The Future of Ports and Transport Corridors: Regionalization, Resilience, and Geoeconomic Change

Dear Colleagues,

Global transport and logistics systems are undergoing profound structural changes. Recent geopolitical tensions, disruptions to global supply chains, changing trade patterns, climate-related risks, and growing concerns regarding economic and infrastructure resilience are reshaping the organization of ports, transport corridors, and logistics networks. At the same time, decarbonization, digitalization, infrastructure modernization, and new patterns of regional economic integration are creating additional challenges and opportunities for transport systems. These developments are contributing to a gradual reconsideration of highly globalized supply chains and increasing interest in regionalization, nearshoring, supply chain diversification, and the development of resilient transport corridors. Ports are particularly important within this transformation. Their role is evolving from traditional cargo-handling nodes toward integrated logistics hubs connecting maritime, rail, road, and inland transport networks. Consequently, port competitiveness increasingly depends on the quality of hinterland connections, intermodal integration, infrastructure capacity, resilience, technological development, and the ability to adapt to changing geoeconomic circumstances.

This Special Issue “The Future of Ports and Transport Corridors: Regionalization, Resilience, and Geoeconomic Change”, aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for research examining how these transformations are affecting ports, freight transport, logistics networks, and regional and international transport corridors. Particular attention will be devoted to the relationship between port regionalization and hinterland development, the resilience of transport and logistics networks, changing freight flows, infrastructure investment, intermodal connectivity, and the implications of geoeconomic fragmentation for future transportation systems. The Special Issue also welcomes research addressing sustainability, digitalization, transport economics, supply chain resilience, and policies aimed at strengthening the competitiveness and adaptability of transport networks.

The Special Issue is organized in connection with the international Transport & Logistics 2027 Conference, the central theme of which is “Port Regionalization and Resilient Transport Networks in an Era of Geoeconomic Fragmentation.” The conference brings together researchers, academics, transport and logistics professionals, infrastructure managers, policymakers, and representatives of the maritime, port, railway, and logistics sectors. Selected conference participants will be encouraged to further develop their research and submit high-quality manuscripts to this Special Issue. Submissions will also be open to researchers who have not participated in the conference. Original research articles, review papers, conceptual studies, methodological contributions, and relevant case studies are welcome, and areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Port regionalization and port–hinterland interaction;
• The future role and competitiveness of seaports;
• Resilient transport corridors and logistics networks;
• Geoeconomic fragmentation and changes in global and regional trade flows;
• Nearshoring, reshoring, and regionalization of supply chains;
• Supply chain resilience and transport network vulnerability;
• Maritime transport and port logistics;
• Railway freight transport and hinterland connectivity;
• Road, rail, maritime, and inland–waterway integration;
• Intermodal and multimodal transport systems;
• Transport infrastructure capacity, investment, and modernization;
• Transport corridor performance and economic efficiency;
• Digitalization and smart technologies in ports and logistics;
• Sustainability and decarbonization of freight transport;
• Climate resilience of ports and transport infrastructure;
• Transport economics and logistics cost optimization;
• Transport policy, governance, and regulatory responses to geoeconomic change;
• Regional development effects of ports and transport corridors;
• Logistics chains and changing freight distribution patterns;
• European and global transport corridors and gateway regions.

By bringing together theoretical, empirical, and applied research, this Special Issue seeks to contribute to a better understanding of how ports and transport corridors can adapt to a more regionalized, uncertain, and fragmented global economy while simultaneously improving their resilience, sustainability, efficiency, and long-term competitiveness.

Dr. Drago Pupavac
Prof. Dr. Javier Faulin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Transportation is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.