Gaussian plume and puff model to estimate ship emission dispersion by combining automatic identification system(AIS) and geographic information system(GIS)

The issue on emission produced by ships is one of attractive and major attentions in the shipping and shipbuilding industries. The use of more environmentally friendly fuel, weather routing, power optimization and the possibility of using alternative energy to propel ships are some examples of current efforts in minimizing emission. Apart from the effort to reduce emission, this paper, on the other hand, provides a new method in combining the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the Geographic Identification System (GIS) to estimate the distribution of emission produced by ships. Data taken from AIS was used as the source of operating conditions of the ships and the shipping database was used to calculate the amount of emitted gases. The Gaussian Plum and Gaussian Puff models were then used to estimate the emission dispersion along the coastal area of Madura Strait. The amount of emitted gas produced by main engine and auxiliary engine of the ships operated along the Madura Strait was calculated by means of equations provided by Trozzi (2002). This research found that the AIS is not merely usable as ship‘s tracking and identification purposes, but further, it could be used as an additional tool in estimating emission distribution.