Global Port Research Articles

Cultural Politics and Resistance in the 21st Century: Community-Based Social Movements and Global Change in the Americas

Local Communities and Global Resistance: Social Change and Autonomy Struggles in the Americas K.Dellacioppa PART I: CULTURAL RESISTANCE AND IDENTITY New Political Actors in Rural Mexico: The Challenges and Achievements of Indigeneosu and Peasant Women A.H.Castillo & G. E.Damian The Rebel Girls of the Other Campaign: The EZLN and Teenage Activism in Mexico City J.Taft Zapatismo and Community-Based Social Change: Toward a Feminist Global Praxis? M.Govea La Otra Educacion: Hip Hop, Zapatismo, and Popular Education O.Marquez PART II: POLITICAL RESISTANCE AND IDENTITY Maiz y Pais: Indigenous Mexican Struggles against Biotechnology in Agriculture J.Rogers Generating Hope, Creating Change, Searching for Community: Stories of Resistance against Globalization at the U.S.-Mexico Border M.Tellez The Nonprofit Industrial Complex: Struggling for Social Movement Autonomy in a Global Port City C.Weber Present in the World Economy: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (2006-2009) A.Drainville Global Movements? Local Movements? C.Weber

Exploring the limits of dissolved organic matter fluorescence for determining seawater sources and ballast water exchange on the US Pacific coast

To minimize the risk of biological invasions associated with commercial shipping, vessels are required to conduct ballast water exchange (BWE)≥200 nautical miles offshore when arriving in the US from foreign ports, and some states require coastal BWE≥50 miles offshore along domestic routes. Previous research suggests that the intensity of fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) can be used to verify whether BWE was implemented. This study examined seasonal and spatial variability of fDOM in Pacific rim ports and the adjacent seas, using the North American coast as a model system to test whether regional fluorescence intensity thresholds consistently distinguish port sites from coastal and oceanic sites at increasing distances from shore. Over 2000 samples from major port systems on the US Pacific coast and along offshore (perpendicular) and alongshore (parallel) transects were analyzed. Overall, humic fDOM fluorescence intensity (C3*=370/494nm) effectively discriminated port versus oceanic sites located further than 100miles from shore, but discriminated only a subset of coastal versus oceanic sources within the northeastern Pacific. Data from additional global ports are needed to predict the frequency of false positive or false negative ballast source determinations using fDOM for foreign vessel traffic.

Targeting Public Health Events on Ships

It is still deeply engraved in the collective memory of nautical personnel that health authorities in global ports focus on the transmission of yellow fever, plague, smallpox, and cholera. But the scope and purpose of the recently updated International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005) 1 is much broader: health measures at ports now aim to prevent and control all kinds of public health threats from spreading internationally. Five years into the global implementation of the IHR 2005 we do recognize a great acceptance with the new scope and procedures, such as the Sanitary Ships Inspections. But we should not overlook that major challenges for an appropriate and effective response to health threats on ships remain. Under the legal framework of the IHR 2005, ships traveling in international waters must notify to the health authority any non‐traumatic illness aboard. Frequently, health events on ships are rather identified through informal sources or during the biannual ship sanitation inspections than by formal notification. The extent and reasons of underreporting health events on ships are not well studied. In many global ports notification of disease is neither enforced nor made technically easy (eg, publishing a contact). Shipmasters may fear retardation of their voyage, inappropriate responses or even penalties and therefore avoid notifications of disease. Probably the most detrimental reaction to the notification of disease on ships is the non‐response of competent health authorities: no ship visit, no phone call, no response at all. Surely this will not encourage the ship's master to cooperate with notification requirements in the ports to follow. Even where functioning communication channels exist in ports, data collection does not result in a systematic evaluation in most countries. One well‐publicized exception to this lack of systematic surveillance on ships is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vessel Sanitation Programme … Corresponding Author: Clara Schlaich, MD, MPH, Hamburg Port Health Center, Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg‐Eppendorf, Seewartenstrase 10, Haus 1, Hamburg D‐20459, Germany. E‐mail: claraschlaich{at}jhu.edu

Water Security in Buenos Aires and the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway

This paper develops an ethnographic approach to dilemmas of urban water ecology by examining the ways people, socially organized in unique topographies, understand, represent, and grapple with water crises in their everyday lives. Part of a larger ethnographic project on global port cities, this paper focuses on three narratives of chronic hydrological imbalance across domains and scales: (1) an international maritime lawyer concerned about river sedimentation, (2) a cinematographer's film that brings attention to the deterioration of indigenous terraces that once moderated the downstream force of Andean waters, and (3) a city activist whose home flooded with water from the aquifer below after the privatized water company shut off neighborhood pumps and wells. The diverse actors' assessments of the situations familiar to them represent ethnographic intersections that tie hydrological imbalance to hydropolitics (Ribeiro 1994). Their narratives also encode scalar mismatches (Cumming, Cumming, and Redman 2...

