Institute of Transportation, MOTC

　　The Taiwan (Formosa) Strait is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Traffic through this Strait, on passage to and from the ports of Taiwan, was estimated to be over 400 ships per day. In season, this scene is further complicated by large numbers of pleasure crafts and thousands of fishing vessels, the latter being attracted by the four rich fishing grounds in the Strait. With an average of more than one hundred marine accidents occurring in this area every year, the safety of navigating in Taiwan waters has become a major concern of maritime society.

　　For marine accidents, quick solutions and comprehensive accident management is the answer. This proposed project is to identify the most probable factors endangering the safety of navigation in Taiwan waters and to evaluate the marine search and rescue operations in Taiwan, and will propose a computer-assisted search and rescue system making intensive use of local and international databases to simulate the allocation and distribution of search and rescue resources and missions for the Taiwan waters.