This study introduces the navigational environment database(DB) compiling water depth, sediment type and marine managed areas (MMAs) in coastal waters of South Korea. The water depth and sediment data were constructed by combining their sparse points of electronic navigation chart and survey data with high spatial resolution using the inverse distance weighting and natural neighbor interpolation method included in ArcGIS. The MMAs were integrated based on all shapefiles provided by several government agencies using ArcGIS because the areas should be used in an emergency case of ship. To test the validity of the constructed DB, we conducted a test application for grounding and anchoring zones using a ship accident case. The result revealed each area of possible grounding candidates and anchorages is calculated and displayed properly, excluding obstacle places.

The safety degree of navigation for collision avoidance is closely related with the combination between mariner's behavior and navigational environment. The condition of navigational environment is mainly decided by navigable waters, ship traffic, rule of road, sea state, weather and so on. Especially, the condition of navigable waters and ship traffic in navigational environment are ones of the important factors to attain safe navigation when mariners are underway and crossing, head on or overtaking situation. Thus this paper is to analyze the characteristics of mariner's behavior for collision avoidance caused by ship traffic and navigable waters by analyzing the contents of questionnaire and the results of international collaborative research. As a result, it can be concluded that the density of ship traffic and the area of navigable waters affect mariner's ship handling for collision avoidance.