Linking environmental conditions and ship movements to estimate invasive species transport across the global shipping network

Aim Some nations, and the International Maritime Organization, are moving towards requirements for managing ballast water to reduce the number of alien species transported and released. These and other measures will be most efficient when targeted at ships posing the greatest risks. Here, we analyse world-wide ship movements and port environmental conditions to explore how these risk components differ across arriving ships. Location Global, with a case study of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Methods We gathered salinity and temperature data for all global shipping ports, and data for all global ship movements during a 12 -month period. We applied these data to the Laurentian Great Lakes to determine which global ports may donate new species to the Great Lakes via ship traffic, and which are most environmentally similar to the Great Lakes. Results We show that ships regularly travel to the Great Lakes from all major coastal, and many inland, regions of the world. Most global ports, and thus the species in them, are separated from the Great Lakes by no more than two ship voyages. Combined with a measure of environmental similarity among global ports, we identify ship routes likely to transport species adapted for survival in the Great Lakes and global regions that may be the source of increasing future invasions. Main conclusions The Great Lakes account for a small fraction of global shipping yet are closely connected to all other ports, and the species in them, by the shipping network. Our methods and data allow risks from individual ships to be ranked so that management activities can be targeted at ships most likely to introduce new invaders. Because our data sets are global, they could be applied to ship arrivals at any global port.

Why Paul Nathan Attacked Albert Ballin: The Transatlantic Mass Migration and the Privatization of Prussia's Eastern Border Inspection, 1886–1914

Albert Ballin was one of Imperial Germany's most successful business leaders. He early recognized the impact and possibilities of the expansion and integration of global markets. Within little more than a decade after he had joined the management of theHamburg-Amerikanische-Paketfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft(HAPAG) in 1886, he turned an already significant enterprise into the world's largest steamship line. As a leading manager and later as HAPAG director general, Ballin was a major force behind Hamburg's rise to Imperial Germany's second largest city. Due in no small part to HAPAG's spectacular growth, Hamburg emerged as a key global port for passengers and freight by the turn of the century. But Ballin was not just a gifted business leader in a highly innovative economic sector; he also had access to some of the highest figures in Berlin. Ballin repeatedly met with theKaiserand government members, and he used his long-standing contacts in England on several diplomatic missions to ease rising tensions between the two powers, albeit without lasting success.

A Collaboration Service Model for a Global Port Cluster

The importance of port clusters to a global city may be viewed from a number of perspectives. The development of port clusters and economies of agglomeration and their contribution to a regional economy is underpinned by information and physical infrastructure that facilitates collaboration between business entities within the cluster. The maturity of technologies providing portals, web and middleware services provides an opportunity to push the boundaries of contemporary service reference models and service catalogues to what the authors propose to be “collaboration services”. Servicing port clusters, portal engineers of the future must consider collaboration services to benefit a region. Particularly, service orchestration through a “public user portal” must gain better utilisation of publically owned infrastructure, to share knowledge and collaborate among organisations through information systems.

Trends in Global Port Operations and Their Influence on Port Labor

The port industry has undergone substantial structural changes during the past 15 years. The emergence of global terminal operators, global oligopolistic market consolidation, vertical and horizontal integration of liner shipping, and the new structure of global production networks in relation to emerging technologies are only a few of the factors that have fundamentally influenced port labor. Ports are no longer isolated functional nodes of the transportation chain, but are a fundamental component of a seamless supply chain, working along with satellite and inland terminals. At the same time, marine terminals sometimes function as extended warehouses, providing flexible virtual inventory. These developments have created substantial challenges to port labor, including the need for upgraded working skills, enhanced productivity, and the ability to adopt flexible working conditions. Unionized port labor has been traditionally highly inflexible in changing attitudes and adapting to new port work practices. In contrast, the explosion of port service demand in emerging economies, particularly in East Asia, was followed by an unprecedented increase in port productivity, coupled by flexibility in port working practices that cannot be accepted by unionized port labor in the United States and Europe. This paper examines some of the current challenges and implications for the U.S. East Coast port labor force—the International Longshoremen's Association—due to global developments in international trade and global port operations. It proposes that future research incorporate a broad range of disciplines in order to understand the competitive environment facing longshoremen better.

