Vessel Density
This facility provides free access to GIS data on vessel density in European waters. View the vessel density data on an interactive map of Europe by clicking on a cell to retrieve the value (hours per square km per month) by ship type. Alternatively, download raster GIS files (GeoTIFF). Datasets are also available via OGC compliant web map services (WMS) and web coverage service (WCS). The metadata featured here can be downloaded as XML.






Metadata format: ISO 19139
EMODnet Human Activities: Vessel Density Map
- ISO 19139 metadata content
- Resource Identification Information
- Reference System Information
- Reference System1
- Reference System2
- Data Quality Information
- Distribution Information
- Metadata Information
Resource Identification Information
- Abstract
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EMODnet Vessel Density maps were created by Cogea in 2019 in the framework of EMODnet Human Activities, an initiative funded by the EU Commission. The maps are based on AIS data purchased by Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) and ORBCOMM. The maps show shipping density in 1km*1km cells of a grid covering all EU waters (and some neighbouring areas). Density is expressed as hours per square kilometre per month. The following ship types are available:0 Other, 1 Fishing, 2 Service, 3 Dredging or underwater ops, 4 Sailing, 5 Pleasure Craft, 6 High speed craft, 7 Tug and towing, 8 Passenger, 9 Cargo, 10 Tanker, 11 Military and Law Enforcement, 12 Unknown and All ship types. Data are available by month of year. Yearly averages are also available.
- Citation
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- Title EMODnet Human Activities: Vessel Density Map
- Publication date 2019-03-11
- Revision date 2019-12-16
- Creation date 2019-03-11
- Themes or categories of the resource oceans
- Descriptive keywords
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- Keywords
- Nil reason http://linkeddata.ge.imati.cnr.it/resource/INSPIREFCRegister/MarineLayer
- Nil reason http://linkeddata.ge.imati.cnr.it/resource/INSPIREFCRegister/MarineWaterway
- Nil reason http://linkeddata.ge.imati.cnr.it/resource/INSPIREFCRegister/TransportArea
- Thesaurus
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- Title INSPIRE feature concept dictionary (Version: Linked Data 1.0)
- Revision date 2014-09-14
- Keywords
- Nil reason http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/11294
- Nil reason http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/5052
- Nil reason http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/5055
- Thesaurus
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- Title GEMET (version 3.1, 2012-07-20)
- Revision date 2014-06-08
- Keywords
- Nil reason
- Nil reason
- Thesaurus
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- Title GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
- Publication date 2008-06-01
- Constraints
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- Limitations of use
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Re-use of content for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the sources (both EMODnet - Human Activities, and CLS) are acknowledged. EMODnet - Human Activities accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the re-use of content accessible on its website.
- Legal constraints
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- Access constraints otherRestrictions
- Other constraints
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no limitation
- Ground sample distance 1000 metre
- Organization's name Cogea srl
- Contact information
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- Address
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- e-mail address lfalco@cogea.it
- e-mail address apititto@cogea.it
- Organization's name Lovell Johns
- Contact information
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- Address
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- e-mail address william.adnams@lovelljohns.com
- Organization's name CLS
- Contact information
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- Address
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- e-mail address pdebusschere@cls.fr
Reference System Information - System1
- Reference system identifier
- Value EPSG:3035
Reference System Information - System2
- Reference system identifier
- Value ISO 19108 calendar
Data Quality Information
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- Scope of quality information
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- Resource level dataset
- Lineage
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- Lineage statement
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A set of AIS data had to be purchased from CLS and ORBCOMM, two commercial providers. The data consists of messages sent by automatic tracking system installed on board ships and received by terrestrial and satellite receivers alike. The dataset covers the whole 2017 and 2018 for an area covering all EU waters. A partial pre-processing of the data was carried out by CLS: (i) The only AIS messages delivered were the ones relevant for assessing shipping activities (AIS messages 1, 2, 3, 18 and 19). (ii) The AIS DATA were down-sampled to 3 minutes (iii) Duplicate signals were removed. (iv) Wrong MMSI signals were removed. (v) Special characters and diacritics were removed. (vi) Signals with erroneous speed over ground (SOG) were removed (negative values or more than 80 knots). (vii) Signals with erroneous course over ground (COG) were removed (negative values or more than 360 degrees). (viii) A Kalman filter was applied to remove satellite noise. The Kalman filter was based on a correlated random walk fine-tuned for ship behaviour. The consistency of a new observation with the modelised position is checked compared to key performance indicators such as innovation, likelihood and speed. (ix) A footprint