A rule-based maritime traffic situation complex network approach for enhancing situation awareness of vessel traffic service operators

The development of the shipping industry has led to increasingly busy traffic near many port areas, which leads to higher demands for vessel traffic service operators (VTSOs), and challenges to maintain situational awareness. However, an effective rule-based method for analyzing waterway traffic from a systemic perspective to improve situational awareness is lacking. Therefore, this article proposes a method to assess the maritime traffic situation complexity for this purpose. Referring to the COLREGs, a rule-based maritime traffic situation complex network (R-MTSCN) model is established by taking ships as nodes, and the collision avoidance relationship between ships as the directed edges. In addition, network topology features such as degree, vertex strength, and vertex strength distributions are used to statistically characterize the evolution of the complexity of maritime traffic systems. By analyzing the AIS data of ships navigating the Yangtze River estuary, the concept of the proposed model is demonstrated, thus providing a pathway to develop intelligent, digital, and data-driven Vessel Traffic Services, aiming to enhance efficiency of vessel traffic management and improve maritime safety.