Update on emissions and environmental impacts from the international fleet of ships: the contribution from major ship types and ports

Abstract. A reliable and up-to-date ship emission inventory is essential for atmospheric scientists quantifying the impact of shipping and for policy makers implementing regulations and incentives for emission reduction. The emission modelling in this study takes into account ship type and size dependent input data for 15 ship types and 7 size categories. Global port arrival and departure data for more than 32 000 merchant ships are used to establish operational profiles for the ship segments. The modelled total fuel consumption amounts to 217 Mt in 2004 of which 11 Mt is consumed in in-port operations. This is in agreement with international sales statistics. The modelled fuel consumption is applied to develop global emission inventories for CO2, NO2, SO2, CO, CH4, VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), N2O, BC (Black Carbon) and OC (Organic Carbon). The global emissions from ships at sea and in ports are distributed geographically, applying extended geographical data sets covering about 2 million global ship observations and global port data for 32 000 ships. In addition to inventories for the world fleet, inventories are produced separately for the three dominating ship types, using ship type specific emission modelling and traffic distributions. A global Chemical Transport Model (CTM) was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the emissions. We find that ship emissions is a dominant contributor over much of the world oceans to surface concentrations of NO2 and SO2. The contribution is also large over some coastal zones. For surface ozone the contribution is high over the oceans but clearly also of importance over Western North America (contribution 15–25%) and Western Europe (5–15%). The contribution to tropospheric column ozone is up to 5–6%. The overall impact of ship emissions on global methane lifetime is large due to the high NOx emissions. With regard to acidification we find that ships contribute 11% to nitrate wet deposition and 4.5% to sulphur wet deposition globally. In certain coastal regions the contributions may be in the range 15–50%. In general we find that ship emissions have a large impact on acidic deposition and surface ozone in Western North America, Scandinavia, Western Europe, western North Africa and Malaysia/Indonesia. For most of these regions container traffic, the largest emitter by ship type, has the largest impact. This is the case especially for the Pacific and the related container trade routes between Asia and North America. However, the contributions from bulk ships and tank vessels are also significant in the above mentioned impact regions. Though the total ship impact at low latitudes is lower, the tank vessels have a quite large contribution at low latitudes and near the Gulf of Mexico and Middle East. The bulk ships are characterized by large impact in Oceania compared to other ship types. In Scandinavia and north-Western Europe, one of the major ship impact regions, the three largest ship types have rather small relative contributions. The impact in this region is probably dominated by smaller ships operating closer to the coast. For emissions in ports impacts on NO2 and SO2 seem to be of significance. For most ports the contribution to the two components is in the range 0.5–5%, for a few ports it exceeds 10%. The approach presented provides an improvement in characterizing fleet operational patterns, and thereby ship emissions and impacts. Furthermore, the study shows where emission reductions can be applied to most effectively minimize the impacts by different ship types.

Interconnected synchronicities: the production of Bombay and Glasgow as modern global ports c.1850–1880

AbstractCain and Hopkins' influential theory of British imperialism opted for a metropolitan-based model of explanation, rooted in the interests of a City-of-London-based class of ‘gentlemanly capitalists’, and discounting in the process events and experiences in the colonies and the significance of industrialization. By focusing on the simultaneous emergence of Bombay and Glasgow as modern, global ports in the second half of the nineteenth century, this article argues, in diametrical opposition, for a fresh perspective on the relationship between metropole and periphery, based on the concept of ‘interconnected synchronicity‘. This proposes that ‘imperial’ causation be viewed, at least from this period, as occurring in both arenas, based on a set of related and mutually transformative processes generated by the ‘globalizing’, commodity-driven imperatives of industrial capitalism.

Conference Report Protecting port cities and communities from security threats

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsNazery KhalidThe Security of Global Port Cities – Community, Environment and Marine Policy Conference held at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, 1-2 May 2008.

Structural Dynamics in the Policy Planning of Large Infrastructure Investment under the Competitive Environment: Context of Port Throughput and Capacity

Capital investments in developing ports and/or expanding port capacity are costly ventures. The investment and policy planning of port owners would depend on anticipated port throughput. Such issues within an ex ante context are particularly pertinent to the global Port of Hong Kong, as it faces increasing competition from the fast-growing newer competitors within mainland China’s Pearl River Delta region. An appropriate question to pose would be “How do port expansion and the emergence of competitors affect the throughput of a port of interest?” Hence, policy decisions affecting throughput forecasts would be crucial to the sustainability of the Port of Hong Kong. To address such concerns, this paper introduces a dynamic port performance model (DPPM) where a system dynamics approach can be deployed to model the throughput and capacity policy within the context of the Port of Hong Kong. Focusing on the interaction of the various competitive forces that ports face, the DPPM seeks to enhance the structural d...

