Estimation of the Efficiency of Vessel Speed Reduction to Mitigate Gas Emission in Busan Port Using the AIS Database

Abstract

To mitigate marine atmospheric pollution causing greenhouse gas (GHG) and a threat to coastal residents’ health in dense hub port cities, the Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) programs were implemented in the Republic of Korea. Spatial analysis of the efficiency of the VSR programs is essential to monitor and improve the present programs. In the present study, the efficiency of the VSRs from the Busan Port (BP), including North Port (NP) and Gamcheon Port (GP), were analyzed. A bottom-up activity-based approach using automatic identification system (AIS) data was introduced herein for the estimation of spatial marine gas emission in real time. The BP has implemented the VSR program since 2020; thus, this study spatially analyzed marine gas emissions in the areas in 2019 and 2020 to demonstrate the efficiency of VSR. To demonstrate the VSR programs in the aspect of the comparison of gas emissions in each year, the total annual fuel consumption in each year is divided by the total arrival ships’ GT respectively. According to the comparison of the spatial gas emission inventory between two years in the designed area, 19.2% of the annual marine gas emissions per ships’ GT in BP in 2020 were reduced with the implementation of the VSR program. The spatial analysis clearly showed the mitigation of the ships’ gas emissions along the passageway to BP. The spatial analysis of the efficiency of the VSR program will be useful basic data to reflect the local gas emission state on the improvement of the VSR program and newly established environmental regulations.