Sustainable Port Development Research Articles

Elvira Haezendonck & Alain Verbeke (eds.), Sustainable port clusters and development: building competitiveness through clustering or spatially dispersed supply chains

Elvira Haezendonck & Alain Verbeke (eds.), Sustainable port clusters and development: building competitiveness through clustering or spatially dispersed supply chains

Evaluation of Port Unified Efficiency Based on RAM-DEA Model for Port Sustainable Development

Qi, Q.; Jiang, Y., and Wang, D., 2020. Evaluation of port unified efficiency based on RAM-DEA model for port sustainable development. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 724–729. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Unified efficiency is essential in evaluating the balance between operational performance and environment of port, since Green Port is becoming the core concept of port development. This research utilizes a Range Adjusted Measure - Data Envelopment Analysis (RAM-DEA) model with natural and managerial disposability to evaluate the port unified efficiency from two aspects of both operational performance and environment, and determine the types of returns to scale (RTS) and damages to scale (DTS). Statistical data from 10 ports along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province are empirically examined using the RAM-DEA model. The results indicate that the RAM-DEA model is a feasible approach for port unified efficiency evaluation. Moreover, combined with the exactly types of RTS and DTS, the RAM-DEA model can support port enterprise in choosing the suitable development direction for the sustainable development of port.

Measurement and Comparison of Economic Efficiency of Major Coastal Ports in China

Wang, J.X. and Yang, M., 2020. Measurement and comparison of economic efficiency of major coastal ports in China. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 687-691. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Coastal ports are an important foundation to support a country's open economy. The coastal ports of China have the advantages of low cost, low pollution, and strong sustainability, but there are also inefficiencies such as crowded input, insufficient output, and mismatch between scale and input-output. Increasing efficiency has become an inevitable choice for the sustainable development of coastal ports in China. To this end, based on the DEA model, this article measures the comprehensive technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of major coastal ports in China, empirically analyzes the influencing factors of the port's comprehensive efficiency, and gives countermeasures and suggestions.

Approach towards Sustainable and Smart Coal Port Development: The Case of Huanghua Port in China

This paper focuses on measures towards sustainable development of coal ports based on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of the triple bottom line, and examines the integration and optimization roles of smart technologies on coal port sustainability in the era of the Internet of Things. By investigating the representative case of Huanghua Port, one of the largest coal transportation ports in China, this paper enables a better understanding of the coal port’s sustainable practices driven by smart technologies. This study provides measures on the intelligent renovation, coal dust pollution treatment, air pollution treatment and sewage treatment, the customer and employee satisfaction improvement, and community involvement as well as social reputation enhancement. The research investigates the effectiveness of measures on the coal port’s sustainability by examining changes in key performance indicators and further examines the integration and optimization roles of smart technologies. The findings show that the approach taken by the port can effectively promote the coal port’s sustainability. The intelligent operation control system linking the separate nodes in operation, the ecological intelligent control system integrating environmental protection functions, and the intelligent service platform linking supply chain members are interrelated and interact to achieve the continuous optimization of decisions towards coal port sustainability. This study offers managerial insights for the port operators and policymakers towards the sustainable and smart development of ports.

Driving Mechanism of Port-City Spatial Relation Evolution from an Ecological Perspective: Case Study of Xiamen Port of China

With the economic globalization continuing to advance, coastal port cities have enjoyed increasingly prominent status and roles as the link between the sea and the land and an important window of foreign trade and exchanges. However, port cities, while embracing rapid development, have also produced a significant impact on natural resources and the ecological environment. Ecological environment protection has become a must-consider factor for sustainable development of port cities. To secure coordinated and sustainable development of ports and cities, this paper utilizes the system dynamics theory and approaches the subject from driver analysis. In the traditional port-city collaboration system model, indicators of ecological perspectives such as land resources and environmental protection are introduced to build a dynamic model for the spatial evolution system of port-city coupling system based on ecological protection, and the dynamic mechanism of port-city spatial relation evolution is analyzed in depth with a case study of Dongdu Port Area of Xiamen Port. The model’s simulation results show that from an ecological perspective, the spatial distance between the port and the city is critical to their sustainable and coordinated development. Only after the port-city spatial distance increases moderately can the development efficiency of the port-city system welcomes a relatively significant increase. Managing the port-city distance well has a significant driving effect on capacity enhancement of the port and economic development of the city. This provides a theoretical reference for further studies on port-city coordinated and sustainable development and provides constructive suggestions for the government to make relevant decisions.

Elvira Haezendonck and Alain Verbeke (eds): Sustainable port clusters and development: building competitiveness through clustering or spatially dispersed supply chains

Elvira Haezendonck and Alain Verbeke (eds): Sustainable port clusters and development: building competitiveness through clustering or spatially dispersed supply chains

Network Evolution of Logistics Service Effect of Port Infrastructure in Coastal China

The similarity of logistics functions of ports and the overlapped economic hinterlands, as well as the competition and mutual effects between port infrastructure contribute to the extremely complex service effect between logistics services of ports. How to define the complex network evolution patterns of service effect between different ports becomes essential. This study builds a BBV(Barrat, Barthelemy and Vespignani model) weighted network evolution model to analysis the complex network evolution laws of the service effect of typical seaports in coastal China. We select key assessment factors that affect the service effect of ports, establish a complex network analysis model for port service effect. 15 typical seaports in coastal China are selected for empirical research to verify the practicality and effectiveness of the established model in analysis for complex networks of ports’ service effect. The results show that the network presents a hub-and-spoke spatial pattern featuring a small world and no scales, and presents polarized and complex evolution characteristics. The results of this study are conducive to government departments and policy makers for understanding port development and evolution laws, so as to roll out effective strategies as appropriate to manage and promote sustainable development of ports.

Identifying Ecosystem-Based Alternatives for the Design of a Seaport’s Marine Infrastructure: The Case of Tema Port Expansion in Ghana

Long-term sustainable port development requires accounting for the intrinsic values of ecosystems. However, in practice, ecosystem considerations often only enter the planning and design process of ports when required by an Environmental Impact Assessment. At this late stage, most of the design is already fixed and opportunities to minimize and restore ecosystem impacts are limited. In this paper, we adopt a large-scale, ecosystem perspective on port development with the aim to identify ecosystem-based design alternatives earlier and throughout the planning and design of a port’s marine infrastructure. We present a framework, termed the ‘ecosystem-based port design hierarchy’ (EPDH), to identify ecosystem-based alternatives at four hierarchical design levels: 1) alternatives to port developments, 2) port site selection, 3) port layout design, and 4) design of structures and materials. In applying the EPDH framework retrospectively to a case study of port expansion in Tema, Ghana, we establish that ecosystem considerations played only a limited role in identifying and evaluating alternatives at all four design levels in the case study, whereas more eco-friendly alternatives in terms of port layouts, structures, and materials are identified using the EPDH framework. This reveals that opportunities for ecosystem-friendly port designs may have been missed and demonstrates the need for and the potential added value of our framework. The framework can assist practitioners in earlier and wider identification of ecosystem-based alternatives for a port’s marine infrastructure in future seaport developments and, hence, represents an important step towards more sustainable port designs.

A Review of Port Research using Computational Text Analysis: A Comparison of Korean and International Journals

This paper aims to identify research topics about the theme of port based on a corpus of articles published in Korean and international academic journals after the 2000s through a comprehensive literature review. Scanning the literature on port enables the authors to list up common research topics by comparing each journal paper. The scope of literature survey for this paper is limited to articles appeared in international journals in the category of seaport in science citation index (SCI) and Korea Citation Index (KCI) level journals. This study applies the topic modeling approach on collected texts and completes mapping of research trends and patterns of the existing literature by inferring key topics. This paper contributes to the literature of port research by comparing the research trends of Korean and international journals, illuminating crucial gaps that the previous studies have not addressed. Also, results in this study show that future research should focus on port cooperation and the environmental issues for the sustainable development of ports. Valuable insight from observations of this study is that the gap between recent challenges of port and topics of port studies in Korean journals needs to be bridged. This study could inspire some new discussions on port research and potential directions.

Competitiveness Evaluation of Shanghai Ports Based on Niche Theory

Li, W.; Liu, W.; Wang, L., and Wen, J., 2018. Competitiveness evaluation of Shanghai ports based on niche theory. In: Ashraf, M.A. and Chowdhury, A.J.K. (eds.), Coastal Ecosystem Responses to Human and Climatic Changes throughout Asia.As a distributing center of the trade and transportation network, ports play an important role in the development of the national economy. However, many ports have common economic backgrounds, and competitions such as price wars have intensified, which inhibits the sustainable development of ports. With this background, the niche theory of ports was constructed based on the biological niche theory, and basic competitive strategies for ports also are put forward using the trend and position of niche theory and the niche overlap theory. Five main ports in the Yangtze River Delta are chosen as research objects. Then the competition relationships among the five ports are analyzed in detail. Based on that, a development strategy for Shanghai Ports is put forward.

