Analyzing vessel activity in Indonesian waters and overseas port visits using AIS data

Purpose This research aims to build an algorithm to monitor vessel activities in Indonesian waters, including incoming and outgoing vessels, duration at port and overseas visits. Design/methodology/approach We refer to the port area as the Area of Interest (AOI) and we follow the two approaches in identifying the AOI: Distance-Based approach and Cluster-Based approach. The Distance-Based approach is a rule-based approach that defines a port boundary as an area within a specified distance from a predefined center. Meanwhile, the Cluster-Based approach identifies clusters in AIS messages, around which convex polygons are drawn to delimit the AOI. The Distance-Based approach is applied for Indonesian port AOIs using a square centered on the port coordinates where the shortest distance of the center point to the sides of the square is 3.3 km. The Cluster-Based approach is applied for foreign port AOIs using a 22 km square boundary to identify the clusters. This research also developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for AIS data preprocessing, including validation, detection and handling of missing or inconsistent data, and manual error correction. Findings Algorithms formed from AIS data can be used as an alternative to sea transportation data, such as the number of domestic and foreign vessel visits to Indonesian ports, the duration of vessels at Indonesian ports and the number of Indonesian vessel visits to foreign ports. Also, the SOPs from this research will improve the accuracy and reliability of AIS data as official statistics, providing added value in operations, market predictions and economic impact analysis of the maritime sector in Indonesia. Originality/value This research developed the algorithm using Distance-Based approach and Cluster-Based approach to create AOI, as well as Apache Spark for big data processing. This research also developed SOPs for AIS data preprocessing, including validation, detection and handling of missing or inconsistent data, and manual error correction. One of the steps is to ensure the Maritime Mobile Service Identity format is correct.