A Study on Seaworthiness of the Kinmen-Xiamen Fairways by Fuzzy Method

Abstract

In recent years, more than five times as many ships have been crossing the Kinmen-Xiamen fairways as did ten years ago. For this traffic, plans of the once war-torn fairways are only available on charts. However, the nautical charts of the area show that information regarding tidal changes and environment is incomplete. In particular, some current fairways that have not been planned or corrected pass through suspected minefields. In fact, vessels sailing these waters do not navigate on the originally planned fairways, resulting in heavy, complicated vessel traffic and highlighting the need to investigate fairway seaworthiness. This study used long-term information received from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) regarding vessels passing through the Kinmen-Xiamen fairways. The data was then entered into the Marine Geographic Information System (MGIS), through which vessel location information is shown in the electronic chart system (ECS). The linguistic variables of vessel draft vessel traffic density, and distance from original fairway were taken as inputs for fuzzy logic control. The fairway membership index, acquired via the fuzzy distinction method, was employed to evaluate spatial planning analysis. A novel method is proposed to determine the seaworthiness and safety of a fairway, for reference in future fairway planning.