Assessment of global shipping risk caused by maritime piracy

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 14;9(10):e20988. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20988. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Due to the frequent occurrence of piracy incidents, normal trade, and transportation activities have been hindered. This paper uses the Piracy and Armed Robbery dataset in the Global Integrated Shipping Information System to analyze the types and evolutionary characteristics of shipping risk caused by piracy and the piracy behavior patterns in different seas. This study found that there are three regions with high incidence of piracy in the world, and their gathering centers change dynamically over time. Piracy incidents can be divided into four categories based on the quantitative assessment of shipping risk caused by piracy. Shipping risk caused by piracy shows different evolution characteristics in different seas, affected by factors such as the evolution of national political situations and anti-piracy measures. Based on the qualitative assessment of the shipping risk caused by piracy, the piracy corpus reflects the diverse patterns of piracy in different seas. In the process of pirate attacks, the diversity is mainly manifested in violence and selectivity. In the consequences of pirate attacks, the targets that pirates pay attention to vary significantly in different seas. This research will help to strengthen the dynamic monitoring of shipping risk caused by piracy, and further contribute to the research on maritime transport safety.

Keywords: Maritime transport; Piracy; Shipping risk; Text analysis.