Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence for Improving Safety to Navigation in Canada Low-Impact Shipping Corridors (original) (raw)
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Transactions in GIS, 2017
The concept of the Northern Marine Transportation Corridors (NMTC) initiative was developed under the Government of Canada World-Class Tanker Safety System Initiative (WCTSS). The NMTC is an interdepartmental Arctic initiative within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), through the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), in collaboration with Transport Canada (TC). The NMTC initiative was developed to strengthen the safety of marine navigation in the Arctic, and to offer an efficient planning guide for present and future Arctic investments. Transportation corridors identified through this initiative will provide the Government of Canada the framework needed to better prioritize and deliver on its programs and services, including: nautical charts and products; aids to navigation; icebreaking services; and marine safety regulations. The corridors were generated and analyzed with a Geographic Information System (GIS) using two main data sources: the Automated Identification System (AIS) and CHS's nautical charts and publications. The geographic extent of the NMTC is defined as the Northern Canada Vessel Traffic Service Zone (NORDREG Zone) and the Mackenzie River. With close to 4 million km 2 of water in the Arctic and 162,000 km of coastline, surveying the Arctic to modern standards represents an enormous challenge to CHS. By adopting a corridor-based approach, CHS and other government programs can prioritize their efforts on 12% of the Canadian Arctic waters. CHS currently has 32% of the NMTC adequately surveyed, with an additional 3% surveyed to modern standards.
… Modelling & Software, 2011
We describe a decision support system that has been developed to inform management and planning in a portion of the St. Lawrence Estuary in Canada (covering the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park and the proposed St. Lawrence Estuary Marine Protected Area). The system is composed of a spatiotemporal, georeferenced database, a simulator (3MTSim) that reproduces the spatiotemporal movement of marine mammals and maritime traffic in the estuary, and data post-processing tools that can be used to analyse the output of 3MTSim. 3MTSim allows users to test different management scenarios for maritime traffic (e.g., area closures, speed limits, regulations concerning the observation of marine mammals) in order to assess their effects on navigational patterns which may influence marine mammal exposure to vessels. 3MTSim includes an individual-based model of marine mammal movement patterns that has been elaborated based on existing telemetry data on fin, blue, and beluga whales as well as on land-based theodolite tracking of humpback and minke whales. Observations recorded aboard research and whale-watching vessels have provided the spatial data necessary to estimate species' abundances and distribution maps that are used to initialise the whale model. Different types of vessels, including cargo ships and commercial whale-watching boats are also modelled individually, using an agent-based approach. The boat model represents the decision-making process of boat captains as a function of environmental conditions, the contextual setting, and their respective goals. An extensive database of real-time tracking data available for the different types of vessels, coupled with observations and interviews, has served in the elaboration of the boat model. In this paper, an overview of the entire system is presented and its effectiveness as a decision support tool is demonstrated via the results from a sample of scenario-based simulations.
Towards an Automatic Ice Navigation Support System in the Arctic Sea
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 2016
Conventional ice navigation in the sea is manually operated by well-trained navigators, whose experiences are heavily relied upon to guarantee the ship's safety. Despite the increasingly available ice data and information, little has been done to develop an automatic ice navigation support system to better guide ships in the sea. In this study, using the vector-formatted ice data and navigation codes in northern regions, we calculate ice numeral and divide sea area into two parts: continuous navigable area and the counterpart numerous separate unnavigable area. We generate Voronoi Diagrams for the obstacle areas and build a road network-like graph for connections in the sea. Based on such a network, we design and develop a geographic information system (GIS) package to automatically compute the safest-and-shortest routes for different types of ships between origin and destination (OD) pairs. A visibility tool, Isovist, is also implemented to help automatically identify safe navigable areas in emergency situations. The developed GIS package is shared online as an open source project called NavSpace, available for validation and extension, e.g., indoor navigation service. This work would promote the development of ice navigation support system and potentially enhance the safety of ice navigation in the Arctic sea.
Investigations of Variability for Ship Navigation through the Northwest Passage, 1982-2010
Proceedings of the International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering Under Arctic Conditions, 2011
Considerable effort has been given to developing systematic methods for evaluating the safety of ship passages through ice-infested Canadian Arctic waterways (Timco et al., 2009). Recent analyses (Fissel et al, 2010; Mudge et al., 2010) of Canadian Ice Service weekly ice chart data (1982-2010) have utilized the resulting Transport Canada's AIRSS navigability system to quantitatively assess interannual trends and geographical details associated with the traditionally difficult to navigate Viscount Melville Sound, M'Clure Strait and Prince of Wales Strait portions of the Northwest Passage (NWP) Routes. The present work extends the Fissel et al. (2010), and Mudge et al. (2010) full navigation season analyses to assess value, feasibility and methods for incorporating shorter time scale (daily) ice and other environmental information into ship transit navigation models. Analysis products are compared with Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker passages through the NWP from the period 2003-2010 to appraise effectiveness and promising directions for model improvement. The NWP is used to develop geographically transferrable methods of using environmental data for now-time analyzing the navigability of ice conditions. Emphasis is given to establishing stand-alone procedures and tools for the near-daily time scales of Polar and sub-Polar marine traffic management.
