Tools for evaluating environmental performance at Brazilian public ports: Analysis and proposal

Renewable solar and wind energies on buildings for green ports in Egypt

Energy management plan is utilized as an optimum strategy by using solar and wind energies, as a new preliminary implementation. The aim of the study is to create an optimum strategy through an optimization of an energy management system. The study implemented an onsite model, two numerical approaches, and an optimization analysis on a Mediterranean port. Two approaches have been used: solar energy is applied experimentally and numerically, and then wind energy is simulated. An optimization analysis integrated the two approaches together to control their operation. The results showed the installed solar panels provided sufficient generated power for the buildings. Also, the simulated wind arrays showed good behavior with increased power coefficient for the wind turbines, for future implementation. These results were validated using the DesignBuilder software and showed accurate values regarding the experiment for solar panels and CFD simulation. Eventually, a Pareto optimality analysis is applied between the solar and wind energies to reveal an energy management plan. Renewable energy offered energy to support the consumption of the port's buildings.

The coupling effect between economic development and the urban ecological environment in Shanghai port

With the rapid development of ports in the world today, the ecological environment pollution of port cities is becoming more and more serious. How to coordinate the port industry and the urban environment is an urgent problem to be solved. This article proposes a system to evaluate the coordination between port industry chain development and the urban ecological environment by taking Shanghai Port as an example. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was applied to calculate the weights of various indexes, then the Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM) was adopted to systematically study the coordination relationship between port industry development and the urban ecological environment. Our research finds the coupling coordination degree between Shanghai Port's economic development and the urban ecological environment shows an overall upward trend, changing from severely misaligned in 2000 (0.125) to barely coordinated in 2019 (0.691). Shanghai has achieved some results in constructing the ecological environment and green port, but there is still much room for improvement. Shanghai port needs to strengthen container transportation, enhance energy conservation and emission reduction, and vigorously promote the development of a green port. This study will provide a basis and reference for relevant institutions, government departments, and policymakers to formulate scientific and effective green port industry chain development strategies.

Unified waste metrics: A gamified tool in next-generation strategic planning

A gamification approach for tackling waste management planning and urban development provide a more engaging and interactive experience with high pedagogical potential. Existing serious games involving waste management are complex in their data ingestion, use, and presentation, limiting individuals' opportunities to gain knowledge and decision-making skills transferrable to the real world. Simulations, by comparison, provide either an oversimplified and unrealistic user interface or explore in depth individual rather than aggregate key performance indicators for waste management, limiting potential knowledge retention. There is a clear opportunity in creating an informative, easy-to-use simulation-based game to help stakeholders build understanding of waste management policies, performance, and causal relationships. This gamified tool provides clear feedback through quick-visibility performance indicators (i.e., waste accumulation index, waste compositional analysis, prevention activities etc.) and offers the opportunity, through multi-criteria decision making, of simulating real-life scenarios and previewing the possible outcomes of certain in-game actions. The research question is how the process of gamification might serve as powerful tool for educating decision makers. The results are considered as a reference point to any policy maker intending to assess environmental performance, proposed activities to reach Circular Economy targets, and European Green Deal and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Promoting Sustainability through Assessment and Measurement of Port Externalities: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Paths

In an attempt to mitigate and balance economic, environmental, and societal externalities that ports exert, port sustainability is becoming increasingly important as a key priority. This work embarks on an effort to explore the boundaries, provide a holistic view, and establish a knowledge map of contemporary research in the field of port externalities and impacts, by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) by carrying out a three-stage procedure (planning, execution, and reporting), enhancing objectivity, while limiting errors and bias. The literature under study pertains to research domains focusing on: (a) identifying port externalities and impacts, (b) utilizing metrics and indicators to measure and quantify the positive or negative impact of port externalities, and (c) promoting an inclusive framework for sustainable port development. Our results include, among others, the classification of methodologies and particularly, of indicators established per type of externality to measure and monitor sustainable port performance, as well as identification of trends and gaps within the contemporary literature. We find considerable room for exploring new concepts and research paths within the domain of port impacts and externalities, both within individual dimensions of sustainability (economic, social, environmental), and on a multidisciplinary level.

Influence of Strategic Interrelationships and Decision-Making in Chilean Port Networks on Their Degree of Sustainability

An extensive literary review is carried out to determine the strategic and business advantages, and difficulties that non-smart ports must face to develop sustainability. Based on a two-port case study, the strategic text of the corporate missions of port administrators and operators is analyzed and classified in order to understand to what extend economic, social and environmental aspects are fulfilled. A conceptual model is designed for an information system based on indicators that can determine the state or degree of sustainability in the critical operational activities of the ports studied. A system is proposed that is based on a data warehouse core and a multidimensional database, which can be implemented in the ROLAP mode, allowing taking advantage of the good characteristics of relational databases without losing the OLAP approach. A discussion of the strategic feasibility of implementing this conceptual model of case study monitoring and its long-term benefits is delivered. The conclusions state that the development of this green technology requires cultural changes, public policy initiatives and the incorporation of new actors. In addition, more research is needed in this area to identify other relevant sustainable variables.

