Estimating Vessel Under-keel Clearance

from Historical Automatic Identification

System (AIS) Data
Brandan Scully, PE
Coastal & Hydraulics Lab
U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center

From Sail to Satellite: Delivering Solutions for

Tomorrow’s Marine Transportation Systems

Session 3A: MTS Performance Measures, Part 2

June 22, 2016

US Army Corps of Engineers

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 Background

• The US Army Corps of Engineers is charged with maintaining

navigation channels for vessels transitioning from open
ocean to protected harbors.
• Channel depths in a harbor are chosen to accommodate the
largest drafting design vessel anticipated to call on the
harbor.
• Available channel depth is influenced primarily by the
elevations of the channel bottom and the water surface.

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 Background
• The US Army Corps routinely reports channel availability
rates of 35% due to constrained maintenance funding.
• Lack of channel availability impacts the safety and efficiency
of movement of waterborne goods.

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 Motivation

• Transit efficiency and safety can be maintained (possibly

improved) if adequate underkeel clearance can be
maintained.
• Dredging can be targeted where it is needed most, i.e.
where underkeel clearance does not meet minimum
requirement.
• Is it possible to estimate the depth below the keel of
vessels in transit?
• Could the availability of a channel be described based on
the fraction of transits that lack acceptable clearance
below keel?

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 Potential Application

• Quantify the frequency of inadequate under-keel

clearance
• Identify trends in loss (gain) of under-keel clearance
• Develop a reliability-based measure of vessel
passage, vice availability of specified depth

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 Under-keel Clearance

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 AIS – Broad Coverage, Rich Detail

• Spatio-Temporal vessel data

• Includes Vessel Dimensions
• Discrete reporting
• 2-10 sec underway

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 AIS: Reach-level User Intelligence
Vessel Vessel
• AIS required carriers (self propelled):
Type• commercial vessels ≥ 65’ Draft
• commercial towing vessels ≥ 26’ and > 600 hp
• vessels > 150 passengers
• vessels engaged in dredging operations
• vessels carrying dangerous cargo, flammable or
combustible liquid cargo
• fishing industry vessels

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 Water Levels

• NOAA CO-OPS provides 6-minute tidal water level

predictions and verified water level records
• Other sources for water level may be available, i.e. USGS

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 Water Level at Vessel Arrival

• Indexing water level with vessel transit data allows estimation of water
level at time of transit

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 Observing Channel Conditions

Accurate Channel
Condition Data

Multi-Beam
Single-Beam
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 Available Channel Depth
• USACE collects and stores high quality bathymetric data for the purpose
of ensuring safe navigation.
• Data is warehoused in the eHydro system.

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 Available Channel Depth
• eHydro data used in channel condition maps and reports
• Maps and reports are communicated to NOAA and local pilots
• Time series of channel condition reports provides a history of channel bottom
elevation

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 Parameters: Under-keel Clearance
• Vessel Arrival times in each reach from
AIS
• Estimate Ti from AIS DTjt
• Estimate Tsi from ship specific sailing MLLW
records or by ship type.
Tsi Ti
• Interpret DTjt from NOAA tide data using
arrival time.
Djt
• Estimate Djt by linear interpolation of
channel condition record at arrival time.
• UKC components can be estimated from
AIS data or applied deterministically.
UKC
• Result is a distribution of UKCijt

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 Validate Sailing Draft
y=45
• Authoritative Sources
• Isolate vessel behavior y=x
• Isolate vessel type

y=45 Piloted vessel movements.

Charleston, SC 2008-2012

y=x

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 Sample Results
• Charleston Harbor 4th quarter 2015
• Entrance Channel
• Wando River
• Shipyard River
• 5,082 observed transits
• Sailing Draft ~ 0.8 * AIS Draft
• 0.1 * Sailing Draft additional safety
clearance

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 Summary
• Required input data are currently collected as part
of regular operations.
• Data coverage includes most coastal projects.
• Provides quantifiable assessment of project
performance.

Further Study
• Methodology refinement
• Identify appropriate port-specific data sources.
• Identify robust sailing draft validation source.
• Multi-port pilot analysis.

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 Thank You
Brandan Scully, PE
Brandan.m.scully@usace.army.mil
W: 843.329.8168 C:843.494.1867

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