The Development of a Dynamic Gis for Maritime Navigation Safety

Maritime safety has a huge impact on the world economy and our everyday lives. The vast majority of world cargo is carried by sea by huge container-carriers. Cargo ships carrying hazardous loads pose serious threats to the environment. The disaster and damage caused in the event of major sea collisions can be difficult and costly to deal with. In our research we took a broad look at the problem of maritime safety in order to identify the areas where application of a Marine GIS could lead to the most significant improvement. Then we proposed a new type of GIS system for maritime navigation safety. The system takes advantage of the newest developments in computer graphics and GIS technologies, and is aimed at tackling the main cause of marine accidents – human errors – by providing navigational aid and decision support to mariners.