Study on Estimating Economic Risk Cost of Aids to Navigation Accident in Busan Port, Korea using Contingent Valuation Method

Abstract

Aids to Navigation (AtoN) is one of the marine traffic safety facilities that promotes the safety of maritime traffic and enhance ship’s operational efficiency. However, functional failure of AtoN due to ship’s collision or bad weather conditions leads to inconvenience or navigational risk to various users such as the ship operators. For insstance, the largest container port in Korea, Busan Port has experienced a total of 400 AtoN accidents in the past 12 years (2006-2017).Therefore, an average of 20.6 days of recovery time is required, which increases the maritime safety anxiety for AtoN users. is the objective of this study was to present the quantitative support of the users for the prevention of AtoN accidents and the improvement of the feasibility of implementing more efficient management in Korea. A survey was conducted on the users of Busan port areas to investigate general perception of AtoN in general and the accidents that have happened, and to estimate the economic value of navigational risk reduction by implementing effective AtoN management measure. Using the representative non-market valuation method for environmental or public goods known as contingent valuation method (CVM), the economic value granted to users for the AtoN services in Busan port was estimated to at least 16 billion won. Therefore, these finding could be used by AtoN managers and/or policy makers as a valuable data to identify the users’ need of various AtoN services including Busan Port and to establish and implement more efficient management plan.