Dynamic monitoring the infrastructure of major ports in Sri Lanka by using multi-temporal high spatial resolution remote sensing images

Colombo port and Hambantota port in Sri Lanka play a key role in transiting and supporting the shipping trade of “the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”. In recent years, Chinese enterprises have made huge investments in the infrastructure construction of Colombo port and Hambantota port. The construction progress and development trend of Colombo port and Hambantota port have been attracting the attention of Chinese investment enterprises and the society. In this paper, multi-temporal high spatial resolution remote sensing images are used to monitor the infrastructure construction condition of Colombo port and Hambantota port from 2010 to 2017. According to the interpreted infrastructure information of the two ports, the international container terminal of Colombo and Hambantota port have completed their constructions. By the end of 2017, the international container terminal of Colombo built the container yards with 28.8 ha and roads with 32.6 ha. At the south of the international container terminal of Colombo, the 62.2 ha of reclamation area were built for the planned port city. In Hambantota port, 77 ha of container yards, 48 ha of roads and 2.9 ha of oil storage areas were constructed during this period. Meanwhile, the analysis of potential storage capacity of Colombo port and Hambantota port shows that the throughput of Colombo port may increase by 3 million tons per year while the throughput of Hambantota port will be over its designed 2.5 million tons per year. These analysis results are able to provide a useful reference for Chinese investment enterprises and the related research of “the Belt and Road”.