This paper discusses how public interests in seaports can be secured in the corporatized model. This corporatized model, in which port authorities engage in port development on a commercial basis, is increasingly used. We discuss in detail an important question that so far has not received attention in the literature on port governance: how can the public shareholders use their influence as shareholders of port authorities to achieve public policy goals. We advance the theoretical body of knowledge by applying insights from regulatory economics to the port industry. As an empirical illustration, we analyse the current practices of the public shareholders of the four large Dutch port authorities, based on policy documents and interviews. All of them have explicit shareholder policies. However, some of these policies are too broad to provide sufficient direction for the management team and supervisory board of the port authority involved.
Hydrogen energy is a promising solution for prompting low-carbon port development. This study introduces two hydrogen utilization strategies: hydrogen consumption-driven strategy (HCDS) and hydrogen storage-driven strategy (HSDS). Using data from a real port and a life-cycle assessment approach, a case study is conducted to compare their economic and ecological performances. The results show that HCDS enhances economic benefits, with an annualized cost of 66.1 million CNY, which is 11% lower than HSDS. Additionally, HCDS is sensitive to electricity prices and grid carbon emission factor. In contrast, HSDS offers superior ecological benefits, with an annualized carbon footprint of 31,300 tons of CO₂, which is 12% lower than HCDS, and is mainly sensitive to purchase prices and emission factors of electricity and hydrogen. This study provides critical insights into the trade-offs between economic and ecological performance under different hydrogen utilization strategies, offering practical guidance for implementing hydrogen energy system applications in ports.
This paper advances the conceptual understanding of strategies of port development companies (PDCs) through applying the business ecosystem perspective. This leads to a distinction between four stylized strategies for PDCs and associated types of services: minimalist (six services), integrator (six services) and ecosystem services (six services). An analysis of the services provided by a PDC reveals which strategy they follow. This approach is tested through a case study of Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR for short) the state-owned PDC in charge of developing Rotterdam's port complex. This case study yields three important conclusions: first the relevance of the identified service types is confirmed, as PoR is or has been active in providing 15 of the 18 identified service types, more specifically all six ‘minimalist services’, all six ‘ecosystem services’ and three of the six ‘integrator services’. Second, PoR follows a ‘platform provider’ strategy. Third, the provision of ‘ecosystem services’ seems to become a more important part of PoRs activities. The number of provided ecosystem services has grown between 2006 and 2021 and investments in ecosystem services account for an increasing share of PoRs total investments. These results provide a basis for further research, amongst others to better understand factors that may influence the strategies of PDCs.
Denne afhandling omhandler steds- og mobilitetsudfordringer samt byudviklingspotentialer
for det, der i afhandlingen betegnes ’transit- og levebyer’. Provins- og havnebyen Hirtshals,
beliggende på Danmarks nordlige vestkyst, fungerer i afhandlingen som gennemgående case,
der overordnet illustrerer, hvordan et sted kan være i vækst og tilbagegang på samme tid.
Afhandlingens problemfelt indskriver sig i en samfundsmæssig kontekst af øget mobilitet samt
centralisering og yderområder, og påpeger provinsbyens rolle som et lokalt knudepunkt samt
havnebyens rolle som et nationalt knudepunkt. Således er casen også et eksempel på et stærkt
mobilitetspåvirket sted i det, jeg benævner ’Gennemfartsdanmark’, hvor mange mennesker
rejser igennem, men kun få gør ophold. Afhandlingen sætter spørgsmålstegn ved, om et sådan
sted overhovedet opfattes som en by med et godt og attraktivt byliv, eller kun som et transit-hub.
Havnen i Hirtshals er et logistisk knudepunkt for både mennesker og gods, med gode
forbindelser til bl.a. Norge, Island, Færøerne og Storbritannien, og med direkte adgang til den
europæiske motorvejskorridor. Der investeres i Hirtshals i store infrastrukturprojekter for at
understøtte havnens aktiviteter og virke, som genererer arbejdspladser og et stigende antal
gennemrejsende erhvervschauffører og turister. Samtidig falder befolkningstallet hastigt: fra mere
end 7.000 indbyggere til mindre end 6.000 indbyggere de sidste 15 år. Afhandlingen adresserer
og udfordrer på den baggrund den i udgangspunktet ofte fremførte samfundsmæssige diskurs,
at øget mobilitet skaber vækst og fremgang for byer per se!
Ph.d.-projektet er opbygget omkring et overvejende kvalitativt forskningsdesign, og søger
derved at komme frem til en dybere forståelse af, hvad der ligger bag det statistiske materiale
om befolknings- og erhvervsudvikling i Hirtshals. Videnskabsteoretisk bygger afhandlingen
på en pragmatisk forståelsesramme, der tilskynder at lade empirien være omdrejningspunkt
for forskning, mens teorier og metoder anses som praktiske værktøjer i vidensproduktionen.
