Improving conflicts detection in maritime traffic: Case studies on the effect of traffic complexity on ship collisions

In shipping, collision risk is a serious safety threat. Risk probability estimations used for policymaking are derived from traffic density statistics, largely ignoring the decision-making process on board. Conflict detection and resolution on board is done using rather rudimentary but effective mental-model-based techniques. In this article, the authors analyse traffic using the concept of complexity. The actual geometry of the ships involved...