What is this?
This tool allows you to compare shipping traffic intensity in the Baltic Sea by ship type and date. For example, you could compare how intense was the traffic of Container ships in 2013 compared to 2014 in a particular area you are interested in.
It is a part of the forthcoming HELCOM Maritime Assessment - with scheduled release in early 2017.
The HELCOM AIS system, gathering and disseminating ship movement data from the entire Baltic Sea region went live in 2005 based on a decision of the HELCOM Meeting of Ministers of Transport in 2001.
The regional system has generated a very large dataset but the complexity and overwhelming size of the dataset (especially if an overview of the entire Baltic Sea is attempted) is a key bottleneck in mobilising this information for users within, but also outside the maritime community, such as MSP planners.
The assumption behind this tool is that many users need the possibility to explore the spatial dimensions of Baltic Sea ship traffic data to identify movement patterns of specific ship types and effects of seasonality which are interesting for their particular case.
This tool provides an easily accessible tool to do such exploration based on 1x1 km grid data calculated by the HELCOM Secretariat from the original HELCOM AIS data.
Patterns identified on the web-tool can be further analysed on the desktop (for data access contact: helcom.secretariat@helcom.fi).
Who made it?
This tool has been designed and developed with love and care by the HELCOM Secretariat:
