Information Environment, Fatigue, and Culture in the Maritime Domain

Abstract

Maritime shipping operates within a complex operational setting and incorporates many types of workplaces and work roles. The maritime domain has been a bit slower than other complex domains in its research and development of human factors and ergonomics application. The problem remains that the operator is continuously being excluded from the loop, which increases the probability of shipboard errors and accidents. This chapter begins by providing a general introduction to the maritime domain and its unique characteristics and is followed by a section on the information environment on the bridge. The section on the information environment on the bridge highlights the importance of integrating the end user into the bridge system and how technology must provide intuitive information at the right level of complexity at the right time. The main focus of this chapter is then split into two areas of current high significance: fatigue on board and maritime culture (also incorporating safety culture issues). Fatigue on board is of major concern, and most studies indicate that a systems approach must be adopted. This approach should account for aspects such as the number of personnel, trip length, frequency and duration of port visits, and shift planning. Within the area of maritime culture, multiculturalism and the way it is managed on board ships, including shipboard practices, affect safety. In the area of safety culture, three recommendations are central: (a) increase compliance with regulations, (b) implement a safety management system, and (c) implement a behavioral safety system. In general, this review indicates that more data are needed on human-technology-organizational issues in the maritime domain.

Regulations and Measurement of Human Capital Resources: The Impact of MLC in the Seafarers Control and Management Systems

“…Numerous authors argue that long working hours and not comfortable work conditions often cause fatigue, also, some phenomena, like social isolation, drug abuse, and psychiatric disorders, are very common in the shipping workplace [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17].…”

Strategic Approach Model for Investigating the Cause of Maritime Accidents

“…Therefore, sub-criteria of major factors in cluster effect are compared. The normalized direct-relation matrix was obtained within three major factors and sub-criteria by Equation (2). Then, an unweighted supermatrix can be obtained by using Equation (11) as in Table 6.…”

“…Evaluations that have been performed in shipping industry clearly indicate that the human factor is still the dominating pin point of the maritime accidents [2]. Recently, international maritime authorities have performed significant contributions to improve safety at sea in the shipping transportation industry [3].…”

“…This is very important for the economy and environmental sustainability of the maritime trading or coastal countries where the high maritime accident risk became an acute problem [6]. The negative effects of maritime accident can be summarized as loss of lives at sea, environmental pollution mainly due to oil spill and economic results that may deteriorate the international logistic flow [2,7]. It has been very well documented that the main reason in a maritime accident is the "human factor".…”

“…In fact, there are many studies on the role of human factor in maritime accidents and incidents [9]. The related work pointed out that 75% to 96% of maritime causalities are linked to human error engaged with professional maritime transportation [2,5,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. As reported by [18], human error contributes to 89-96% of collisions, 75% of fires and explosions, 79% of towing vessel groundings, 84-88% of tanker accidents, 75% of allusions.…”