Spatiotemporal Distribution and Evolution Characteristics of Water Traffic Accidents in Asia since the 21st Century

Abstract

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.