Ship traffic management route exchange: acceptance in Korea and Sweden, a cross cultural study

Accidents at sea are today much more rare than in present days. Improvement in technical reliability is a large reason for that. And also innovation in systems that aid the human in decision-making. These systems can be technical (like the GPS and AIS), but can also be organizational (like Traffic Separation Schemes and Safety Management Systems). Still accidents occur. IMOs e-Navigation concept aims at collecting, integrating, exchanging and presenting information to aid the awareness of dangerous situations and the analysis of risk situations. One such attempt is the route exchange concept developed in the EU projects EfficenSea, MONALISA and ACCSEAS. The idea is that by coordinating routes from all vessels in an area, close quarter situations can be predicted and avoided at an early stage. A prototype system has previously been built and tested in simulator trials with Swedish mariners with good results. This paper presents a ship trial in Korea with Korean cadets and experienced bridge officers. The tests showed no cultural differences and good acceptance to the suggested system. Some important concerns were also expressed