Introduction
In the past few decades the popularity of passenger cruise lines has been growing and therefore the
problem of possible maritime disasters is becoming increasingly important. According to statistical
estimates (Riola & Arboleya, 2006; Tezdogan et al., 2014), each year about 10 million people travel
on more than 230 cruise ships worldwide. For designers and operators of sea passenger ships, a key
challenge is to ensure a comfortable and safe stay of the passengers and crew onboard. There are three
main groups of tasks to be solved in the field of maritime safety: