Port Of Trieste Research Articles

Assessment of the Position of North Adriatic Terminals in Container Market Based on Different Indices

Background: This paper addresses the common question of how service providers compare to their competitors and what their competitive advantages are. It focuses on the North Adriatic ports of Trieste, Koper, Rijeka, Venice, and Ravenna, all members of the North Adriatic Ports Association, analyzing their position, size, competitiveness, and role in the container market. Methods: The research employs three distinct methods: market structure analysis using several concentration indices, the R method for ranking terminals, and aggregation of these indices to create a combined index for port performance. Results: Based on the rankings, indicators, the BCG matrix, and future development plans for each terminal, the ports are ranked as follows: Koper, Rijeka, Trieste, Venice, and Ravenna. Koper emerges as the leader, positioned in the high market share and strong growth category. This advantageous position allows Koper to efficiently attract traffic without requiring substantial investments. Conclusions: The contribution of the work is that the specific measure indices were applied, which were not used in the analysis of the North Adriatic container terminals until now. The research provides both a broad and detailed understanding of the position, role, and condition of each terminal. This insight enables stakeholders to take timely, strategic actions aimed at boosting productivity and traffic, ultimately improving their competitive standing.

Waiting Times for Sea Level Variations in the Port of Trieste: A Computational Data-Driven Study

We report here a series of detailed statistical analyses on the sea level variations in the Port of Trieste using one of the largest existing data catalogues that covers more than a century of measurements. We show that the distribution of waiting times, which are defined here akin to econophysics, namely the series of shortest time spans between a given sea level L and the next sea level of at least L + δ in the catalogue, exhibits a distinct scale-free character for small values of δ. For large values of δ, the shape of the distribution depends largely on how one treats the periodic components embedded in the sea level dataset. We show that direct analyses of the raw dataset yield distributions similar to the exponential distribution, while pre-processing the sea level data by means of a local averaging numerical recipe leads to Pareto-Tsallis distributions.

Untangling Infrastructure Networks Through Critical Cartographies: Mapping the Port of Trieste, Italy

This article illustrates how to research complex infrastructure networks using critical cartography. Maps, infographics, and datascapes are employed to study how contemporary flows of goods, people, and money are redefining a specific location. This topic has been widely investigated in science and technology studies; however, it has seldom been addressed by applying visual methods. Cartography, in particular, is generally regarded as a subject of analysis, rather than an investigative tool. Conversely, this contribution discusses the theory and explores critical cartography as a speculative and artistic practice for problematizing the spatialization of policies, financial interests, and trade flows. It adds another level of understanding to the field of inquiry, and can help in developing counternarratives. This method is adopted to investigate the Port of Trieste, Italy, where radical transformations have been driven by international investment and infrastructural programs. Critical cartography can help to unravel this tangle by unveiling the cross-scalar dimension of contemporary global trade and the complex landscape of infrastructural networks.

Analysis of the energetic, economic, and environmental performance of hydrogen utilization for port logistic activities

Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier and storage medium that may be employed in a variety of applications. According to the industrial processes used for its production, hydrogen may be labelled using different colours: (i) grey hydrogen, produced from natural gas using steam methane reforming (SMR), (ii) blue hydrogen, like the grey one, but with carbon capture and storage (CCS), (iii) green hydrogen, produced by water electrolysis using electricity from renewable sources only, (iv) “grid” hydrogen, produced by electrolysis using grid electricity. In this study, process simulation is used to solve material and energy balances, as well as to estimate capital and maintenance costs for each technology investigated. Then, process simulation outcomes are used to estimate three key performance indicators focusing on sustainability issues: the Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI), the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). With reference to the case study of the Trieste port in Italy, the potential of synthesizing and utilizing hydrogen to fuel transportation activities within a port is examined. Based on the daily hydrogen consumption in fuel cells installed on locomotors and trucks, the design of the different processes considered is carried out, as well as their comparison in terms of EROEI, LCOH, and LCA. Furthermore, LCA and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) evaluations for various hydrogen-fueled vehicles within the port are presented and compared to diesel-fueled ones to determine the impact of fuel-cell vehicles during operations. Results show that EROEI of hydrogen produced by electrolysis is larger than that produced by SMR with or without CCS. The LCOH for grey hydrogen is of the same order of magnitude of that of green or grid ones. The hydrogen compression step to 300 bar impacts on both energetic and economic performances. LCA indicates that the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of green hydrogen is at least half with respect to blue hydrogen, however other impact categories are less favourable. On the other hand, the TCO of hydrogen-fueled vehicles is higher than that of diesel-fueled ones, mainly because of the higher purchase costs. It is concluded that the methodology proposed in this paper, based on the evaluation of indicators at the design stage, is suitable for comparing hydrogen production processes. In addition, it is a powerful tool for policy decision-makers in defining the strategies for the development of hydrogen-based transport systems in port operations.

