Factor diagnosis and governance strategies of ship oil spill accidents based on formal concept analysis.

Ship oil spill accidents have a prolonged duration, complex consequences, challenging cleaning and repairing efforts, and pose a significant threat to the environment, economy, and society. Eliminating irrelevant information and identifying key factors using traditional methods is challenging due to the complexity of the causes of ship oil spill accidents. To address this, this article sorts out the accident databases of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) and eight national maritime administration agencies, and innovatively constructs a formal concept analysis (FCA) model based on reports of 100-plus ship oil spill accidents. The model results prove that improper operation, less complete ship equipment, large tonnage, and poor navigation conditions are the key factors. The different causal rules of oil spills in collision/contact, grounding, fire/explosion, and foundering are further compared and analyzed. Finally, corresponding improvement measures are put forward for the key factors of oil spills and different causal rules.