최소비용 기반 글로벌 항만 물류네트워크 모델 구축

본 연구의 목적은 동아시아 지역을 중심으로 글로벌 항만 물류네트워크를 구축하여 우리나라의 새로운 항만정책을 제안하는 것에 있다. 이러한 항만 물류네트워크의 구축을 위해 세계 50위 항만 중 21개의 항만을 중심으로, 컨테이너 화물량과 기항지를 분석하여 EU, 북미를 연결시 최소 물류비용인 동아시아 지역의 4개의 대표항만을 추출하였다. 그 결과 동아시아에서는 싱가포르, 홍콩, 상하이, 부산항이 추출되었다. 따라서, 우리나라는 싱가포르, 홍콩, 상하이항에 해외 터미널을 운영하고 부산항과 연계하는 글로벌 항만 물류네트워크를 구축하여 안정적인 화물을 확보해야 한다. This study is aimed to contribute in establishing new port policy by research and analysis in design of global port logistics network in the East Asia region. In order to build such port logistics network, 21 ports located in East Asia among the world's 50th largest ports were selected in this study. Furthermore, the amount of container cargo and the ports of call were analyzed to categorize the subject ports in East Asia. Finally, this study tries to find economic network between the base port in East Asia, EU or North America and feeder ports in terms of logistics cost. As a result, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Busan ports were found as the representative ports in the East Asia that may connect North America and Europe with the minimum logistics expenses. Therefore, to maintain the stable cargo volume in ports, Korea should promote not only the overseas terminal operation which links to the Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai ports, but also establish the global port logistic network connecting the Busan port.

Comparison of two approaches for the direct optimisation of a car engine intake port

The shape optimisation involving complex flows, and based on direct CFD approaches, has now become very possible within industrial contexts, thanks to recent advances in optimal design technologies. However, one key remaining issue is related with the way the shape deformations are modelled. This paper presents the development of such an optimisation procedure, applied to a car engine air intake port, and compares two alternative methods for the shape deformation modelling. Global port variations are defined through a set of shape parameters. The first option consists in building a CAD model (Catia v5) to allow deformations, followed by a grid generation stage with tools enabling to generate and adapt the mesh to shape variations (Gridgen). The second option consists in starting from a grid done for a given shape, and defining parametric deformations on this grid, with a morphing tool (Sculptor). Then, after both modelling methods, the flow calculation is carried out with a CFD solver (Fluent). The resulting fields are processed by a flow post-processor (Fieldview) and by a Matlab procedure to extract the global criteria involved as optimisation objectives: the flow rate and the tumble. All this process is bundled within the modeFRONTIER multi-objective design environment. Similar optimisation approaches were led on both cases, involving mixed response surfaces – direct calculation evaluations of the designs, and a multi-objective genetic algorithm. The paper presents the main results, highlights the advantages and shortcomings of both modelling methods, and provides guidelines for their use and improvements, in view of practical industrial applications.

Sediments in ships: Biota as biological contaminants

Global ports are hubs for industrial activities and trade. In consequence, sediments and water in these areas are often contaminated by an array of chemicals. Sediments also harbour both living, active stages and various diapausing or resting stages of biota. International shipping activities move sediments containing these biotic stages around the world, possibly resulting in biological contamination of port areas. In this study we assess active and resting stages of invertebrates contained in ballast sediment of transoceanic vessels operating on the North American Great Lakes to determine if ballast sediments could serve as a vector of nonindigenous species. A cumulative total of 160 species were identified, including 22 freshwater species not recorded from the Great Lakes! basin. Hatch rates of resting stages are affected by thermal conditions, thereby affecting invasion success. Total abundance and species diversity of freshwater invertebrate animals hatched from resting stages were negatively related to salinity of residual water in ballast tanks from which the sediments were obtained, suggesting that ballasting a shallow lens of saltwater may provide some degree of risk reduction from freshwater species invasions.