An Integrated Methodology for the Multi-Objective Optimization of Port Railway Capacity: The Case Study of the Port of Trieste

The relevant pressure exerted on ports following the advent of globalization and containerization has contributed to transform the role of such intermodal transport facilities, increasing their complexity with reference to both performed activities and involved actors. The potential of solid hinterland connections in enhancing port competitiveness has sustained the larger embracement of the railway mode, which has proved to be a financially and environmentally sustainable solution, especially on long hauls. However, the limited residual capacity currently characterizing several railway network and nodes may threaten the accommodation of additional future traffic volumes and, thus, it requires the adoption of a coordinated strategy to more efficiently manage existing railway infrastructures, other than the realization of some new ones. In this regard, an integrated methodology has been developed to specifically model, simulate and optimize port railway processes, as part of a more complex system, imposing the maximization of capacity with the concurrent minimization of used shunting locomotives, to varying of infrastructural and operational conditions. This combination of techniques has been applied to the case study of the Port of Trieste, Italy, showing the greater influence of tracks availability over changes in the operational conditions, in terms of a shorter duration of specific administrative tasks and the employment of more shunting locomotives.

Environmental Assessment and Regulatory Aspects of Cold Ironing Planning for a Maritime Route in the Adriatic Sea

The technology of cold ironing (or shore-to-ship power) can meaningfully reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions from ships at the berth by powering the vessels from the electrical shore grid. While cold ironing constitutes an effective and affordable solution in northern Europe and America, economic, legal, and environmental factors still render this technology less attractive in southern Europe. This paper aims to unpack and analyze the economic, regulatory, and environmental factors that can foster cold ironing as a standard installation in the Mediterranean Sea. Based on a model design for the port of Trieste (Italy) as applied to a cluster of target ports in the Adriatic Sea (in Italy, Croatia, and Greece), this article evaluates the cold ironing payback period by comparing costs of shore side-plants with environmental externalities and O&M costs. Moreover, the paper addresses key regulatory bottlenecks arising in different European jurisdictions with regard to the setting-up and development of cold ironing, while appraising the legal and economic consequences of deploying cold ironing in light of the future inclusion of the maritime sector in the EU Emission Trading System.

The role of logistics in promoting Italian agribusiness: The Belt and Road Initiative case study

The increasing policy interest in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has stimulated an interesting debate in the research community. Although there are numerous studies focusing on this issue, in literature little attention has been devoted to the impact of the initiative on the performances of Italian firms involved in agribusiness. In order to bridge this gap, this paper focuses on wine as a high-quality commodity exported all over the world and considered an epitome of Made in Italy. Furthermore, ports of Venice and Trieste was selected for the analyses as being part of BRI agreements. This study highlights that the BRI project may modify land use planning as a consequence of the policymakers’ choosing a specific port to serve as the Italian connection to the BRI. The heterogeneity that might influence regional data needs the usage of specific approaches (the order-α and order-m) to evaluate the firms’ efficiency as a consequence of two different links to the ports of Trieste and Venice. The authors attempt to perform this investigation considering the predicted effects of the BRI, and several different databases are used to examine these potential effects. The evaluation of accessibility in terms of distance and transport time could provide helpful details to policymakers when looking at different BRI alternatives. To achieve the analysis, the authors also consider dimensions connected to specific financial statements and labour, environmental and business innovation indicators. The results reveal that, when the scenario involves a specific port, some differences appear in the ranking of firms. The findings also show that the spatial effect connected to the choice of a specific port decreases for small firms. Since the Italian agribusiness sector – specifically the wine sector – is characterized by a prevalence of small and/or family firms, it is recommended that policymakers deal with the conclusions of present research to compare different BRI options from a land use point of view.

