine may have remained inside the sinking vessel. None of these survived. Suboptimal organisation of the evacuation process was of importance in some cases. Survival suits and automatic emergency transmitters (EPIRB’s) have been shown to work in practice but their introduction has had limited influence on survival statistics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A survey of total loss accidents in the merchant marine over a period of 30 years has shown that these accidents can be arranged in the following order: stranding, fire, water-leaks, gales and collision; other accidents have also been taken into consideration. The analysis covers ships over 500 GT flying different flags and plying any route of navigation. At the beginning, a sample of 500 merchant ships - of different types and tonnage - and flying 15 different flags has been analyzed to determine the age and type of ship, as well as the causes of accidents. In the second analysis, the same ships flying 15 flags are considered, but now over a wider range and on a sample totaling 1,500 merchant ships. The results of both the analyses have been compared. It resulted that all collisions, together with gales, amount to 25% of the maritime casualty returns -in the total loss lists- while stranding and collision take more than 40% of the toll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to now, little work has been conducted on safety in relation to national culture. This paper examines the association between national culture and the safety orientation of seafarers on Norwegian-owned vessels. Safety orientation is the result of cultural, organizational, and contextual factors that create attitudes and behaviours that in turn influence safety. In this study a safety culture/orientation questionnaire was designed and used to determine risk and safety characteristics. Survey data was collected from 2,558 seafarers from 27 countries. The sample used consisted of seafarers from the 10 countries for which there were more than 10 respondents. Five national (cultural) characteristics were calculated using Hofstede's Value Survey Model 94. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that (a) the number of nationalities represented on a vessel was related to their attitude towards safety issues, such that two-nation vessels obtain relatively negative scores regarding these issues, and (b) national culture was related to safety culture, such that high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and high individualism were positive for safety. The implications of these findings for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Problem: Although there has been considerable interest in safety culture and safety climate in many industries, little attention has been given to safety culture in one of the world''s riskiest industries, shipping. Method: Using both self developed items and items from published research on safety culture, safety climate, and quality and management style, a 40-item safety culture questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was distributed in a self-administered form to sailors onboard 20 vessels and to officers attending a seminar in Manila. A total of 349 questionnaires were collected (total response rate, 60%). Results, discussion and impact on industry: Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed 11 factors when the Kaiser eigenvalue rule was used and four factors when the scree test criterion was used. The factor structure in the material confirmed structures found in other industries. The relative importance of the factors from the factor analysis on “level of safety” measures was tested by canonical correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results confirmed previous research and showed that the most important factors were influential across industries. To determine weather differences existed between nationalities, occupations, and vessels the factors from the PCA was subjected to Multiple Discriminant Analysis. Significant differences between occupations, nations, and vessels were found on one or more of the factors from the PCA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• If autonomous ships shall improve safety, focus should be on general cargo ships. • Making very large ships autonomous only has a minor effect on safety at sea. • Removing crew has a much larger effect on safety than autonomous navigation. The advent of autonomous ships that are unmanned or low-manned will reduce the number of people at risk at sea. Even when autonomous navigation does not reduce the number of accidents, this means that safety at sea will increase. In fact, increased safety is one of the primary perceived drivers for autonomous shipping, although this safety increase has not yet been quantified in academic literature. In this article a statistical analysis is performed to determine the distribution of human casualties and lost ships over accident types, ship types and ship sizes. Subsequently, based on several scenarios for the implementation of autonomous ships, a quantification of the estimated reduction in loss of life and loss of ships is provided. It is concluded that the implementation of autonomy on small cargo ships with a length below 120 m will have the largest safety benefit, since these ships account for the majority recorded ship losses and lives lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]