How Evaluation Frameworks Shape the Economic Value of Vessel Traffic Service: Evidence from Full-Sample Vessel Trajectories

Economic evaluation of Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) has long relied on sampling-based observations and average-cost assumptions, yet limited attention has been paid to whether evaluation frameworks themselves shape how the value of digital maritime governance is identified and represented. Drawing on full-sample vessel trajectories and dispatch records from a major Chinese hub port during 2018–2020, this study develops a parallel comparative design to compare a traditional sampling-based framework with a full-sample evaluation approach under identical traffic conditions. The results show that differences in evaluation frameworks affect not only the overall magnitude of estimated benefits, but also their composition. Compared with the traditional approach, the full-sample framework generates substantially higher estimates of economic value and assigns greater importance to routine coordination, where repeated small operational adjustments accumulate over time. By contrast, weather disruptions and channel-constrained coordination become relatively less prominent. These differences appear to be associated with variation in temporal benchmarks, sample coverage, and cost assignment strategies. Rather than identifying a single “correct” valuation, the study highlights the sensitivity of VTS economic assessment to methodological assumptions and suggests that, in digitally coordinated public infrastructure systems, evaluation frameworks may shape which forms of governance value become visible and incorporated into policy and investment decisions.