Using big data to track marine oil transportation along the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road

Abstract

China’s designation of the “21st-century Maritime Silk Road” (MSR) region is of extraordinary significance to its maritime rights, transportation security, and socio-economic development. We developed a technical framework allowing the use of “big data” derived from the Automatic Identification System (AIS, an automatic ship-tracking network) for two purposes: the accurate mapping of oil tanker trajectories and the creation of heat maps showing the relative use of oil tanker routes and marine shipping chokepoints. We then applied these methods to 1.5 billion AIS records collected within the MSR in 2014 to statistically identify and analyze busy routes, areas, and chokepoints in this strategic region. Our results demonstrate that the proposed framework can provide an effective analysis of oil movements based on large-scale AIS datasets, helping researchers and policy makers better understand the footprint and strategic implications of maritime oil transportation in the MSR region.