SAFETY DOMAIN CONCEPT IN SHIP-SHIP COLLISION PROBABILITY MODELING

In the transport business, safety and efficiency are key issues. These are not always compatible; a greater speed or higher traffic intensity usually means higher efficiency but lower safety. According to COLWILL et al [1]: ‘In busy ports and waterways around the world the hazard profile is dominated by ship-ship collisions. The concept of ship domain plays an essential role in navigational safety of vessels. A well known definition of ship domain by Goodwin[6] is described as the surrounding effective waters which the navigators of a ship want to keep clear of other ships or fixed objects . Various geometrical ship domains with distinct shapes and sizes were proposed by researchers (Fujii and Tanaka,[6]; Goodwin[7]; Davis et al.,[4]) Nowadays the vessel safety domain is a very common concept in maritime transport. It is used for variouspurposes such as traffic lane design and capacity studies, for risk assessments and as encounter criterion in maritime traffic simulation programs. Even so, there is no universal definition for the concept of vessel safety domains. Research has been done on this concept since the end of the 1960’s and various researchers have come up with their own theories.