Analysis and Prevention Strategies for Catastrophic Maritime Accidents

Maritime accidents are complex events arising from the interaction of technical, human, and environmental components, and they often develop through a chain of failures within maritime systems. Latent system deficiencies that remain unnoticed over long periods may, when combined with favorable environmental and operational conditions, lead to the occurrence of catastrophic accidents. Such accidents pose a significant risk to maritime safety due to loss of life, environmental damage, and serious economic consequences. Although accident investigations and causal analyses are widely addressed in the literature, the systematic translation of these findings into risk-based policy development, safety governance, and regulatory decision-making processes remains limited. This highlights the need for proactive and preventive approaches that go beyond post-accident response. This Research Topic provides a framework for integrated and decision-oriented approaches aimed at addressing this gap.The aim of this Research Topic is to address the multidimensional risk factors leading to catastrophic maritime accidents from a holistic, proactive, and system-based perspective. Maritime accidents arise from the combined effects of technical failures, human and organizational factors, environmental conditions, and governance-related shortcomings, clearly revealing the limitations of reactive safety approaches that focus primarily on post-accident response. Although significant progress has been made in accident investigation, substantial gaps remain in effectively translating accident learnings into preventive policies, regulatory practices, and operational decision-making processes. This Research Topic seeks to transform the outcomes of accident analyses into applicable and risk-based prevention strategies. To this end, it encourages studies focusing on risk analysis and modeling methods, data-driven and artificial intelligence-based approaches, decision support systems, early warning mechanisms, and safety management practices that explicitly incorporate human and organizational factors. By linking these tools to concrete decision points such as risk-based inspections, regulatory oversight, safety governance, and preparedness planning the Research Topic aims to contribute to evidence-based policy development, strengthen safety culture, and achieve sustainable reductions in both the frequency and consequences of catastrophic maritime accidents.This Research Topic covers scientific, technical, and managerial approaches aimed at the analysis and prevention of catastrophic maritime accidents. Contributions are expected to address the mechanisms of maritime accident occurrence, chains of failures, human and organizational factors, environmental risks, as well as probabilistic and data-driven risk analyses. Studies focusing on modeling and simulation techniques, early warning and decision support systems, safety management practices, and their links to regulatory decision-making, policy development, and oversight processes are also within the scope of this Research Topic. In addition, submissions examining applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, digitalization, autonomous systems, and their regulatory and policy implications for maritime safety will be considered. This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, and submitted manuscripts are expected to be solution-oriented, practically applicable, and to make a concrete contribution to the enhancement of maritime safety. Topic editors: Özkan Uğurlu, Serdar YILDIZ Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78192/analysis-and-prevention-strategies-for-catastrophic-maritime-accidents