Practices, merchants and mercantilisms. Jews and the cereal trade in Trieste between Eastern Europe, the Po and the Mediterranean (18th century)

The article aims to highlight the role of the Jewish merchants of Trieste in the cereal trade in the eighteenth century. In particular, it focuses on analysing how, in the discontinuity in the development mechanisms of the free port of Trieste that occurred in the mid-eighteenth century, they managed to be protagonists in the construction of wider, from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, trade routes and a new geography of the grain trade. Moreover, the cereal trade, and in particular that of Continental and Eastern Europe, was a fundamental element of the further development that at the end of the century made Trieste one of the main Mediterranean trading centres.

Assessment of ship emissions in coastal waters using spatial projections of ship tracks, ship voyage and engine specification data

To understand, mitigate and reduce the detrimental effects on human health and the environment from exhaust gas emissions from ships it is necessary to be able to estimate the quantity and location of these ship emissions in time. Currently, the two most commonly used ship emission assessment methods sit on opposite ends of the spectrum – the top-down approach, which provides low resolution yet efficient aggregated results however is unable to account for specific shipping activities, and the bottom-up vessel-by-vessel approach, which provides near-instantaneous ship emissions production at a high resolution – yet is data and time intensive. To address the market gap for a ship greenhouse emission estimation method that hybridises the best of both the bottom-up and top-down methods the novel Ship Emissions Assessment (SEA) method is proposed as an innovative hybrid solution. It is a cost effective and resource efficient method, presenting spatial ship emissions utilising widely accessible data, and it is precise – fulfilling the requirements needed to evaluate ship emissions reduction measures. Novel SEA method is the first in its endeavour to replace Automatic Identification System (AIS) Vessel-based raw data allocation, by using rapid analyses of readily available ship track density data and average voyage information. It combines obtained average voyage distance with voyage average speed to estimate ship activity for emission assessments - saving costs by reducing time and reliance on complex computations, especially when many ships need to be analysed simultaneously. Using the novel SEA method, a series of containerships from geographically diverse ports were sampled and assessed for emissions with comparative results confirming the representations equivalent to the detailed and data demanding bottom-up method. Subsequently, the novel SEA method was applied to containership traffic calling into the Port of Trieste, in the northern Adriatic Sea, where it demonstrated the ability to estimate and quantify historic emissions for the preceding 12 months while taking into account seasonal port traffic variations. The novel SEA method showed to be an efficient, inexpensive and accurate, easy-to-use emission assessment tool based on widely accessible data. It can be used in day-to-day shipping operations by a variety of stakeholders including port operations managers, regional traffic operators, and those non-industry, while providing the required level of technical accuracy. In comparison, existing methods are not as time and cost effective, user-friendly, nor based on easy to interpret and readily accessible data. The novel SEA method enables further global research of ship emissions, and for regional and international policy makers to effectively manage the measures needed to reach greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. • Ship emission estimation method hybridising the best of bottom-up and top-down . • Rapid and accurate estimation of airborne emissions from ships. • Assessing effectiveness of evolved and mandated NO x reduction measures. • Ship emissions estimated using widely accessible ship track density maps. • Estimated CO 2 , SO x and NO x containership emissions for the Port of Trieste.

Integration of BPMN Modeling and Multi-actor AHP-aided Evaluation to Improve Port Rail Operations

Selecting the best scenario of intervention to improve the functioning of complex systems represents a troublesome task both for public and private decision makers, since it requires the deployment of appropriate analysis and evaluation tools. In the case of intermodal transport systems, complexity is given by the execution of different types of activities using various resources, and by the presence of several actors operating in the same environment with diverse goals. In this paper, an integrated approach to assess design alternatives regarding rail port operations is proposed by combining business process modeling and multi-actor multi-criteria evaluation. In fact, a railway process has been graphically represented by means of the standardized modeling language called Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN) at different levels of detail, i.e. taking into account not only the actual transport operations but also the necessary documentary procedures to perform the freight transfer services. In addition to the identification of possible bottlenecks, the analysis of the considered railway process has enabled the determination of its most significant features. These parameters have been subsequently used as some of the criteria according to which the performances of the examined scenarios of intervention have been evaluated, adopting the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Furthermore, the appraisal has been enhanced by explicitly including the key stakeholders involved in the railway process at hand. The developed methodology has been applied to the case study of the Port of Trieste, Italy, in order to investigate possibilities for an increase in railway capacity.

