Assessment of navigable water depth reliability in the Port of Singapore on the basis of AIS

Vessel groundings can be harmful to people and the environment. Draught in Automatic Identification System (AIS) data can help vessels avoid grounding incidents. However, AIS data often contain redundancies and errors. Vessel draught is not effectively utilized. This study aims to design a reliability assessment method based on the characteristics of AIS data to calculate reliable navigable water depth. The Port of Singapore is selected as the study area to generate navigable water depth. The proposed method calculates navigable water depth in grids and assesses its reliability. The assessment considers factors, such as the dispersion of a vessel’s draught, completeness of trajectories, type of vessels, and Vessel voyage data. A navigable water depth product can be obtained through data cleaning and reliability assessment. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in calculating navigable water depth and assessing reliability. Specifically, the method performs well in areas whose water depth is <25 m, including wharves, inner harbor channels, and anchorages. The data are compared with other depth prediction methods, and the error between it and the charts is relatively small. The obtained navigable water depth is generally less than the chart depth and meets the requirements for safe navigation while optimizing the utilization of water depth in the port. The methodology has also been applied in other areas. Overall, utilizing AIS data to calculate and assess the reliability of navigable water depth provides valuable information for enhancing navigational safety and optimizing port water depth utilization. It also makes draught in AIS effective.