Effects of wind strength and wave height on ship incident risk: regional trends and seasonality

Abstract

Oceanographic conditions like wind strength and wave height affect the risk of shipping incidents. Seasonal variations and trends in these effects are studied for weather-related incidents and pollution incidents, for six major ship types and for six regions across the globe. The employed database of more than five million observations combines information from various sources on oceanographic conditions, ship particulars, and incidents. The magnitude of wind and wave effects is found to vary by ship type, region, season, and period, and most of these effects are larger during autumn and winter season and in recent periods.