PORT OF ALGECIRAS – INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Leverage AIS data

The vessel movement data provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS) has gained much popularity over the past decade, during which the deployment of satellite-based receivers has enabled wide coverage and improved data quality.

The application of AIS data has developed from simply navigation-oriented research to now include trade flow estimation, emission accounting, and vessel performance monitoring. The AIS now provides high frequency, real-time positioning and sailing patterns for almost the whole world’s commercial fleet, and therefore, in combination with supplementary databases and analyses, AIS data has arguably kickstarted the era of digitisation in the shipping industry.

The Algeciras Port Authority has its own AIS stations with a broad coverage around the Strait of Gibraltar. This data is currently linked to the Algeciras Port Management System which allows to get information from vessels in real time for port coordination but also to examine the kinematics of vessel operations within the Bay.

In this context, the chance is finding innovative solutions and applications built for ports in order to take profit of this valuable data, increase data-driven decisions and gain a competitive advantage for Algeciras Port and its users/customers. The application fields are related to AIS data mining, navigation safety, ship behavior analysis, environmental evaluation, inventory ship emissions per berth or port area, trade analysis, port and terminals performance, port quality of service and so on.

Undoubtedly, it is expected that much more applications of AIS data are coming in the foreseeable future, that’s why we share this challenge with the start-up community to open up the shipping, ports and logistics sector.

What are we trying to answer?
How can we use this data to support decision making?
Which use-case and applications could you find?