Environmental Disclosure: Study on Efficiency and Alignment with Environmental Priorities of Spanish Ports

The purpose of this article is to analyze, in a three-stage research project and from an economic an operational perspective, the relationships between environmental expenses, the improvements achieved in five environmental variables analyzed and efficiency. To achieve these objectives, we analyze sustainability reports and economic data from 24 Spanish ports. The three aforementioned stages of this research are the following: first, the analysis of the sustainability reports to determine the level of information; second, the analysis of the economic and operational efficiency; and, third, the analysis of the alignment with the environmental priorities of the Eco Ports-ESPO (European Sea Ports Organization). The results reveal that (1) the type of traffic does not affect environmental actions; (2) environmental performance (improvements) depends on environmental expenditures; (3) environmental spending and efficiency in port operations are correlated; and (4) environmental spending and port economic efficiency are correlated. The research can contribute to the decision-making process of port managers by revealing that the alignment with the EcoPorts priorities can be important to direct the environmental performance of the ports towards the global interests revealed in this indicator. It also reveals that environmental expenditures and investments may be related to environmental performance and economic and operational efficiency. However, it also reveals that it is important to improve the extent of environmental disclosure to better explain the qualitative and monetary characteristics of each piece of information provided about environmental performance.

Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Port Regions: MCDM Approach in Composite Index Creation

Maritime transport and ports are among the most important linkages between global economies, handling more than 90% of internationally traded goods. Economic importance of maritime transport imposes significant implications on the social and environmental performance of port regions. The paper aims to create composite indices as relevant, scientific-based tools used in comparing and monitoring various aspects of sustainability across 37 sea port regions in seven countries on the European side of the Mediterranean, covering a five-year period from 2014 to 2018. The model encompasses Eurostat and OECD annual NUTS2 level data covering economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Two important indicators of maritime transport activity, maritime transport of freight and maritime transport of passengers, are included within the group of economic indicators. To create composite indices, the multicriteria decision making (MCDM) framework was used as an integrated approach of entropy in the weighting segment, and the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) as an aggregation method. The results highlight GDP per capita and population density as indicators of the greatest relative importance when it comes to port regions sustainability. The ranking results indicate that, despite the fact that Attica is the best ranked region in terms of overall sustainability, the largest number of top rated port regions are in Italy, Spain and France.

Value Creation through Corporate Sustainability in the Port Sector: A Structured Literature Analysis

Corporate Sustainability (CS) in the port sector has emerged as an important driver behind strategy definition for port authorities globally. It has been argued that CS practices have the potential of delivering value for port users and, as such, grant port operators and port managing entities competitive advantages. There is, however, limited evidence behind this claim. The difficulty with collecting such evidence is that we lack measures of port value creation, and CS metrics have rarely been developed and applied in ports. This paper provides a framework for collecting empirical evidence aimed at assessing in what way CS can benefit port competitiveness. The framework is built on a systematic literature analysis of the past years. The literature analysis exceeds previous comparable contributions by its analytical detail and provides valuable new insights on sustainability in the maritime domain. The research indicates that the accurate measurement of CS initiatives in the port sector is urgent and meaningful. When appropriately measured, the value that CS can deliver to port users becomes apparent. This is, however, often created indirectly via branding, risk mitigation, etc. The paper contributes to academic knowledge as it is the first to develop a rigorous CS measurement framework usable for ports in terms of value.

Application of a Sustainability Model for Assessing the Relocation of a Container Terminal: A Case Study of Kristiansand Port

Sustainable development, a new interdisciplinary paradigm, is attracting increasing attention from the global research community. It is an enhancement of sustainability principles. This study documents the findings from applying a sustainability assessment model framework by Koo and Ariaratnam (2008) for decision support in connection with the projection of major infrastructure investment in a port. The objective of this study is to support the decision-making process in a port development project and to verify the applicability of sustainability assessment using a sustainability assessment model for a terminal development project in an urban area of Scandinavia. The sustainability assessment model is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A literature review of sustainability assessment models was conducted to find indicators for the AHP approach. Subsequently, a questionnaire was compiled and six decision-makers for projects in Scandinavian Ports in urban areas were selected for the case study. The hypothesis is that decision-makers of major infrastructure investment projects in publicly owned ports must adhere to sustainable development principles and support the United Nations sustainable development goals that are a call for action by all countries. When documenting a sustainable design of port projects, decision-makers use theoretical sustainability models to conceptualize features of a sustainable society. However, a major challenge for the decision-makers was that the sustainability assessment results did not show, as expected, the same results as those of three existing theoretical sustainability models. The results of the sustainability assessment model were scrutinised and benchmarked against existing theoretical sustainability models, namely: a sustainability stool, a 3-overlappingcircles model, and a 3-nesteddependencies model. The benchmark results indicate a disparity between the importance of what sustainability models describe and what is important in practice.