동북아 항만의 입출항 수속 간소화 방안

최근 입출항 수속 간소화에 대한 관심이 증대되면서 국제해사기구의 간소화 위원회를 중심으로 입출항 수속 절차와 신고서식의 표준화 작업이 진행되고 있다. 또한 항만 선진국에서는 전자적 수단을 이용하여 입출항 수속을 간소화함으로써 입출항 정보의 원활한 흐름과 효율화를 증대시키는 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 입출항 수속 간소화 문제는 개별 단위국가의 노력으로는 한계가 있고, 관련 국가들간의 협력을 통해 원만히 해결 될 수 있다. 이에 따른 입출항 수속과 관련한 신고서식 및 절차의 표준화와 정보의 통합화가 선행되어야 한다. 먼저 본 연구에서는 입출항 수속 간소화에 대한 국세동향 분석을 통해 선진항만에서 이루어지고 있는 간소화 사례를 살펴보았다. 다음으로 한<TEX>${\cdot}$</TEX>중<TEX>${\cdot}$</TEX>일 3국을 중심으로 동북아 항만의 입출항 수속현황과 신고서식을 분석하여 공통적인 문제점을 도출하였으며 이를 해결하기 위한 방안으로 ebXML 기반에 국제 항만 입출항 신고 시스템을 제안하였다. 본 프레임워크를 통해 입출항 수속 정보의 재사용과 신고의 자동화가 가능해 짐으로써 간소화를 실현할 수 있으며, 항만산업에 전자상거래를 도입할 수 있는 기반을 마련하였다. Recently, owing to the increasing demand on the simplification of arrival and departure procedures, IMO's (International Maritime Organization) Facilitation Committee (FAL) is carrying out the standardization project of arrival and departure formalities and clearance form. Also, many port authorities of developed countries are making active researches for the smooth flow and efficiency of the information inbound and outbound ships by way of simplifying their formalities or through electronic means. However, this standardization project cannot be done by one country but by mutual cooperation among related nations. And to carry out this task, the first thing to be done is to standardize the formalities and document form, and to integrate information. To this end, this study has reviewed the model cases of advanced ports of developed countries with regard to their simplification and standardization efforts. And also we have analyzed the formalities and clearance form of the three countries Korea, China, and Japan. And then for the solution of common problems of three countries, this paper has suggested an ebXML-based Global Port B2B framework. Through this framework, we can reuse and automate the necessary information on the arrival and departure of ships, consequently realizing simplification, and laying a foundation for the introduction of e-commerce to the port industry.

Role of container vessels in the introduction of exotic species

Ballast water exchange practices were monitored on 28 incoming container vessels at the Port of Montreal. Measurements on 15 vessels indicated 13 of 32 tanks had salinities of <30‰. The 16 transits with a North Atlantic route visited 31 of 37 ports located on freshwater or near freshwater outflows. Ballast carried by this vessel type represents an important means for the introduction of species on a global scale because of its transit routes, dockside discharge and moving ballast between tanks. Container vessels represent about 15% of the world fleet, but account for 32% of all visits to global ports, and 46% of visits to the 25 largest ports. The 10 ports that handled the largest volumes of international cargo also included 8 that handled the most cargo containers. Large ports can receive over 100,000 visits by all vessel types annually, and serve as hubs for over 500 ports in 100 countries. Secondary transport of exotic species is also a concern because of frequent visits by regional vessels.

The Governance Structure of Ports

The recent worldwide trend towards devolution in the port industry has spawned considerable variety in the types of governance structures now in place around the world. This paper discusses the range of devolution alternatives adopted in the global ports sector, as identified by the World Bank and academic researchers. It then examines the Canadian model more closely as it attempts to follow a more novel path, that of the not-for-profit organization.

Port co-opetition in concept and practice

The port industry has undergone a rationalization process over the last decade. An increasing proportion of port management and operations is being taken over by global port operating groups. Many port operators who previously ran only their local business now extend their business scope to the regional or global scale; today's port operators can be regarded as multinational corporations. In the era of global economy, a port no longer enjoys a natural monopoly, as was the case in the past. To cope with this changing business environment, a certain form of competition and co-operation among ports is necessary so as to provide services that fit into shipping lines' strategies. It is suggested that ports have to concentrate on new ways for co-operation in an effort to establish a countervailing power. This paper proposes a new strategic option known as co-opetition, the combination of competition and co-operation, for the port industry, and explains a case of co-opetition between the container ports in Hong Kong and South China. The results of this research will provide a useful insight into the port industry, which is currently required to carry out its business in an ever-changing business environment.

The challenge of peripheral ports: An Asian perspective

The growth of ports peripheral to the dominant container hubs has been well documented in North America and Europe, and has led to the elaboration of several theoretical models. This paper applies these models to the situation in South East Asia where much of the growth in containerisation is taking place. While confirming the emergence of several peripheral ports that are mounting challenges to the major hubs, we demonstrate that the factors behind the challenges are different to those postulated in the literature. Issues of governance arising out of the complex restructuring of the global ports industry are singled out. We suggest that a new geography of container terminals based on management and operational strategies of private and public bodies involved in the port industry needs to be fashioned.