Increased accessibility/availability and reduced climate impact using improved maritime analyses
The research project MARIA – MARItime Analyses aims to identify, develop, test and make available improved maritime data analysis methods and tools, to ultimately help reduce shipping accidents, the environmental footprint, and maritime infrastructure costs (construction and maintenance), especially for the region of Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak (ÖKS) where the largest northern port is located, the port of Gothenburg. The intent is to increase the accessibility/availability of shipping compared to road-based transport of goods, for reduced road congestion and noise.
- 2 partners, SSPA Sweden and the Danish Maritime Authority
- 2 countries, Sweden and Denmark
- Financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Interreg, Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak
- Starting in 2017 and running until January 2020
In order to achieve these objectives, interregional collaboration across the ÖKS area will take place through joint activities divided into three project work packages and through dissemination of respective results:
WP1 – Ship traffic patterns
- WT1a – Analysing ship behaviour
- WT1b – Modelling ship behaviour
- WT1c – Generating/predicting ship behaviour
WP2 – Maritime analysis methods
- WT2a – Risk analysis
- WT2b – Environmental analysis
WP3 – Maritime analysis for the ÖKS region
- WT3a – Environmental and risk analysis of new route planning in Kattegat-Skagerrak
- WT3b – Risk analysis of bridge structure concepts
The data analysis methods and tools include storing and assessing seakeeping (hull conditions, wave resistance), modelling and generating realistic sea traffic patterns and ship behaviours, i.e., the ability of vessels to manoeuvre in different geographical areas and conditions. This data will then be used to develop different scenarios and suggest e.g. optimized ship routes that can help to avoid collisions and save fuel, suggest types of infrastructures (e.g. bridges) that can better sustain a potential collision from a ship, hence increasing safety and reducing the environmental impact, provide training simulator tools, etc.
These analyses are based on data (some stored in SSPA databases) such as:
- AIS transponder (mandatory on all merchant ships) data about ship voyages
- Geographic data
- Hydrodynamic and weather data
These data models will allow to make predictions about the effects of certain changes made to routes, infrastructures or traffic patterns, and provide decision support.
Contacts
Latest research on maritime analyses, new seminar
On December 17, SSPA will host a seminar, with the collaboration of Lighthouse. To be able to reduce shipping accidents, environmental footprint, and maritime infrastructure costs, researchers need to continue to develop and test new methods and tools. Improved maritime analyses will allow experts to make predictions about the effects of certain changes made to routes, infrastructures or traffic patterns, and provide better decision support.
Skin Friction database for the maritime sector
We have completed a research project with the aim to gain increased knowledge of the effect a rough surface has on skin friction. This project has also resulted in an interactive tool that can be used to estimate fuel consumption without requiring background knowledge in hydrodynamics. This tool will hopefully contribute to better surface treatment of vessels, that in the end can reduce costs and emission of greenhouse gases.
Defining normal ship behaviour and safety distance to other ships in open waters
To assess how ship domains vary under different geographical settings and in different types of meetings, SSPA performed a case study. Our researchers studied over 600,000 ship encounters at 36 locations around the Swedish coast. The conclusion is that the ship domain has the shape of an ellipse with half axes radii of 0.9 and 0.45 nautical miles in open waters. In contrast to previous research, it has also been discovered that the ship domain is unrelated to the length of the ship.
AIS in maritime research, new paper
A new research article is published in the journal Marine Policy. This paper provides an overview of how Automatic Identification System (AIS) can be used in different areas of maritime research. The researchers have identified and presents ten different research areas in which AIS is used today. In the future they propose making use of AIS data also in other research fields. Many stakeholders can benefit from the research in which AIS data is used.