An Analysis on the Problems and Improvement of using ECS for Coastal Ships

The electronic chart system(ECS) is a navigational equipment with a simple electronic chart and is used in small and medium sized vessels such as coastal cargo ships, fishing boats. For the purpose of preventing marine accidents of oil tanker ships in the 1990s, the prohibition of passage of oil tankers was set up, and also forced to install the ECS to record and save the track of the ship at the same time. However, regulations for the installation of AIS (Automatic Identification System) for ships corresponding to the Ship Safety Act were newly introduced, and the enforcement regulations for the installation of ECS were deleted in 2009. However, the operators of small vessels such as barges in which there is no chart and operated without electric and navigational system, and fishing boats of less than G/T 50 tons, which are not the vessels to be installed AIS, are using the ECS as navigational equipment due to the convenience of operation. However, marine accidents such as collision, aground are occurring due to the lack of follow-up service for the customers of ECS and safety awareness of the ship operators. In this paper, we analyzed the case of marine accidents such as aground and collision caused by the misuse of ECS in the small and medium sized ships with the coastal area of the Republic of Korea. In addition, as an improvement measure to prevent marine accidents, we suggested some ways that construct a simple electronic chart updating system of the ECS, strengthening infrastructure, upgrading simplified electronic charts, and establishing management plans.