“…The original purpose of AIS was solely collision avoidance but many other applications have since developed. In the scientific literature, the following uses have been identified: ship surveillance, tracking and security, 53,54 collision avoidance and decision support, 55,56 discovery of traffic patterns, [57][58][59][60] traffic simulation, 61,62 ship routing development, 63 risk analysis, [64][65][66][67] mission estimation, 68,69 impact on marine ecology of shipping traffic, 70 accident investigation, 71,72 maritime spatial planning, 73 and ship performance estimation. 33,74 For the present study, AIS data from the period 2007 to 2016 is used.…”