Rosenbluth and Sagdeev in Trieste: The Birth of Modern Space Plasma Physics

AbstractI was present at the birth of modern space plasma physics. Plasma physics and space physics had grown up, side‐by‐side, in the Cold War, and their child, space plasma physics, was conceived in America and the Soviet Union and born in 1965–1966 at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in the Adriatic Port of Trieste, Italy, on the border with then Yugoslavia.

Near‐shore geophysical and geotechnical investigations in support of the Trieste Marine Terminal extension

ABSTRACTThe Port of Trieste is an international hub for land and sea trade with the dynamic markets of central and eastern Europe. Thanks to its deep natural draft (about 18 m), the modern high‐capacity vessels can moor to the piers. In view of the foreseen increase in maritime traffic, this harbour is undergoing modernization in order to improve the commercial traffic capability. In this expansion plan, the container Trieste Marine Terminal, Pier VII, is seeking an extension by about 200 m. In support of this feasibility study, multidisciplinary data acquisition was conducted in order to characterize the seabed, the sub‐bottom sediments and the bedrock (flysch formation) in front of the Trieste Marine Terminal. The acquisition of high‐resolution swath bathymetry, side‐scan sonar and magnetometer data allowed a detailed analysis of the seabed conditions from an environmental and safety perspective. High‐resolution seismic reflection data enabled us to characterize the Plio‐Quaternary soft sediments and the underlying bedrock. A static underwater refraction survey was performed using hydrophone array deployed on the sea bottom to obtain seismic velocities and to achieve a reliable time‐to‐depth conversion of reflection seismic data by first‐arrival tomographic inversion. In addition to geophysical investigations, 11 offshore boreholes were drilled for detailed logging. In situ standard penetration tests were performed on core samples with the use of a pocket penetrometer and pocket vane in order to obtain uniaxial compressive strength, undrained shear strength and undrained cohesion values, and assess the cohesive soils. During drilling, 17 undisturbed samples and 12 semi‐disturbed samples were extracted to perform laboratory tests for the identification of the principal geotechnical parameters. The goal was to obtain a reliable geological/geotechnical model in front of the Trieste Marine Terminal – from the seabed to the bedrock. Below the seafloor, a sequence of about 20–30 m thickness, containing Plio‐Quaternary soft sediments, overlies the flysch, which locally presents alteration with rocks of reduced quality. The geophysical–geotechnical integrated approach allowed us to identify and map the top of the bedrock and provided valuable information for planning the pier extension project.

From the Adriatic to the Black Sea: The Italian economic and military expansion endeavour in the Balkan-Danube area

During the years that followed the end of the Great War, the Adriatic area found itself in a period of deep economic crisis due to the emptiness caused by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The ancient Habsburg harbours, which had recently turned Italian, had lost their natural positions of Mitteleuropean economic outlets toward the Mediterranean due to the new political order of Central-Eastern Europe. Rome, then, attempted a series of economic manoeuvres aimed at improving Italian trade in the Julian harbours, first of all the port of Trieste, and at encouraging Italian entrepreneurial penetration in the Balkans. Resolved in a failure, the desire for commercial boost toward the oriental Adriatic shore coincided with the Dalmatian Irredentism and became a topic for claiming the 1941 military intervention across the Balkan peninsula. Italian geopoliticians, who had just developed the geopolitical discipline in Italy, made the Adriatic-Balkan area one of their most discussed topics. The fascist geopolitical project aimed at creating an economic aisle between the Adriatic and the Black Sea, in order to bypass the Turkish straits and become completion and outlet toward the Mediterranean of the Nazi Baltic-Mitteleuropean space in the north. Rome attempted the agreement with the other Danubian States, which subscribed the Tripartite Pact, in order to create a kind of economic cooperation area under the Italian lead. Therefore, the eastern Italian geopolitical border would have been traced farther from national limes. Rome would have projected his own interests as far as the Danubian right riverside, sharing with Berlin the southern part of that area consisting of territories historically comprehended (and contented) between German and Russian spheres of interest, which the Reich intended to reorganise after the alleged Soviet Union defeat. These Countries, framed by the Baltic, Mediterranean and Black See shores, found themselves entangled once more by geopolitical ties enforced by the interests of foreign Countries. However, these projects remained restricted to paper: the invasion of Yugoslavia turned into a failure and exposed Italy's military weakness; Rome proved to have no authority about the New Order organisation. Italy could dream up about its power only among magazines pages.

