IMPACT OF GLOBAL SHIPPING ROUTES ON THE SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Abstract

The prevention and management of the risk associated with the importation of the coronavirus illness (COVID-19(C19)) has swiftly emerged as a significant concern.Besides air freight, maritime vessels significantly contribute to the dissemination of C19 through regular visits to nations with infected populations.This study presents a methodology for the dynamic evaluation of vessel infectious risk via a data-driven method.It autonomously recognizes the ports and nations these vessels visit by utilizing their Automatic Identification Services (AIS) information and a spatio-temporal density-based spatial grouping of uses with noise (ST_DBSCAN) technique.The research generates daily and 15-day cumulative ship exposure indexes derived from various country-specific metrics, including population density, total confirmed infections, and the rate of growth in confirmed diseases.The indexes are categorized into higher, medium, and lower-risk stages, designated as red, yellow, and green, respectively, by the health Quick Reaction (QR) code derived from the standard exposure index of Wuhan in April 2020.This technique was utilized on a container vessel operating on an Eurasian path.The findings indicated that the suggested approach monitors ships' infectious risk and offers a decision assistance system to mitigate and manage the importation of C19 infections from shipping abroad.