Legal aspects of sustainable development of seaports in Poland

Sea ports are the driving force behind economic development. If ports operate efficiently and in conditions that support growth, the entire national economy gains. However, ports facing barriers and a scarcity of favourable factors have a negative impact on a country’s economy. In terms of sustainable development, it does not suffice to increase the economic potential of ports; it is also necessary to strive for balance between social and environmental interests, so that the sea may provide for everyone, including the future generations. It is important to enable ports to operate in such a way as not to stunt their competitiveness but to allow for development without disrupting the social and economic balance. The aim of this article is to investigate whether the existing legal instruments in the field of sustainable development of ports match the specific profile of ports as entities and whether the assumptions for sustainable development work well in practice. The article contains an analysis and assessment of legal regulations concerning sustainable development of sea ports. Selected legal instruments with direct or indirect impact on the formation of the sustainable development policy for Polish sea ports have been analysed at the global, European and national levels. Reference has been made to regulations related both to hard law and soft law. The article draws special attention to a balance between social, economic and environmental interests as a foundation for sustainable development.

Possibility of implementation and environmental benefits of high-voltage power supply in developing countries, example of Croatia

One of the significant environmental aspects of transport and cargo manipulation in ports is air pollution. Coupled with other industrial sources, port traffic and operations can cause exceedances of environmental limit values and thus increase the risk of adverse biological effects including toxicity to humans. The proposed paper will describe the main characteristics of the on-shore high-voltage power supply and will discuss the extent to which the implementation of this technology is justified with respect to environmental protection, development of sustainable transport and the protection of human health. The paper suggests implementing on-shore high-voltage power supply with the aim of securing a sustainable development of world ports and minimizing their harmful effects to the environment, taking into consideration the economic aspects. After analysing the results, this technology provides a wider perspective for its future implementation into Croatian ports. The paper will assess the possible environmental effects of implementing this new technology into Croatian ports.

Study on Efficient Port Environmental Management for Sustainable Port Operation (I): Case Study of Marine Environments and Natural Resources Impacts by Busan New Port Development

국가물류경제의 중축산업인 항만의 지속가능한 운영과 개발을 위해서는 인프라 확충을 통한 경쟁력확보와 더불어 대기오염, 수질오염, 소음 및 생태계 파괴 등의 항만환경문제로 인한 지역커뮤니티와의 갈등해소가 더 중요한 요소로 부각되고 있다. 우리나라 부산 신항만 개발사업의 경우도 신항만 공사용 바다모래 채취로 인한 어민들과의 갈등 때문에 항만공사가 중단된 경험이 있으며, 그 주요 원인으로 현행 어업피해조사제도를 포함한 항만환경피해에 대한 정량적인 영향성 평가법의 부재와 한계라 할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구의 주목적은 우리나라 항만의 지속가능한 항만운영 및 개발을 위한 효율적인 항만환경관리에 필수적인 정량적 환경영향성평가 방안의 제시에 있다. 이를 위해 국내외 항만의 환경정책과 사례분석을 통해 전반적인 항만환경문제와 그 영향(피해)에 대해서 살펴보고, 피해를 입은 환경재와 서비스의 전체적 경제적 가치를 평가할 수 있는 경제적 가치평가법을 제시하였다. 제시된 방법론 중에서 부산 신항만 개발로 따른 정박지 지정으로 인한 해양생태계 서비스 피해 사례에 대해 보다 과학적으로 추정할 수 있는 Habitat Equivalency Analysis(HEA)를 적용하여, 예시적인 피해액을 추정하였다. 본 연구의 결과를 토대로, 제시된 항만환경피해에 대한 경제적 영향성평가방법론의 제도적 도입을 통하여 보다 효율적인 항만환경관리방안을 제시하였다. The sustainable operation and development of ports is a key industry for Korea's national economy. It is increasingly more important to resolve conflicts with local communities due to port environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution, noise and ecosystem destruction while securing port competitiveness through infrastructure expansion. In case of the Busan New Port development project in Korea, construction has been temporally suspended due to conflict with local fishermen over marine sand mining for construction. A primary reason for this is the absence and limitation of qualitative port environmental impact assessment methodologies in Korea. This includes the current investigation of fisheries damaged by ports. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to propose economic valuation methods for assessing environmental impacts that are essential for efficient port environmental management and for sustainable port operation and development in Korea. To do this, this study examines the overall port environmental problems and their effects (damages) through the analysis of environmental policies and case studies of domestic and overseas ports. Then economic valuation methods are suggested for total economic values (TEV) of damaged environmental goods and services. Among the proposed methods, Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA), as a more scientific data based method, was applied to estimate marine ecosystem service damages from the designation of Busan New Port Anchorages. Finally, based on the study results, more efficient port environmental management will be achieved through the institutional adoption of the proposed economic impact assessment methods for port environmental damages.

