Search Results (4)

The water environment is a dynamic domain critical to global transportation and commerce, where seaplanes operate during take-offs, landings, and ground operations, often near maritime traffic. Canada’s vast remote regions and unique geography increase reliance on seaplanes, especially for private and recreational purposes. This article examines the intersection of aviation and maritime operations through a mixed-methods approach, analyzing seaplane safety on waterways using quantitative and qualitative methods. First, data from 1005 General Aviation (GA) seaplane accidents in Canada (1990–2022) are analyzed, revealing 179 fatalities, 401 injuries, and 118 destroyed aircraft—significant given that seaplanes comprise under 5% of GA aircraft. Of these, 50.35% occurred while the seaplane was not airborne. Second, insights from interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires involving 136 participants are explored through thematic and content analysis. These capture pilot concerns that are not evident in accident data, such as hazards from jet ski interactions and disruptive boat wakes. The findings highlight risks like limited visibility and maneuverability during waterborne take-offs, worsened by seaplanes’ lack of priority over maritime vessels in shared spaces. This article concludes with recommendations for both the seaplane and maritime communities, including increasing awareness among boaters about the presence and operations of seaplanes, as well as regulatory adjustments, particularly considering the right of way. Full article

In the context of economic globalization, waterborne transportation plays an important role in international trade and logistics. However, waterborne traffic accidents pose a severe threat to life, property safety, and the environment. To gain a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms behind waterborne traffic accidents, we conducted a data-driven analysis of the causal chain of waterborne traffic accidents. By constructing a hybrid framework integrating an improved HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System) with a Bayesian network model, we conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of accident causes. The constructed model was quantitatively analyzed by applying genie software to the accident samples collected from the China MSA. The results indicate that there are 12, 3, 6, 2, 4, and 7 causal chains leading to collisions, contact, fires/explosions, windstorm accidents, sinking, and other types of accidents, respectively. These research results can serve as a reference for the enhancement of the safety of waterborne transportation. Full article

Navigation rules are critical for regulating ship behavior, and effective water traffic management requires accurate identification of ships exhibiting abnormal behavior that violates these rules. To address this need, this paper presents an ontology-based method for identifying abnormal ship behavior. First, we analyzed navigation rules (local regulations) to extract key elements. Next, based on this extraction, we built a navigation rule ontology that categorized ship behavior into state behavior (ship behavior at a specific time point) and process behavior (ship behavior in a time interval). We then constructed an abnormal ship behavior ontology, defined using topological relationships and navigation rules. Finally, we constructed inference rules to detect abnormal ship behaviors by using SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) and validated the effectiveness of the method with ship instances. The experimental results demonstrate that this method can accurately infer ships’ behaviors that deviate from established navigation rules. This research has significant implications for reducing waterborne traffic accidents, improving navigational safety, and safeguarding maritime traffic. Full article

As an important mode of transportation for the global trade, waterborne transportation has become a priority option for import and export trade due to its large load capacity and relatively low cost. Meanwhile, shipping safety has been highly valued. By collecting technological water traffic accident data from the EM-DAT database, the spatiotemporal distribution and evolution characteristics were investigated in Asia since 2000. The methods of gravity center and standard deviation ellipse analysis were utilized to determine the spatial and data-related characteristics of water traffic accidents. Temporally, the results indicated that accidents occurred most frequently during the seasons of autumn and winter, leading to a significant number of casualties. Spatially, both South-eastern Asia and Southern Asia emerged as regions with a high frequency of water traffic accidents, particularly along the borders of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Bay of Bengal region. In addition, the Daniel trend test and R/S analysis were conducted to demonstrate the evolution trend of accidents across various regions and seasons. The present study provides guidance for improving marine shipping safety, emergency resource management, and relevant policy formulation. Full article