T. Vellinga
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31 records found
1
Ship behavior during encounters in ports and waterways based on AIS data
From theoretical definitions to empirical findings
Currently, the research on ship behavior during encounters focuses on evasive behavior during specific situations with existing risks of collision. However, the preliminary selection of encounters to refine the presented ship behavior is biased. To obtain a full understanding of all ship behavior during different encounters in ports and waterways, the encounter is defined from the viewpoint of the spatial-temporal co-existence of ships in the same waterway segments during the same period. Based on this definition, this paper investigates ship behavior through the encounter process with other ships. The proposed approach starts from the moment when the distance in between is minimum as the critical moment to recognize ship behavior change (course alteration and speed change) based on the Sliding Window algorithm. Thus, the encounter process is identified by the key behavior feature point into phases, being before decision-making, before the critical moment, after the critical moment, and after being past and clear. The relative movement factors are calculated according to the behavior status of both ships to describe the conditions, timing, and objective of behavior change during the dynamic process of encounters. The empirical findings based on one-year Automatic Identification System data in the port of Rotterdam are presented. In the overtaking encounters, as the give-way ship, about 14% of the overtaking ships do not take any evasive actions. Among the ships with behavior changes, the preference for course alteration and speed change is equal. As the stand-on ship, about 87% of the overtaken ships take cooperative maneuvers to facilitate the encounter, in which deceleration seems the primary choice. The timing of overtaken ship's behavior change is later than overtaking ship. For overtaking ships, the objective of course alteration is a clear passing distance of about 5 times her beam, 100m for overtaken ships irrespective of her own size. Regarding speed, the overtaking ship aims to reach a relative speed of 0.3 times her own SOG, while the objective for the overtaken ship is fixed at around 2–3 m/s. In the encounters of ships sailing in the opposite direction, most of the ships take maneuvers to change their course or speed. However, within the influence distance of 2 km, over 76% of the ships do not take any evasive behavior, which implies a passing-by situation. Based on the recognized key feature points of behavior change, statistical tests show the objective of clear passing distance has been reached beforehand. The behavior change during head-on situations could be due to the precautionary behavior of officers onboard in case of interaction between ships. The findings enrich the knowledge of ship behavior during different types of encounters in real-life navigation, which can be further applied to simulation models for ship behavior in ports and waterways.
Impacts of wind and current on ship behavior in ports and waterways
A quantitative analysis based on AIS data
In ports and waterways, the impacts of external navigational factors may lead to serious incidents due to limited space for ship maneuvering. Using nautical traffic models, these incidents can be predicted in advance. In current studies of nautical traffic models, the impacts of wind and current on ship behavior are seldom considered when modeling the ship behavior in a port area. The numerical maneuvering models simulate the individual ship behavior under such impacts by calculating the hydrodynamic forces working on the ship's hull. However, the input, maneuvering particulars of individual ships, are not available in ports. In order to fill the knowledge gap of estimating ship behavior under external impacts without detailed ship maneuvering information, the impacts of wind and current on the observed dynamic ship behavior (speed over ground and leeway and drift angle) in ports and waterways have been investigated by analyzing Automatic Identification System data (showing ship paths over time) and the meteorological and hydrological data collected from the port of Rotterdam. The relation between unhindered speed variation and ship size is revealed. The regression analysis results on ships with similar size indicate the differences between wind and current impacts. Especially for small ships, the current impact on speed over ground outweighs the wind, while the wind influences the leeway and drift angle more than the current. Based on the quantified impact variation over ship size, the proposed impact mechanism explains the variance of speed over ground and leeway and drift angle. Some conventional sailing habits based on good seamanship, such as a series of small-angle alterations rather than direct turning at waypoints, are also revealed by the statistical analyses. Considering the variation of wind and current conditions in the study area, the analysis result provides generic quantitative insights into the wind and current impacts on the individual behavior of ships of different sizes. These mathematical formulations can be adopted in a microscopic nautical traffic model to include the impacts of external conditions.
Identifying ecosystem-based alternatives for the design of a seaports marine infrastructure
The case of tema port expansion in Ghana
Long-term sustainable port development requires accounting for the intrinsic values of ecosystems. However, in practice, ecosystem considerations often only enter the planning and design process of ports when required by an Environmental Impact Assessment. At this late stage, most of the design is already fixed and opportunities to minimize and restore ecosystem impacts are limited. In this paper, we adopt a large-scale, ecosystem perspective on port development with the aim to identify ecosystem-based design alternatives earlier and throughout the planning and design of a port's marine infrastructure. We present a framework, termed the 'ecosystem-based port design hierarchy' (EPDH), to identify ecosystem-based alternatives at four hierarchical design levels: 1) alternatives to port developments, 2) port site selection, 3) port layout design, and 4) design of structures and materials. In applying the EPDH framework retrospectively to a case study of port expansion in Tema, Ghana, we establish that ecosystem considerations played only a limited role in identifying and evaluating alternatives at all four design levels in the case study, whereas more eco-friendly alternatives in terms of port layouts, structures, and materials are identified using the EPDH framework. This reveals that opportunities for ecosystem-friendly port designs may have been missed and demonstrates the need for and the potential added value of our framework. The framework can assist practitioners in earlier and wider identification of ecosystem-based alternatives for a port's marine infrastructure in future seaport developments and, hence, represents an important step towards more sustainable port designs.
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PORT METATRENDS
Impact of long term trends on business activities, spatial use and maritime infrastructure requirements in the Port of Rotterdam
full scale experiments are accompanied by scaled experiments and numerical modelling. This combination provides a valuable insight into ship behavior with respect to different navigation conditions and physical properties of fluid mud. Another aspect of this paper are the surveying methods that can localize the fluid mud layers and potentially provide information about the strength
of these layers. Some of these methods were tested on fluid mud produced by water injection dredging in the Port of Rotterdam. It was concluded that the new rheology-based method show a potential for understanding of strength development in fluid mud layers. Finally, some open research questions with respect to the applicability of the navigation through fluid mud are discussed. ...
full scale experiments are accompanied by scaled experiments and numerical modelling. This combination provides a valuable insight into ship behavior with respect to different navigation conditions and physical properties of fluid mud. Another aspect of this paper are the surveying methods that can localize the fluid mud layers and potentially provide information about the strength
of these layers. Some of these methods were tested on fluid mud produced by water injection dredging in the Port of Rotterdam. It was concluded that the new rheology-based method show a potential for understanding of strength development in fluid mud layers. Finally, some open research questions with respect to the applicability of the navigation through fluid mud are discussed.
Ports play an increasingly important role in the freight transportation chain due to containerization. High vessel flows and higher densities increase the relevance of the non-terminal related processes. Several simulation models have been developed in the recent decades with different goals, but their abilities to represent realistic vessel traffic in ports differ. In this paper, we identify the main navigational processes and operations related to the port nautical infrastructure, and review and assess the current port simulation models. This survey represents an exhaustive review of the state-of-the-art of simulation models for port assessment purposes focussing on safety and capacity. The model assessment focuses on the identification of the relevant criteria to represent vessel navigation, based on which processes are covered by each model and how they have been considered in each model. The assessment covers the nautical infrastructure representation and the navigational behaviour. The outcome of this review will be used for the development of a simulation based port assessment methodology. Future port simulation models should include the suitable criteria for a more realistic traffic representation that allows a proper safety and capacity port analysis and assessment.