Improving the Environmental Performances of Maritime Transport and Ports

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, globalization has led to an exponential increase in the amount of goods shipped by maritime transport, with huge economic performances for the regions in which ports are located. On the down side, maritime transport can cause several externalities, with environmental issues occurring during all phases of navigation, and especially at ports. Mitigation measures must be oriented to ensure the environmental sustainability of maritime transport, guaranteeing resilience of the practices envisaged, especially in the light of the disruptive challenges our world is nowadays facing.

International guidelines and practices have dealt with the different issues and environmental impacts caused by maritime transport, in particular in port areas, by providing innovative and efficient solutions; the next step is to frame the management of ports and maritime transport with a focus on environmental protection, guaranteeing optimization of operations while providing environmental improvements.

Based on this premise, this Special Issue seeks to collect high-quality papers addressing the contemporary challenges and innovations aimed at operations and management of ports and maritime transport in order to improve environmental performance. Contributions may include state-of-the art research, development of new models, proposal of policies, and analysis of new mitigation measures in this research area.

Topics to be discussed in this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Modeling emissions in maritime and ports operations
• Innovative technologies for environmental improvement in shipping and ports
• Case studies and solutions to cutting emissions in maritime transport
• Port and terminals planning and operation design to improve enviromental management of shipping and ports
• Enviromental management systems and indicators
• Resilience practices in environmental management of ports and shipping in the aftermath of COVID-19

Prof. Matteo Ignaccolo
Prof. Elen Twrdy
Dr. Nadia Giuffrida
Guest Editors

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