Navigating through dense waters: a toolbox for creating maritime density maps

Troupiotis-Kapeliaris, Alexandros; Spiliopoulos, Giannis; Vodas, Marios; Zissis, Dimitrios

doi:10.1145/3549737.3549801

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 14 publications

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“…In this setting, we identify two main tasks that we address in this paper. The first task is to design and develop a pipeline capable of producing sound and clear interpretations of shipping activity in a given area of interest from noisy and often inaccurate AIS data, extending the high-level description in [13]. We design and implement a number of algorithmic methods that support the handling of these data and their transformation into accurate density maps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Big Picture: An Improved Method for Mapping Shipping Activities

Troupiotis-Kapeliaris,

Zissis,

Bereta

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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Density maps support a bird’s eye view of vessel traffic, through providing an overview of vessel behavior, either at a regional or global scale in a given timeframe. However, any inaccuracies in the underlying data, due to sensor noise or other factors, evidently lead to erroneous interpretations and misleading visualizations. In this work, we propose a novel algorithmic framework for generating highly accurate density maps of shipping activities, from incomplete data collected by the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The complete framework involves a number of computational steps for (1) cleaning and filtering AIS data, (2) improving the quality of the input dataset (through trajectory reconstruction and satellite image analysis) and (3) computing and visualizing the subsequent vessel traffic as density maps. The framework describes an end-to-end implementation pipeline for a real world system, capable of addressing several of the underlying issues of AIS datasets. Real-world data are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework. These experiments show that our trajectory reconstruction method results in significant improvements up to 15% and 26% for temporal gaps of 3–6 and 6–24 h, respectively, in comparison to the baseline methodology. Additionally, a use case in European waters highlights our capability of detecting “dark vessels”, i.e., vessel positions not present in the AIS data.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Big Picture: An Improved Method for Mapping Shipping Activities

Troupiotis-Kapeliaris,

Zissis,

Bereta

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

Self Cite

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The Impact of Crises on Maritime Traffic: A Case Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the War in Ukraine

Węcel,

Stróżyna,

Szmydt

et al. 2024

Netw Spat Econ

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Maritime transport plays a key role in the global and local economy, accounting for 80% of global trade by volume. This makes smooth operation of the maritime transport essential. However, the sector faces the constant risk of various crises and their potential consequences that may significantly impact and disrupt the movement of goods on local, regional, and global levels. In recent years, two notable crises, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have been observed. This paper aims to analyse how international crises, such as armed conflicts and pandemics, influence maritime traffic and assess their impact on both global and local economies. A comparison is drawn between the periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and before and during the war in Ukraine to exemplify the effects of crises. The findings are then extrapolated to apply to potential future crises. Vessel movements are studied using data collected from Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). In our quantitative approach, we analyse big data using dedicated tools and visualisation techniques to gain insights into specific phenomena. The paper identifies economically significant regions for maritime traffic and examines the impact of crises on their performance. Its unique value lies in its flow-based analysis of changes in maritime traffic. The main conclusion is that China's importance for worldwide maritime traffic is increasing. This makes the global economy heavily reliant on China to a substantially greater extent than it is, for example, on Russia. Consequently, any crisis in the China region could exert a dramatic impact on the global economy. The paper also discusses observations of changes in maritime traffic following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

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