"Piramida" na Zgornjem Motniku in njen zgodovinski kontekst

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paper Language: Original in Slovenian (Abstract in Slovenian and English, Summary in English) Key words: Emperor Charles VI, ceremonies of hereditary homage, 1728, Carinthia, Styria, traffic, roads Abstract: The author presents a monument which is in sources referred to also as a pyramid or even an obelisk and was erected in Zgornji Motnik to commemorate the year when Emperor Charles VI travelled across the Slovenian lands in 1728. The first monument of this type was built at Ljubelj upon the same occasion, commemorating the fact that the emperor entered the land of Carniola at this mountain pass, at which a much-used road had been running ever since the Antiquity. Just as at Ljubelj, other places in the Inner Austrian Lands prepared for the emperor's visit well, starting with the restoration and reinforcement of the roads along which the emperor was to travel and which were in the future to become the main commercial roads and the fastest connections to the free ports of Trieste and Rijeka. At both above-mentioned locations, which were also the border between lands (Ljubelj between Carniola and Carinthia and Zgornji Motnik between Carniola and Styria), the emperor was honoured by inscriptions on monuments. These inscriptions reflect the characteristics and manner of ancient imperial inscriptions.

Assesing Home Port Potencial of Selected Adriatic Ports

The cruise industry has been constantly growing since the 1970s and is considered the fastest growing travel vacation segment ever. Currently, Mediterranean is the second most visited region, just behind the Caribbean. One of the Mediterranean cruise markets is the Adriatic Sea, which is becoming an increasingly interesting destination, with Venice and Dubrovnik being the most popular spots. While a port of call destination mainly needs to offer certain attractions to be added to the cruise line itineraries, homeports must provide much more in particular in regards to infrastructure and passengers’ services offered. Currently, the port of Venice and Bari act as main home ports in the Adriatic, while the port of Trieste is growing in importance although at the moment it does not represent a considerable share in terms of number of exchanged cruise passengers. In this paper, the author will determine the advantages that these ports offer in terms of home port adequacy and examine the homeport potential of two Adriatic ports, namely the port of Koper and the port of Split. For this purpose, the list of influential factors will be created based on existing studies but shaped to meet the specific micro conditions and requirements. These factors will be examined.

Radiocesium Contamination in Samples of Blueberries Jams Collected in Stores of NE Italy (2013-2017)

The monitoring of radioactivity in foodstuffs is carried out for the purposes of food safety in order to follow the evolution of the contamination as result of incidents that occurred both in the past (eg Chernobyl) and in more recent times (eg, Fukushima). Then, the movement of goods from these countries to European Union may cause the propagation of foods potentially toxic for health.
 
 At the Port of Trieste, in the period of September 2013, some loads of blueberries (Vaccinum mirtyllus L.) were examined within the application of EC Regulation 733/2008, on the conditions governing imports of agricultural products originating in the countries affected by the nuclear accident of Chernobyl in 1986.
 
 The fruits came from Ukraine and were intended for the food preparations containing blueberries, in particular jams and marmalades.
 
 As in some cases significant values of Radiocesium concentrations (Cesium-137) were found in blueberries, though below the limit of 600 Bq/kg as required by the Regulations, it was decided to verify whether the presence of this contaminant in the raw material at the tested levels could interest the finished products. In this work, we have therefore collected and analyzed some samples of concentrated blueberries products in different large stores, in order to verify the magnitude of the possible contamination by radio Cesium.

A modelling framework for MSP-oriented cumulative effects assessment

This research presents a comprehensive Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) based on the Tools4MSP modelling framework tested for the Italian Adriatic Sea. The CEA incorporates five methodological advancements: (1) linear and non-linear ecosystem response to anthropogenic pressures/effects, (2) modelling of additive, dominant and antagonist stressor effects, (3) implementation of a convolution distance model for stressor dispersion modelling, (4) application of a CEA backsourcing (CEA-B) model to identify and quantify sources of anthropogenic pressures affecting environmental components, based on the convolution distance model and (5) a novel CEA impact chain visualization tool based on Sankey diagrams. Results from CEA in the Italian Adriatic Sea show that highest CEA scores are located in the Northern Adriatic Sea (Port of Trieste and Venice Lagoon inlets) while abrasion, marine litter and selective extraction are the most pronounced pressures within the 12 nm. Results from CEA-B application for two case studies evidence a clear distinction among local human impacts (trawling, small scale fishery) versus long-range diffusive human impacts (underwater noise and marine litter). Results were discussed for their geospatial outcomes, importance for transboundary effects assessment, conservation planning and future application potentials.

