Marine accident analysis is important for ships passing through narrow, shallow and busy waterways. This study analyses the accidents which have occurred in the Istanbul Strait and proposes both quantitative and qualitative assessments of marine accidents. Marine accidents occurring in the Istanbul Strait are analysed by using a method based on neuro-fuzzy and genetically optimised fuzzy classifiers. It can be concluded that accident severity increases when poor weather conditions prevail in the Strait regardless of ship size. Therefore, solutions to reduce unwanted events should be prioritised by accounting for weather conditions and the capacity of the vessels. This analysis indicates that the safety level would be significantly improved if all the vessels follow the passage guidelines.

The need for reliable and uninterrupted communication systems in the marine environment has become critically important with increasing maritime activities, environmental monitoring, and the spread of autonomous systems. However, the complex structure of electromagnetic wave propagation in a sea environment limits the accuracy of the existing propagation models. Thus, the Modified Round Earth Loss (REL) model was first developed in this study to estimate the path loss more accurately in shore-to-ship communication. Subsequently, a piecewise modeling approach based on the principle of two-segment data modeling was proposed. In the Modified REL model, unlike the traditional REL model, the paths and gains of the direct and reflected waves were not considered equal in the calculations. Moreover, unlike in the classical approach, the receiver height was not taken as a fixed value; the estimated best receiver height value for each measurement was included in the calculations as a representation of the effect of roughness in the sea environment. Thus, the model is better adapted to various environmental conditions. In addition, the proposed piecewise model divides the propagation medium into two regions using a break point calculated by Fresnel zone theory. The Modified REL model was used for the first region and the log-distance model was used for the second region. This method allows for more accurate modeling of signal behaviors, especially at different distances. Experimental measurements and performance evaluations conducted using four different shore-to-ship communication scenarios show that the Modified REL model shows an average improvement of up to 3% in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values compared to the classical REL model. Additionally, the proposed piecewise model improves the fitting error of the Modified REL model, which models the data as a single whole, by an average of 22.25%. These findings emphasize the necessity of propagation models that are sensitive and adaptable to environmental changes for maritime communication.