This paper develops a quantitative model for evaluating the difficulty of ship-handling caused by a restricted manoeuvring area or by traffic congestion or by a combination of both. It includes acceptance criteria based on the mariner's perception of safety. An attempt is made to evaluate the model by applying it to the specific environmental conditions of major ports in Japan. The model can provide information on the degree of ship-handling difficulty and so enable better design of infrastructure for waterways.

This paper is based on two articles by the authors that were published in the March and September 2002 issues of the Journal of Japan Institute of Navigation.The collision risk to multiple targets and identification of feasible evasive manoeuvres can be assessed simultaneously in true motion by judging the tip of own ship's velocity vector in relation to the display of cone-shaped collision danger regions to acquired targets. Simulator test programmes composed of scenarios with various traffic densities and different speed ranges of own ship have been carried out in order to evaluate the performance of this collision avoidance display versus ARPA (true and relative motion) displays. Experienced navigators and maritime university students with license participated as test subjects. It is shown that the proposed display is capable to facilitate more homogeneous, precise and safe evasive manoeuvres than utilising conventional judgement techniques. The superiority increases with the excess speed of own ship, traffic density and complexity.

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Author proposed a method for determining the breadth of buffer zone Qn the separated tra班 c lanes for var 三 〇 us width of waterway and traMc volumes ． The method was based on the distribution mQdd of ship ' s paths derived frQm the statistical analysis of the Radal photographs at narrow channels

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