EMODnet Human Activities, Vessel Density Map

The Vessel Density maps in the EU are created since the 2019 by Cogea for the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). The dataset is updated every year and is available for viewing and download on EMODnet web portal (Human Activities, https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/human-activities ). The maps are based on AIS data yearly purchased from Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) and ORBCOMM. The maps, GeoTIFF format, show shipping density in 1x1km cells of a grid covering all EU waters and some neighbouring areas. Density is expressed as hours per square kilometre per month. The following ship types are available:0 Other, 1 Fishing, 2 Service, 3 Dredging or underwater ops, 4 Sailing, 5 Pleasure Craft, 6 High speed craft, 7 Tug and towing, 8 Passenger, 9 Cargo, 10 Tanker, 11 Military and Law Enforcement, 12 Unknown and All ship types. Data are available by month of year. Yearly averages are also available.

Date (Publication): 2019-03-21

Date (Revision): 2024-03-04

Date (Creation): 2019-03-11

Identifier: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_DensityMap_20240304

Originator

Cogea Srl

Author

Cogea Srl

Author

Lovell Johns

Resource provider

CLS

INSPIRE feature concept dictionary (Version: Linked Data 1.0)

Marine Layer
Marine Waterway
Transport Area

GEMET (version 3.1, 2012-07-20)

merchant shipping
maritime navigation
maritime transport

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Transport networks
Geographical grid systems

Spatial representation type: Grid

Distance: 1000 metre

Metadata language: EnglishEnglish

Topic category

Oceans

Begin date: 2017-01-01

End date: 2023-12-31

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No limitations on public access

gmd:useconstraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

gmd:useconstraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: This data was downloaded from the EMODnet Portal (https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/). The data originator is Cogea Srl.

Reference system identifier: EPSG:3035

Reference system identifier: ISO 19108 calendar

Transfer size: 0

OnLine resource: EMODnet Human Activities ( WWW:LINK )
EMODnet Human Activities aims to facilitate access to existing marine data on activities carried out in EU waters, by building a single entry point for geographic information on human uses of the ocean. The portal makes available information such as geographical position, spatial extent of a series of activities related to the sea, their temporal variation, time when data was provided, and attributes to indicate the intensity of each activity. The data are aggregated and presented so as to preserve personal privacy and commercially-sensitive information. The data also include a time interval so that historic as well as current activities can be included.

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_all_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - All vessel types - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_00_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Other vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_01_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Fishing vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_02_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Service vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_03_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Dredging or underwater ops - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_04_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Sailing - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_05_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Pleasure Craft - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_06_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - High speed craft - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_07_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Tug and towing - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_08_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Passenger vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_09_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Cargo vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_10_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Tanker - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_11_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Military and Law Enforcement vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_12_2017-2023.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Monthly Totals - Unknown - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_all_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - All vessel types - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_00_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Other vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_01_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Fishing vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_02_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Service vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_03_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Dredging or underwater ops - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_04_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Sailing - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_05_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Pleasure Craft - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_06_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - High speed craft - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_07_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Tug and towing - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_08_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Passenger vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_09_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Cargo vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_10_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Tanker - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_11_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Military and Law Enforcement vessels - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_12_2017-2023Avg.zip ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
Annual Averages - Unknown - ZIP (GeoTIFF)

OnLine resource: EMODnet_HA_Vessel_Density_Grid_20190311.7z ( WWW:DOWNLOAD )
7-Zip (File Geodatabase)

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_all ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - All types

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_00avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Other

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_00 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Other

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_01 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Fishing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_02 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Service

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_03 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Dredging or underwater ops

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_04 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Sailing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_05 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Pleasure Craft

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_06 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - High speed craft

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_07 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Tug and towing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_08 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Passenger

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_09 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Cargo

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_10 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Tanker

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_11 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Military and Law Enforcement

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_12 ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Unknown

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_allavg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - All types

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_01avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Fishing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_02avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Service

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_03avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Dredging or underwater ops

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_04avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Sailing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_05avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Pleasure Craft

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_06avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - High speed craft

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_07avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Tug and towing

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_08avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Passenger

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_09avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Cargo

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_10avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Tanker

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_11avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Military and Law Enforcement

OnLine resource: vesseldensity_12avg ( OGC:WMS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Unknown

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_all ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - All types

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_00 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Other

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_01 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Fishing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_02 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Service

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_03 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Dredging or underwater ops

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_04 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Sailing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_05 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Pleasure Craft

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_06 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - High speed craft

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_07 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Tug and towing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_08 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Passenger

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_09 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Cargo

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_10 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Tanker

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_11 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Military and Law Enforcement

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_12 ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Monthly totals - Unknown

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_allavg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - All types

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_00avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Other

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_01avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Fishing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_02avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Service

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_03avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Dredging or underwater ops

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_04avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Sailing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_05avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Pleasure Craft

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_06avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - High speed craft

