Sustainability in the Maritime Transport Research and Port logistics

Dear Colleagues,

Considering the challenges of leading international bodies to make shipping a zero-emission industry, sustainability issues in maritime transport and ports have become the focal points of recent regulations, policies, initiatives, and other available mechanisms. The aim of maritime sustainability is to increase environmental awareness and introduce greener measures for shipping and ports for a  few reasons  Shipping is responsible for 90% of world trade and is the most energy-efficient and cost-effective transport modality, being able to carry large quantities of diverse cargo across long distances. Ports are crucial industrial and logistical nodes in the overall supply chains. Maritime transport contributes to 2-3% of global anthropogenic emissions, causing significant environmental and social damage, while ports are causing adverse environmental impacts and effects on the global climate through their everyday activities. Ports and maritime transport are sources of negative externalities, with air pollution as one of their principal environmental damage factors. In response to growing environmental concerns, the decarbonization policy primarily aims to accomplish energy transition by reducing ship emissions, landside operations, and industrial and logistic activities. In addition to harmful emissions, these industries and their overall logistics burden the environment with adverse outcomes of their operations, such as noise pollution, ballast water issues, reduced water quality, waste disposal, biodiversity challenges, and other negative consequences of transport activities. To achieve sustainable maritime transport and port logistics, it is imperative to integrate environmental responsibility into the existing social equity and economic efficiency model.

This Special Issue, focusing on sustainability in maritime transport and port logistics, aims to address the most recent and contemporary issues in the increasing awareness of environmental protection through diverse operational, organizational, technical, behavioral, legislation, and other practices, arising from the most relevant international organizations, institutions, regional economic unions and other bodies (IMO, EU, UN). The “sustainability revolution” in the maritime sector and the necessity to comply with the latest regulations and measures—such as those to increase energy efficiency standards (EEDI, EEXI, SEEMP, CII), reduce emissions (Global SOx Cap, NOx emission standards, Emission Control Areas), mitigate climate change impacts (IMO’s Initial GHG Strategy objectives of reduction 50% in the total annual GHG emissions, EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030)—represent the cornerstones of this Special Issue. Additionally, other green initiatives for the development, operations, logistics, and governance of ports are essential.

The specific objective of this Special Issue is to expand scientific research in complex and dynamic industries by addressing the appropriate sustainable development issues of maritime transport and port logistics. Generally, decarbonization and the sustainability of transport focus on three application areas: infrastructure, transport equipment and conveyance, and operations and management strategies. These areas of intervention, along with other operational and organizational practices, should be addressed in the following research fields: sustainable maritime transport and logistics, air pollution and climate change, new and renewable sources of energy, port noise, policies and laws relating to sustainability, increasing energy efficiency, SSS and electrification possibilities, external costs of shipping and ports, green port governance tools, GSCM and ports, a novel methodology in sustainability and decarbonization of the industry, measuring environmental efficiency, the implementation of novel technologies in maritime transport and port operations, ballast water management technologies,  water and waste management in ports, the optimization of marine routes according to sustainability propositions (green corridors), selection of transportation modes, digitalization as an indicator of sustainability, application of scientific methods in environmental protection, green shipping, ports and corridors, etc. Authors are invited to submit papers focusing on current and developing technologies, policy making, and discussions of diverse methodologies that aim to reduce the environmental footprint of the maritime, port, and logistics sectors. Papers should be extensively grounded in existing research, preferably of new-applied methods, to address sustainability concepts and significant findings applicable to industry and academia, as well as suggesting directions for future research. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Conference Information:

International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU) Conference; IAMU

3rd International Maritime Conference Naše more (Our Sea) 2023 Safety, Innovation, Resilience

WIT Conferences (Wessex Institute), 10th International Conference on Energy and Sustainability

TransNav Conference; Faculty of Navigation of the Gdynia Maritime University and The Nautical Institute

IMSC 2023 – 10^th International Maritime Science Conference

International Conference on International Maritime Transport ICIMT on March 25-26, 2023 in Madrid, Spain

15th ITS European Congress in Lisbon, Portugal

The 9th ECCOMAS, Sicily, Italy

ECCOMAS CONGRESS 2024, Lisbon, Portugal

9th European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Madrid, Spain

Prof. Dr. Alen Jugović
Dr. Luka Vukić
Prof. Dr. Saša Žiković
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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