Spatio-temporal distribution of off-shore ships in the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone based on satellite imagery

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are areas controlled by specific legislations so as to attain economic prosperity. These zones are commonly established and controlled by government officials and are primarily characterized by growing population and developing transport infrastructure. One relevant case is the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) situated in the south of Iran, on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf. This particular zone has been formed to extract, refine, and export gas. The coast of the Persian Gulf has brought on further expansions in sea transportation, thereby increasing shipping activities in the area. The chief mode of shipping goods and materials in the PSEEZ is Maritime transportation. Identification of areas where traffic is carried out requires the collection of spatial data of ships. These spatial data are utilized in several applications for modeling of marine ecosystem. The central purpose of this research is to procure spatial data required for the PSEEZ using optical remote sensing images. Thus, Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 images spanning from 2013 to 2018 were incorporated to identify ships in the study area. The threshold-based method was implemented for detecting the ships using infrared bands of 172 images, upon which a total of 3361 ships were identified. The map of areas affected by ship traffic was prepared using Hot Spot analysis. The results specify that more than 80 square kilometers of the marine environment has been affected by ship traffic during the years 2013- 2018.