Sustainable Port Development and Operation Focusing on Triple Bottom Line

Sustainable Port Development and Operation Focusing on Triple Bottom Line

Towards Sustainable ASEAN Port Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Vietnamese Ports

ABSTRACT Sustainability agendas are challenging port authorities around the world to find ways of operating and managing their ports efficiently and effectively in terms of economic, social, as well as environmental development. In this respect, governments in ASEAN countries have been implementing various green activities seeking to reduce the environmental impact of shipping and related activities. In this connection, most studies in the existing literature mainly focus on the environmental aspects of sustainable development and have not clearly explained what sustainable port development exactly entails. Furthermore, most of these studies emphasized on the impact of port development and overlooked what factors influence sustainable port development. To address these gaps, this research aim to explore the main factors shaping sustainable port development. This was conducted through a comprehensive review of related literature as well as confirmatory in-depth interviews with port authorities. As a result, findings from this research would help identify key elements of sustainable port development from port authorities’ perspective. The challenges, opportunities and managerial implications for Vietnamese ports are also discussed accordingly.

Inland Container Terminals in the Function of the Northern Adriatic Ports Enhanced Operation

Continuous growth in the Northern Adriatic ports container traffic has caused a high utilization rate of the existing loading/unloading and storage capacities. In order to relieve pressure in ports and avoid traffic congestion and overcrowding which are already occurring, a possible solution is imposed by the construction of a new inland container terminal in their catchment background. This would meet the need for additional storage areas, speed up the flow of containers and ensure sustainable development of the Northern Adriatic container ports. In this paper, a proposition is presented for development of an inland container terminal in Kotoriba as a transit logistics centre for the ports of Rijeka, Trieste and Koper. Using the concept of their transport interlinkage and business policy pursuing their common appearance on the market, unlimited possibilities will be provided for the development of the Northern Adriatic supply chain toward the markets of the Central and Eastern Europe

Container Terminals and Port City Interface – A Study of Gdynia and Gdańsk Ports

The development of international trade, supply chains and transport increases the turnover of container terminals. Changes in the port environment and the functions of terminals have created a demand for logistics solutions and value-added services. On the other hand, these changes have also influenced the port-city interface.The purpose of this paper is to present the activity of container terminals and examine how the growing turnover of container units has affected the port cities. The interaction between the latter and port terminals has been discussed. The research is based on the terminals located in Polish port cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk, which play a leading role in the development of the economy in the region.The research has shown that maritime networks have an ever-growing influence on ports and port – city relationships. On the one hand, the growth of maritime logistic services has a positive influence on the labor market and transport infrastructure, which is also used by the inhabitants. On the other hand, the increase in container cargo volume has a negative impact on urban areas through a number of negative externalities (congestion, noise, pollutant emissions, etc.). This creates a conflict in which the city has to bear the external effects of the port operations. In this context, solutions incorporating the sustainable development of both port and urban areas are essential.

Simulation-Based Optimization for Yard Design at Mega Container Terminal under Uncertainty

The conventional approach of designing a container yard should be reexamined in the context of sustainable port development. Considering the uncertain future throughput, a simulation-based optimization framework is proposed to obtain a cost-effective and reliable design solution to the physical layout and equipment deployment strategy of the yard at a mega container terminal. In this framework, a two-stage stochastic programming model is presented aided with a simulation procedure of terminal operations. Finally, an application is given and the results show that the proposed integrated decision framework is effective and helpful for optimizing container yard design in the context of sustainable development of container terminals.

Optimal Throughput of Crude Oil Terminals with Options for Infrastructure Improvements

ABSTRACT Feng, X.; Wang, M.; Li, Y.; Gu, W., and Zhang, Y., 2015. Optimal throughput of crude oil terminals with options for infrastructure improvements. Crude oil is a major commodity transported through ports. Determining the optimal throughput level of crude oil terminals is crucial for efficient utilization of coastal resources and sustainable development of ports. This paper develops a simulation model for estimating the logistics costs associated with the unloading operations of oil tankers at a terminal using the simulation package Arena. The model parameters are estimated using real data collected from a major crude oil terminal in China. Simulation results unveil the optimal throughput level that minimizes the overall logistics cost per ton of crude oil unloaded for a given terminal. In addition, the simulation is modified to examine various combinations of infrastructure improvements: adding a berth, upgrading handling equipment, and dredging the navigation channel. Their impacts on the optimal ...

A Study of Concentration of Coastal Container Ports in China

To study the rationality of concentration of coastal container ports in China, a comparison of container port concentration of China and other countries' has been carried out. The result shows that the concentration of Chinese ports is relatively low, but the container throughput of Chinese ports is relatively high and their average container throughput is much higher than other countries’ ports’. If we continuously promoted the concentration of coastal container ports, the main Chinese ports' container throughout would grow excessively. That will bring some negative effects to the port located cities and hinder the healthiness and steadiness of port development. So, although the current concentration of Chinese ports is relatively low, in consideration of the facts of our country, the status of low concentration should be maintained or becomes even lower, to ensure the sustainable development of coastal container ports.