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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.

view View Data  |  download Download Data  |  download Download MetaData  |  link WFS Link  |  link WMS Link  |  link WCS Link

Metadata format: ISO 19139

EMODnet Human Activities: Vessel Density Map

Resource Identification Information

Abstract 
              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
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 
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
Title INSPIRE feature concept dictionary (Version: Linked Data 1.0)
Revision date  2014-09-14

Descriptive keywords 
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
Title GEMET (version 3.1, 2012-07-20)
Revision date  2014-06-08

Descriptive keywords 
Keywords 
Nil reason 
,
Nil reason 
Thesaurus
Title GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Publication date  2008-06-01

Dataset language  English

Resource constraints
Constraints
Limitations of use 
                      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.
Resource constraints
Legal constraints
Access constraints  otherRestrictions
Other constraints 
                      no limitation
Spatial representation type grid

Spatial resolution
Ground sample distance 1000 metre

Point of contact - originator
Organization's name Cogea srl
Contact information
Address
e-mail address lfalco@cogea.it
e-mail address apititto@cogea.it

Point of contact - author
Organization's name Lovell Johns
Contact information
Address
e-mail address william.adnams@lovelljohns.com

Point of contact - resourceProvider
Organization's name CLS
Contact information
Address
e-mail address pdebusschere@cls.fr

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Reference System Information - System1

Reference system identifier
Value EPSG:3035

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Reference System Information - System2

Reference system identifier
Value ISO 19108 calendar

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Data Quality Information

Scope of quality information
Resource level dataset

Lineage
Lineage statement 
                    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
Conformance test results 
Test passed  true
Result explanation See the referenced specification
Product specification
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

Data quality report - Topological consistency
Conformance test results 
Data quality report - Domain consistency
Conformance test results 
Test passed 
Nil reason template
Result explanation See the referenced specification
Product specification
Title Corrigendum to INSPIRE Metadata Regulation published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L 328, page 83
Publication date  2009-12-15

Data quality report - Domain consistency
Conformance test results 
Test passed  true
Result explanation See the referenced specification
Product specification
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

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Distribution Information

Format
Name TIFF
Version 6.0

Transfer options
Transfer size 0

Online resource
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.

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Metadata Information

Last update 2019-03-11

Metadata contact - pointOfContact
Organization's name Cogea srl
Contact information
Address
e-mail address lfalco@cogea.it
e-mail address apititto@cogea.it

Scope of the data described by the metadata dataset

Metadata language  English
Metadata character set utf8

Name of the metadata standard used ISO19115
Version of the metadata standard 2003/Cor.1:2006

Metadata identifier EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_Map_20191216

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The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) is financed by the European Union under Regulation (EU) No 508/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.