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_07avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Tug and towing

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_08avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Passenger

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_09avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Cargo

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_10avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Tanker

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_11avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Military and Law Enforcement

OnLine resource: emodnet:vesseldensity_12avg ( OGC:WCS )
Vessel Density Annual Averages - Unknown

Distribution format

GEOTIFF (gco:nilReason="unknown">)

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2008-12-04

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: Yes

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2009-12-15

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: Yes

Statement: AIS data are annualy purchased from two commercial providers, CLS and ORBCOMM. The data consists of messages sent by automatic tracking systems installed on board ships and received by terrestrial and satellite receivers alike. The acquired datasets currently cover a period from 2017 to 2023 for an area covering all EU waters. A partial pre-processing of the data is carried out by CLS: (i) The only AIS messages delivered are the ones relevant for assessing shipping activities (AIS messages 1, 2, 3, 18 and 19). (ii) The AIS data are down-sampled to 3 minutes (iii). Duplicate signals are removed. (iv) Wrong MMSI signals are removed. (v) Special characters and diacritics are removed. (vi) Signals with erroneous speed over ground (SOG) are removed (negative values or more than 80 knots). (vii) Signals with erroneous course over ground (COG) are removed (negative values or more than 360 degrees). (viii) A Kalman filter is applied to remove satellite noise. The Kalman filter is based on a correlated random walk fine-tuned for ship behaviour. The consistency of a new observation with the modelised position is checked compared to key performance indicators such as innovation, likelihood and speed. (ix) A footprint filter is applied to check for satellite AIS data consistency. All positions which are not compliant with the ship-satellite co-visibility are flagged as invalid. The AIS data are converted from their original format (NMEA) to CSV, and deliverd to Cogea split into 12 files, each corresponding to a month of the year. By running a series of commands from Linux shell, all remaining invalid characters are removed as well as unnecessary fields. The data are then imported into a PostgreSQL relational database (with the PostGIS extension), each month in a different table containing the following specialised data types: mmsi (numeric), locdate (date), loctime (time without time zone), lon (double precision), lat (double precision), aisshiptype (character varying). MMSI numbers are often associated to more than a ship type during a year. To cope with this issue, a unique MMSI/ship type register is created every year. In the register, MMSI with multiple ship types are associated the most recurring and known ship type by counting the number of record for each combination mmsi/ship type. The admissible ship types reported in the AIS messages are grouped into macrocategories: 0 Other, 1 Fishing, 2 Service, 3 Dredging or underwater ops, 4 Sailing, 5 Pleasure Craft, 6 High speed craft, 7 Tug and towing, 8 Passenger, 9 Cargo, 10 Tanker, 11 Military and Law Enforcement, 12 Unknown and All ship types. The subsequent steps consist of creating points representing ship positions from the AIS messages, then reconstructing ship routes (lines) from the points for every two consecutive positions of a ship, by using the MMSI number as a unique identifier of a ship. In addition, for each line the query calculates its length (in km) and its duration (in hours) and append them both as attributes to the line. If the distance between two consecutive positions of a ship is longer than 30 km or if the time interval is longer than 6 hours, no line is created. Both datasets (points and lines) are projected into the ETRS89/ETRS-LAEA coordinate reference system, used for statistical mapping at all scales, where true area representation is required (EPSG: 3035). Points and lines calculations are based on custom-made sql scripts developed by Cogea. The lines obtained are then intersected with a custom-made 1x1km grid polygon (21 million cells) created by Cogea, based on the EEA's national grids, extended to cover the whole area of interest (all EU sea basins) and imported in PostGIS. Because each line has length and duration as attributes, it is possible to calculate how much time each ship spent in a given cell over a month by intersecting line records with grid cell records. This is done through a custom-made sql script developed by Lovell Johns. Using the PostGIS Intersect tool, for each cell of the grid, the time value of each 'segment' in it is summed, thus obtaining the density value associated to that cell, stored in calculated PostGIS tables. Density is thus expressed in hours per square kilometre per month. The final step consists of creating and compressing, in QGIS and GDAL and from the PostGIS vessel density tables, the final raster datasets (GeoTIFF format). Annual average rasters by ship type are also finally calculated. For more details on vessel density calculations method and concepts see the technical report 'EU Vessel Density Map - Detailed Method' published at: https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/reports?field_emodnet_lot_value[]=human_activities. Comparared with the original method, starting from the 2021 (2020 data) the calculations of ship positions (points) and ship routes (lines) were sped up by moving them from ArcGIS to PostGIS through custom-made sql scripts developed by Cogea.

File identifier: 0f2f3ff1-30ef-49e1-96e7-8ca78d58a07c XML

Metadata language: EnglishEnglish

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2025-09-03T10:47:32.364217Z

Metadata standard name: ISO19115

Metadata standard version: 2003/Cor.1:2006

Point of contact

Cogea Srl

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