3. Methodology
3.1. Selection of port safety factors and ports to be investigated
This study consisted of four main steps, including the identification
of influencing factors, selection of the ports being investigated,
estimation of the factors’ weights and evaluation of the ports’
safety. The first step is to identify the critical factors influencing
port safety from a captain’s perspective. The safety factors were
identified through the combination of literature reviews and indepth
interviews with domain experts. The in-depth interviews
ensure that the factors which are important indicated by the relevant
literature but not suitable to modeling the navigational safety
in Korean ports, are eliminated. In order to identify and categorize
the most relevant factors, a panel containing five navigationally
experienced experts and a port authority was formed. The panel
first selected five main factors from more than ten total factors
(identified through the literature review) and then developed the
sub-factors of each main one based on literature review and Korean
port practices through a brainstorming process, as seen in
Fig. 1. The main factors and sub-factors were selected based on
the following three questions.