The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was developed primarily as a tool for maritime safety -vessel collision avoidance, use by Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and as a means for littoral states to get information on vessels operating near their coasts. AIS equipment aboard vessels continuously and autonomously transmits information about the vessel including its identity, position, course and speed to enhance safety. This information has also come to be seen by the U. S. Coast Guard as a critical tool in enhancing Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) in support of all Coast Guard missions. MDA is the effective understanding of anything associated with the global maritime environment that could affect the security, safety, economy, or environment of the United States. To achieve MDA, the Coast Guard must collect as much information as possible on activities occurring in the maritime domain. A large part of this activity relates to the movement of vessels, therefore detection, classification, identification and monitoring of vessels is a key component of MDA. The Coast Guard believes that AIS can provide a critical part of vessel tracking needs to build maritime domain awareness.

This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) presents examples of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and capabilities used to support real-time operations, assist in incident investigations, and contribute to waterways usage analysis projects for a variety of infrastructure management needs across the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). These case study presentations serve as examples for those who are new to AIS technology or navigation infrastructure operations. INTRODUCTION: The development of AIS technology for ocean-going vessels was active in the 1990s, but implementation became more widespread after the year 2001. By 2016, carriage requirements had expanded to include most commercial self-propelled vessels on US navigable waters including any vessel over 65 ft 1 in length, towing vessels over 26 ft in length with a greater than 600 hp engine, vessels certified to carry 150 or more passengers, dredges in or near a commercial channel, and vessels moving certain dangerous cargo (USCG 2018; US Code of Regulations 2019). In addition, many private recreational vessels have also chosen to carry AIS transceivers to improve on-water awareness. Beyond the improved situational awareness for mariners that real-time AIS provides, historical AIS records have proven useful to a variety of maritime stakeholders, including infrastructure operators (Mitchell and Scully 2014; Scully and Mitchell 2015). AIS vessel position data can be purchased through commercial vendors or received from the US Coast Guard (USCG) Nationwide AIS (NAIS) archive. Two software programs developed by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) have access to AIS data feeds and make AIS data available to USACE personnel. These programs are the Lock Operations Management Application (LOMA) (USACE-ERDC 2017) and the AIS Analysis Package (AISAP) (USACE-ERDC 2018), both described in the next section. Further information about AIS technical standards and history can be found online through international associations involved in setting technical standards (IALA 2008; IEC 2001; ITU-R 2014; PIANC 2019). This CHETN will describe how AIS data have been applied across the USACE in the areas of real-time waterway operations, incident investigations, and waterway use analysis. METHODS Lock Operations Management Application (LOMA). LOMA is a web-based tool designed primarily for real-time operational use by infrastructure operators, primarily at navigation locks. LOMA presents AIS data in a graphic user interface in conjunction with electronic charts, aerial imagery, and other information.

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This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) describes a method for evaluating the received coverage from Automatic Identification System (AIS) shore sites and the availability of historic vessel position reports along the Ohio River. The network of AIS shoreside sites installed and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) receive information transmitted from vessels; however, reception of these transmissions is generally line-of-sight between the vessel and the AIS site antenna. Reception may also be affected by factors such as the quality of the transceiver installation aboard the vessel as well as the state of the equipment at the receiving site. Understanding how to define and quantify coverage gaps along the inland river system can inform research utilizing AIS data, provide information on the performance of the AIS network, and provide guidance for efforts to address identified coverage gaps