Identifying the Importance of Key Performance Indicators for Enhanced Maritime Decision-Making to Avoid Navigational Accidents

Despite ongoing advances in maritime safety research, ship accidents persist, with significant consequences for human life, marine ecosystems, and port operations. Because many accidents occur in or near ports, assessing a vessel’s ability to enter or depart safely remains critical. Although ports apply local navigational rules, safety criteria could be strengthened by adopting more adaptive and data-informed approaches. This study presents a mathematical framework that links Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to a Ship Risk Profile (SRP) for collision/contact/grounding risk indication. Expert-based KPI importance weights were derived using the Average Rank Transformation into Weight method in linear (ARTIW-L) and nonlinear (ARTIW-N) forms and aggregated into a nominal SRP. Using routinely monitored KPIs largely drawn from the Baltic and International Maritime Council and Port State Control/flag-related measures, the results indicate that critical equipment and systems failures and human/organisational factors—particularly occupational health and safety and human resource management deficiencies—are the most influential contributors to the normalised accident-risk index. The proposed framework provides port authorities and maritime stakeholders with an interpretable basis for more proactive risk-informed decision-making and targeted safety improvements.