Integrated evaluation methodology and its application to freight transport policies in the port of Trieste

Abstract In port cities, a smooth integration of the port and the city represents a relevant feature, as it allows to avoid negative mutual effects which can compromise the functioning of the two systems. In fact, the interaction between the port and the city regards not only the economy and transport, but also the environmental, managerial and social fields. Thus, it is essential to identify and design the most appropriate course of action in order to boost the interrelationship between these two entities, along with an efficient performance of port operations: this is possible by adopting a well-structured evaluation methodology that permits to consider many features of the issue at hand and the perspective of various stakeholders. This paper introduces an integrated evaluation method, which combines an analysis by indicators and a multi-stakeholder multi-criteria decision analysis. The method was applied to evaluate the possible implementation of two activities aiming at promoting the port-city integration through the enhancement of freight management in the Port of Trieste. The explicit engagement of the most significant stakeholders in the appraisal procedure and the understanding of their influence over the main goal of the evaluation are specific features of the method.

The Port of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea)—A Case Study of the “Ecosystem Approach to Management”

This study is a rare example of “the ecosystem approach to management” that has been carried out for the purpose of providing practical support to decision-makers in managing a Site of National Interest (SIN) where activities such as fishing, aquaculture and swimming are restricted. Benthic ecosystem functioning was assessed to verify whether it would be possible to exclude the less contaminated part from the SIN and its legislative constraints. At five macrosites subjected to diversified industrialization and anthropization, we evaluated the structural characteristics of the sediments, both heterotrophic and phototrophic communities, and the main processes of production, transformation and consumption of organic matter at seven stations, plus a reference site. Along the north-eastern boundary of the bay, the port, shipbuilding and iron foundry areas, characterised by high levels of contaminants, low macrozoobenthic diversity, major organic contents (up to 51.1 mgC g-1) and higher numbers of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria (up to 5,464 MPN gdry-1), differed significantly (RANOSIM = 0.463, p = 2.9%) from the other areas (stations). Oxygen consumption (-15.221.59 mgC m-2) prevailed over primary production and the trophic state was net heterotrophic. In contrast, on the other side of the harbour (residential area/centre bay), contamination levels were below the legal limits and both the microalgal and macrobenthic communities displayed higher biodiversity. Higher macrofaunal abundances (up to 753174.7 ind.m-2), primary production rates (up to 58.608.41 mgC m-2) and exoenzymatic activities were estimated. nMDS and SIMPROF analyses performed on benthic communities significantly separated the most contaminated stations from the other ones. Overall, by applying this holistic approach, a better environmental situation was highlighted along the southern boundary of the bay and according to these results this part of the bay could be excluded from the SIN. However, further sampling is required along a finer sampling grid in the less contaminated side of the port in order to confirm these first results. Our work is one of the first case studies where such an ecosystem approach has been applied to a port area, in order to provide practical support to decision-makers involved in the spatial planning of harbour zones.

Active and resting microbenthos in differently contaminated marine coastal areas: insights from the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic, Mediterranean Sea)

Marine benthic microalgae are a promising bioindicator of contamination. To date, however, investigations on the microbenthic communities subjected to multiple stressors in natural environments are still very rare. To assess whether the benthic processes of primary production and oxygen consumption, and the structure of active and resting microbenthos, were affected by sediment contamination, seven stations were sampled in different zones of the port of Trieste, subjected to multiple and diffuse contamination, and a reference site in the Marine Reserve of Miramare. No major differences in total abundance of active microbenthos were observed among sites, but the dominance of stress-resistant species and the reduction of more sensitive ones, were registered nearby the main productive activities. The densities of resting microbenthos were higher in polluted areas, and represented by key dinoflagellate species that were clearly linked to contamination. The analysis of similarity applied to both active and resting communities significantly separated the most contaminated stations from the other ones. The photosynthetic capability of active microbenthos did not seem to be affected by contamination. The maximum oxygen consumption rates observed in sediments nearby the productive activities were likely ascribable to high organic C contents and the presence of metals in reduced chemical form.