Vessel Density Maps from AIS Data in the Northwest Atlantic, 2013-2022

2019 AIS data was analyzed to produce yearly and monthly vessel density maps for all vessel classes combined and yearly maps per class. The process was later applied to data from 2013 through 2022. The dataset, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, provides a pre-COVID-19 depiction of maritime traffic for spatial planning.

Use Cases

• Marine spatial planning and decision support based on vessel density maps.
• Analyzing pre-pandemic shipping patterns based on the 2019 baseline data.
• Conducting time-series analysis of maritime traffic based on data from 2013 to 2022.
• Assessing vessel class-specific distributions based on yearly density maps per class.

Strengths

• Provides a 10-year time series from 2013 to 2022 for longitudinal analysis.
• Includes multiple geospatial formats (GEOTIF, ESRI REST, FGDB/GDB) for interoperability.
• Focuses on a specific, defined region: the Northwest Atlantic.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Geographic information system (GIS) analysis of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.

Time Range

2013 to 2022, with a focus on 2019 as a pre-pandemic baseline.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 08:39:37.229725; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northwest Atlantic