Comparison study on AIS data of ship traffic behavior

AIS (Automatic Identification System) data provides valuable input parameters in ship traffic simulation models for risk analysis and the prevention of shipping accidents. This paper reports on the detailed analysis of AIS data for modeling purposes. This analysis is focused on restricted waterways to support inland waterway simulations, comparing the differences between a narrow waterway in the Netherlands (narrow waterway in the Port of Rotterdam) and a wide one in China (wide waterway of Yangtze River close to the Su-Tong Bridge). It is shown that straightforward statistical distributions can be used to characterize position, speed, heading and interval times for different types and sizes of ships. However, the distributions for different characteristics of ship behaviors for narrow and wide waterways differ significantly.