Likelihood of a marine vessel accident from wind energy development in the Atlantic

Abstract

Offshore wind energy development is planned for areas off the Atlantic coast. Many of the planned wind development areas fall within traditional commercial vessel routes. In order to mitigate possible hazards to ships and to wind turbines, it is important to understand the potential for increased risk to commercial shipping from the presence of wind farms. Risk is identified as the likelihood that an occurrence will happen, and the consequences of that occurrence, should it occur. This paper deals with the likelihood of commercial vessel accidents, because of the development of offshore wind energy along the US Atlantic coast. Using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, historical shipping routes between ports in the Atlantic were identified, from Maine to the Florida Straits. The AIS data were also used as inputs to a numerical model that can simulate cargo, tanker and tug/towing vessel movement along typical routes. The model was used to recreate present day vessel movement, as well as to simulate future routing that may be required to avoid wind farms. By comparing the present and future routing of vessels, an analysis of potential maritime accidents was used to determine the increased marginal risk of vessel collisions, groundings and allisions with stationary objects, because of the presence of wind farms. The outcome of the analysis showed little increase in vessel collisions or allisions, and a decrease in groundings as more vessels were forced seaward by the wind farms.

Characterizing the benthic community in Maryland’s offshore wind energy areas using a towed camera sled: Developing a method to reduce the effort of image analysis and community description

“…The construction of offshore wind turbines may significantly impact Mid-Atlantic benthic ecosystems. For example, wind farms have caused changes in commercial vessel routes [1], fish communities [2], and marine mammal foraging behavior [3]. Additionally, the presence of wind farms in certain areas may result in losses of habitat for some sea birds and disrupt marine mammal migration patterns [4,5].…”

Maritime Route Delineation using AIS Data from the Atlantic Coast of the US

“…The advent of Automated Identification System (AIS) data collection allows for the analysis of the navigational characteristics of vessels, both individually and in aggregate, and has been made possible by the development of methods, procedures, and technologies as described in AISM-IALA (2004). Many recent studies have used AIS data for the analysis of marine safety including Chen et al (2015); Copping et al (2015); Rawson and Rogers (2015); Rong et al (2015); Shelmerdine (2015); Xiao et al (2015); and Zhang et al (2015). The AISM-IALA guidelines include static and dynamic data fields that are either automatically provided, such as the ship's position and date-time stamp, or are input by ship masters for each voyage, such as the ship's draught and destination (AISM-IALA, 2004).…”

“…AIS data may contain individual records that are incorrect or missing (Kujala et al, 2009), or the data may require cleaning prior to analysis (Van Dorp and Merrick, 2011; Goerlandt and Kujala, 2011; Copping et al, 2015; Rong et al, 2015). The authors of this study noted both issues with AIS data when examining the 2010 through 2012 AIS data from the Atlantic coast of the US.…”

“…This study was initiated by concerns for maritime traffic and safety, due to the potential installation of offshore wind farms planned for development along the Atlantic coast of the US as presented in Copping et al (2015). This paper focusses on the route delineation component of that work.…”

Chosen threats for shipping from sea wind farms

“…12,14,3,21]. Związane może to być: ¡ z niezachowaniem ostrożności żeglugi, niezamierzone wejście spowodowane błędem nawigacji, złym oznakowaniem farmy itp.…”