filter was applied to check for satellite AIS data consistency. All positions which were not compliant with the ship-satellite co-visibility were flagged as invalid.The AIS data were converted from their original format (NMEA) to CSV, and split into 12 files, each corresponding to a month of 2017 and 2018. Upon trying and importing the data into a database, it emerged that some messages still contained invalid characters. By running a series of commands from a Linux shell, all invalid characters were removed. The data were then imported into a PostgreSQL relational database. By querying the database it emerged that some MMSI numbers are associated to more than a ship type during the year. To cope with this issue, we thus created an unique MMSI/shyp type register where we attributed to an MMSI the most recurring ship type. The admissible ship types reported in the AIS messages were grouped into macrocategories: 0 Other, 1 Fishing, 2 Service, 3 Dredging or underwater ops, 4 Sailing, 5 Pleasure Craft, 6 High speed craft, 7 Tug and towing, 8 Passenger, 9 Cargo, 10 Tanker, 11 Military and Law Enforcement, 12 Unknown and All ship types. The subsequent step consisted of creating points representing ship positions from the AIS messages. This was done through a custom-made script for ArcGIS developed by Lovell Johns. Another custom-made script reconstructed ship routes (lines) from the points, by using the MMSI number as a unique identifier of a ship. The script created a line for every two consecutive positions of a ship. In addition, for each line the script calculated its length (in km) and its duration (in hours) and appended them both as attributes to the line. If the distance between two consecutive positions of a ship was longer than 30 km or if the time interval was longer than 6 hours, no line was created. Both datasets (points and lines) were projected into the ETRS89/ETRS-LAEA coordinate reference system, used for statistical mapping at all scales, where true area representation is required (EPSG: 3035).The lines obtained through the ArcGIS script were then intersected with a custom-made 1km*1km grid polygon (21 million cells) based on the EEA's grid and covering the whole area of interest (all EU sea basins). Because each line had length and duration as attributes, it was possible to calculate how much time each ship spent in a given cell over a month by intersecting line records with grid cell records in another dedicated PostgreSQL database. Using the PostGIS Intersect tool, for each cell of the grid, we then summed the time value of each 'segment' in it, thus obtaining the density value associated to that cell, stored in calculated PostGIS raster tables. Density is thus expressed in hours per square kilometre per month. The final step consisted of creating and compressing raster files (TIFF file format) with QGIS from the PostgreSQL vessel density tables. Annual average rasters by ship type were also created. For more details see the full method published at: https://www.emodnet-humanactivities.eu/documents/Vessel%20density%20maps_method_v1.5.pdf.
- Data quality report - Domain consistency
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- Conformance test results
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- Test passed true
- Result explanation See the referenced specification
- Product specification
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- Title COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1205/2008 of 3 December 2008 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards metadata
- Publication date 2008-12-04
- Conformance test results
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- Conformance test results
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- Test passed
- Nil reason template
- Result explanation See the referenced specification
- Product specification
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- Title Corrigendum to INSPIRE Metadata Regulation published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L 328, page 83
- Publication date 2009-12-15
- Conformance test results
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- Test passed true
- Result explanation See the referenced specification
- Product specification
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- Title Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Publication date 2010-12-08
Distribution Information
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- Format
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- Name TIFF
- Version 6.0
- Transfer options
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- Transfer size 0
- Online resource
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- Name of resource EMODnet Human Activities
- Online location http://www.emodnet-humanactivities.eu
- Function performed download
- Description EMODnet Human Activities aims to facilitate access to existing marine data on activities carried out in EU waters, by building a single entry point for geographic information on human uses of the ocean. The portal makes available information such as geographical position, spatial extent of a series of activities related to the sea, their temporal variation, time when data was provided, and attributes to indicate the intensity of each activity. The data are aggregated and presented so as to preserve personal privacy and commercially-sensitive information. The data also include a time interval so that historic as well as current activities can be included.
Metadata Information
- Last update 2019-03-11
- Metadata contact - pointOfContact
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- Organization's name Cogea srl
- Contact information
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- Address
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- e-mail address lfalco@cogea.it
- e-mail address apititto@cogea.it
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