TransNav, the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation, 2013
This paper aims to introduce GIS, its definition, principle, application in any discipline particularly maritime, its process, data sets and features and its benefits to maritime and universities. Specifically, the paper intends to provide an overview of its wide applications in maritime including but not limited to marine transportation, marine environment, port management and operation, maritime education and training (MET) and maritime research. GIS simplest task is in mapping and visualization. But its most important function is in spatial analysis. Spatial analysis takes into account the location, geometry, topology, and relationships of geographic data, which lend itself to intelligent decision making. GIS is not just for researchers and students. GIS is especially useful for decision makers such as: managers, administrators, and directors of large and small projects. Scenarios are "seen" and analyzed even before events happen. To planners and decision makers, this is very important because they can assess the impact of events or scenario and may save a lot of time, effort, and money before implementing the actual project. An additional skill on GIS when learned or thought would certainly result to a technically competent maritime global workforce. The paper would provide ideas on possible areas for collaborations among TransNav member institutions for data sharing which may be processed and analyzed by a GIS specialist. http://www.transnav.eu the International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation Volume 7 Number 4
Journal of Applied Ecology, 2018
1. A key stage underpinning marine spatial planning (MSP) involves mapping the spatial distribution of ecological processes and biological features as well the social and economic interests of different user groups. One sector, merchant shipping (vessels that transport cargo or passengers), however, is often poorly represented in MSP due to a perceived lack of fine-scale spatially explicit data to support decision-making processes. 2. Here, using the Republic of Congo as an example, we show how publicly accessible satellite-derived automatic identification system (S-AIS) data can address gaps in ocean observation data for shipping at a national scale. We also demonstrate how fine-scale (0.05 km 2 resolution) spatial data layers derived from S-AIS (intensity, occupancy) can be used to generate maps of vessel pressure to provide an indication of patterns of impact on the marine environment and potential for conflict with other ocean user-groups. 3. We reveal that passenger vessels, offshore service vessels, bulk carrier and cargo vessels and tankers account for 93.7% of all vessels and vessel traffic annually, and that these sectors operate in a combined area equivalent to 92% of Congo's exclusive economic zone-far exceeding the areas allocated for other user groups (conservation, fisheries and petrochemicals). We also show that the shallow coastal waters and habitats of the continental shelf are subject to more persistent pressure associated with shipping, and that the potential for conflict among user groups is likely to be greater with fisheries, whose zones are subject to the highest vessel pressure scores than with conservation or petrochemical sectors. 4. Synthesis and applications. Shipping dominates ocean use, and so excluding this sector from decision-making could lead to increased conflict among user groups, poor compliance and negative environmental impacts. This study demonstrates how satellite-derived Automatic Identification System data can provide a comprehensive mechanism to fill gaps in ocean observation data and visualise patterns of vessel behaviour and potential threats to better support marine spatial planning at national scales.
Multidisciplinary Approach to Design and Analysis of Arctic Marine Transport Systems
2017
Basic principles of the multidisciplinary approach to arctic marine transport systems (MTS) design and analysis are described in the article. The main idea of the approach is to synthesize geographic information system (GIS) technologies, different shipbuilding disciplines, fleet planning instruments and agent-based dynamic simulation models in an integrated software framework on the basis of object-oriented programming. Vessel operation is described as the movement and interaction of independent ships in GIS environment within the framework of the simulation model. MTS operation combines vessel operation itself (routing, determination of speed and fuel consumption, icebreaker escort, etc.) with plenty of external entities (port infrastructure, ice channel freezing process, offshore platform operation, etc.) that could be described as systems with comprehensive logic and physical behavior. Such integration provides a new quality of MTS simulation that allows considering complex inte...
Satellite-Derived Bathymetry for Improving Canadian Hydrographic Service Charts
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Approximately 1000 Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) charts cover Canada’s oceans and navigable waters. Many charts use information collected with techniques that predate the more advanced technologies available to Hydrographic Offices (HOs) today. Furthermore, gaps in survey data, particularly in the Canadian Arctic where only 6% of waters are surveyed to modern standards, are also problematic. Through a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Government Related Initiatives Program (GRIP) project, CHS is exploring remote sensing techniques to assist with the improvement of Canadian navigational charts. Projects exploring optical/Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) shoreline extraction and change detection, as well as optical Satellite-Derived Bathymetry (SDB), are currently underway. This paper focuses on SDB extracted from high-resolution optical imagery, highlighting current results as well as the challenges and opportunities CHS will encounter when implementing SDB within its operational chart...
Toward a Marine Road Network for Ship Passage Planning and Monitoring
Proceedings of the ICA, 2021
Safety of navigation is essential for the global economy as maritime trade accounts for more than 80% of international trade. Carrying goods by ship is economically and environmentally efficient, however, a maritime accident can cause harm to the environment and local economies. To ensure safe passage, mariners tend to use already familiar routes as a best practice; most groundings occur when a vessel travels in unfamiliar territories or suddenly changes its route, e.g., due to extreme weather. In highly trafficked areas, the highest risk for ships is that of collision with other vessels in the area. In these situations, a network of previously traversed routes could help mariners make informed decisions for finding safe alternative routes to the destination, whereas a system that can predict the routes of nearby vessels would ease the burden for the mariner and alleviate the risk of collision. The goal of this project is to utilize Automatic Identification System data to create a network of "roads" to promote a route planning and prediction system for ships that makes finding optimal routes easier and allows mariners on the bridge and Autonomous Surface Vehicles to predict movement of ships to avoid collisions. This paper presents the first steps taken toward this goal, including data processing through the usage of Python libraries, database design and development utilizing PostgreSQL, density map generation and visualizations through our own developed libraries, an A* pathfinding algorithm implementation, and an early implementation of an Amazon Web Services deployment.