The Study of Effective Communication of Water Depth Information for Prevention of Accidents in Marine Traffic

Ensuring safe ship navigation is necessary for the prevention of marine disasters. Ships are frequently stranded in the shallow waters near coastal areas. Thus, it is very important to communicate information about water depth effectively to prevent the stranding of ships. We propose a method for effectively communicating water-depth data using a geographic information system (GIS) for the prevention of such incidents. As a test case, an examination of water-depth information was carried out in Osaka Bay, Japan. In addition, a navigational beacon and an alarm signal were added onto a three-dimensional GIS. We found that the proposed method supports safe ship navigation in shallow-water areas.