Navigating Uncertainty: Advanced Risk Assessment and Resilience in Maritime Transportation Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The resilience of global maritime transportation systems is under unprecedented pressure from cascading risks, including climate volatility, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and geopolitical instability. In particular, recent geopolitical uncertainty and global conflicts have fundamentally reshaped the maritime risk landscape, shifting it from relatively predictable hazards toward systemic, high-impact disruptions affecting global trade routes, energy transportation, and port operations. As the backbone of global trade, maritime networks play a fundamental role in sustaining international supply chains. However, the inherent complexity, interconnectivity, and uncertainty within these systems often render conventional risk assessment approaches insufficient for capturing the dynamic and nonlinear interactions among risk factors. Addressing these systemic vulnerabilities therefore requires a paradigm shift toward more adaptive, data-driven, and integrative analytical frameworks capable of modeling uncertainty and system-level dependencies.

Leveraging the growing synergy between maritime big data and advanced computational methodologies, this Special Issue focuses on the next generation of risk modeling and resilience enhancement decision-support tools for maritime transportation systems. The rapid expansion of maritime datasets, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, accident databases, satellite observations, environmental data, and global trade statistics, is creating new opportunities to better understand the mechanisms driving maritime risks and system disruptions. Combined with modern analytical techniques, these datasets enable researchers to develop more robust and predictive risk assessment frameworks that can support proactive and evidence-based maritime governance and resilience enhancement. To enhance thematic cohesion, this Special Issue particularly encourages submissions grounded in well-defined application contexts, such as specific shipping corridors, port clusters, global or regional trade systems, and policy-oriented case studies, enabling more targeted and comparable insights across contributions.

We particularly welcome contributions employing innovative quantitative and computational approaches, including but not limited to artificial intelligence (AI)–based methods, machine learning and deep learning models, probabilistic graphical models, big data analytics and data mining techniques, complex network analysis, simulation modeling, and empirical econometric analysis. Studies integrating multiple methodologies to address uncertainty, dynamic risk propagation, and cross-scale interactions within maritime systems are especially encouraged. Submissions are expected to clearly articulate their contributions in terms of methodological novelty or practical implementation, highlighting how proposed approaches advance existing techniques or deliver actionable insights for real-world maritime decision-making.

By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives and cutting-edge methodologies, this Special Issue aims to synthesize innovative research into actionable insights that can inform maritime shipping network design, operational decision-making, and strategic planning within the maritime sector. Ultimately, the goal is to empower policymakers, port authorities, shipping companies, and international organizations to better navigate an increasingly uncertain maritime environment while strengthening the resilience, sustainability, and security of global maritime transportation systems.

Dr. Hanwen Fan
Dr. Lingye Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• maritime safety
• climate risk
• maritime big data
• uncertainty modeling
• resilience assessment
• geopolitical conflicts
• alternative route analysis