Impacts of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Ship Activity in Dongying Port Waters

The automatic identification system (AIS) provides detailed information about vessel movement that has gained wide application in areas such as ship behavior analysis over the past decade. Based on the AIS data in January and February of the lunar calendar in 2019 and 2020, this study analyzed the number and size of ships, the spatial distribution characteristics, such as ship position and density, ship speed, as well as the temporal characteristics of daily and monthly changes of ship flow, and then evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on ship activities in Dongying Port waters. The results show that the number of tankers declined to a lesser extent compared to fishing and cargo ships after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. Because berthing activities would require extra operating time due to the epidemic, ships may require longer turnaround times. In general, tankers in Dongying Port waters were less affected by the epidemic than cargo and fishing ships.