Development of Port Utilization Index by Using Satellite Images

The number of ships and container yard volumes at overseas container ports are typically verified manually by on-site personnel.If shipping companies or cargo owners could monitor the conditions of foreign ports without deploying personnel, it would result in reduced monitoring costs and improved operational regularity.This study proposes a methodology for deriving the number of ships and container yard volumes using satellite imagery and introduces a Port Utilization Index (PUI) based on these derived metrics.The PUI is calculated using berth utilization rates, anchorage utilization rates, and container yard utilization rates, providing an intuitive measure of port activity.The detection of ships and containers is conducted through a threshold-based approach, enabling its application even on standard computing systems without the need for high-performance hardware.Detection processes utilize both optical and SAR satellite imagery to extract ship and container data, which are subsequently used to generate a time-series-based PUI.The findings of this study are expected to be applicable to container management in developing countries' ports, as well as in the monitoring of overseas ports by shipping companies and shipowners.