Frequent water traffic accidents pose severe threats to human life and property safety, the water environment, and adverse effects on social stability. Understanding historical accidents is essential for accident prevention and risk mitigation. However, at present, research on the comprehensive statistical analysis of characteristics and causes of ship accidents that occurred in the inland water areas of the Yangtze River, especially in the fluctuating backwater area (FBA) of Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) region, is still scanty, even less a hierarchical and systematic analysis framework. Therefore, this paper proposes a comprehensive ship accident characteristics and causes analysis framework, and summarizes and visualizes the characteristics of ship accidents through the statistical and comparative analysis of historical data in terms of categories and severity of accidents, ship types involved in accidents, spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, ship accident losses, and root causes and lessons learned from the related accidents. In order to demonstrate the value of the proposed framework, based on the official sources, ten years of ship accident data from 2009 to 2018 in the FBA of TGR region are collected and analyzed in detail. On the basis of the results, this paper summarizes accident prevention and supervision guidelines to provide decision support for maritime safety. This research is of significance to the water traffic accident precaution and risk mitigation in this region and can be useful for other similar specific scenarios worldwide.@en

The Yangtze River is the main artery of the inland water transportation of China, connecting the resource-rich southwest hinterland, the Central China region and the economically prosperous southeast coast of East China. Chongqing, located in the fluctuating backwater of the Three Gorges Project, is the mainstream of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. It is not only the industrial and commercial center of China but also the most abundant water and intermodal inland hub and material distribution center in the southwest. Based on the ten years of statistical data of ship accidents from 2009 to 2018 of the Chongqing Maritime Safety Administration (MSA), this paper takes the navigation section of the fluctuating backwater area of the Three Gorges Reservoir as the research object, and comprehensively uses statistical analysis, comparative analysis, and data visualization methods. The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of ship accidents in the fluctuating backwater area and the economic losses in this area are studied. The research results are helpful for strengthening maritime management, improving navigation conditions, and reducing water traffic accidents in the Three Gorges Reservoir area and other similar reservoir areas all over the world. In addition, the research gives detailed guidance for stakeholders and mangers for the prevention of water traffic accidents.@en