Forskningsprojektet undersøger empirisk forholdet mellem vækst i infrastrukturprojekter,
erhverv, gods og rejsende og tilbagegang i befolkningstal, offentlige funktioner og det byggede
miljø. Dette belyses gennem casestudiet, der er baseret på en række forskellige praktiske metoder,
herunder dokumentanalyser, interviews, spørgeskemaundersøgelser, registerdata og fysiskrumlige stedsanalyser. Blandingen af metoder muliggør at studere casen fra mange vinkler, og
belyse Hirtshals’ fortid og nutid samt fremtidsperspektiver.
Afhandlingen skaber en forståelse omkring casens stedslige og mobilitetsrelaterede
udfordringer, kvaliteter og potentialer, for derved at kvalificere en række byudviklingsperspektiver.
Teoretisk er forskningsprojektet funderet i begreberne sted og mobilitet, og udvikler derudfra
en terminologi omkring ‘transitbyer’ og ‘levebyer’. Den klassiske stedsteori og konventionelle
transportforskning udfordres gennem en relationel og mobilitetsorienteret stedsforståelse, der
bruges til at analysere casen. En relationel og mobilitetsorienteret stedsforståelse betyder, at sted
konkret må opfattes og defineres som en relation mellem fysik og geografi, mobilitet og sociale
sammenhænge, historie og betydning.
På baggrund af afhandlingen kan det konkluderes, at Hirtshals hverken kan forstås isoleret
som transitby eller isoleret som leveby, men at Hirtshals netop består, fungerer og eksisterer i
kraft af begge dele. Derfor peger afhandlingen på, at det er vigtigt i forhold til byplanlægning i
Hirtshals og andre stærkt mobilitetspåvirkede byer og steder, at tænke kvaliteterne ved transitby
og leveby sammen. På baggrund af casestudiet udvikles en relationel og mobilitetsorienteret
stedsstrategi med generelle anbefalinger for Hirtshals og andre transit- og levebyer.
Det er ønsket med denne afhandling at kondensere en række læringspunkter fra
Hirtshals, der kan være medvirkende til at gøre en forskel i praksis. Casestudiets resultater er i
udgangspunktet kontekstafhængige, men rummer samtidig almengyldige kvaliteter. Studiet af
Hirtshals kan således generere værdifuld viden til planlægningen i byer, der som Hirtshals er
stærkt mobilitetspåvirkede, og hvor der kan stilles spørgsmålstegn ved, om den pågældende by
overvejende er en transit- eller leveby?
Recent advances, especially in deep learning, allow to effectively detect ship targets in surveillance videos. However, the translation of these detections to the real-world locations of ships has not been sufficiently explored. The common approach in the literature is using a transformation matrix to convert a pixel to a real-world coordinate. However, this approach has three shortcomings: first, a set of reference point pairs has to be manually prepared to establish the matrix; second, the matrix always maps a pixel to the same real-world coordinate, ignoring that there is no one-to-one correspondence between discrete pixel coordinates and continuous real-world coordinates; third, this approach can only work with one camera. In light of this, we propose a technique PixelToRegion that explicitly takes into account the uncertainty in coordinate conversion by mapping each pixel to a spatial polygon. Next, we propose a new algorithm MCbSLE that can estimate ship locations using pixel sets from multiple cameras. The precision of location estimation by MCbSLE is enhanced through spatial intersection between polygons from different cameras. Experiments are conducted under 16 carefully designed multi-camera settings to evaluate MCbSLE wrt four factors: different ports, the number of cameras, the distance between cameras, and camera headings. Results on one-day ship trajectory data show that (1) an 79.8% accuracy in the number of coordinates can be achieved by MCbSLE when there are no more than 10 ships in camera views; (2) using multiple cameras can improve the precision of location estimation by one order of magnitude compared with using one camera.
In the present work, the determinants of port choice regarding container cargoes from specific hinterland regions are analyzed, based on an empirical study of Spain. Previous work has been extended by including novel explanatory variables for the market shares of ports in hinterland locations. Discrete choice theory is the methodological approach used here. More specifically, a nested logit model is proposed. As potential explanatory variables, the model includes maritime connectivity to specific overseas regions and intermodal connectivity of the port to specific hinterland locations. The empirical analysis is based on detailed Spanish customs data. The analysis shows that all variables hypothesized to influence the market share of a port in a specific hinterland region (i.e., road distance to the hinterland region, maritime distance, maritime connectivity of the port, and intermodal connectivity of the port) indeed influence significantly its market share, with the signs as expected. The findings add to the understanding of port competitiveness in specific regions with three conclusions: First, port hinterlands are relational, in the sense that they depend on the overseas origin or destination of the cargo; Second, the analysis suggests that ports that predominantly handle transhipment cargoes may have a “transhipment orientation,” which is an impediment for reaching hinterland markets; Third, intermodal connectivity is a determinant of the market share of a port in a certain hinterland region.
The reduction of Greenhouses gasses (GHG) and other air emissions represents a major challenge for ports. The world over, however, ports vary considerably in their efforts to reduce air emissions, and the causes for this variation remain under-researched. This paper examines the drivers for the adoption of air emissions abatement measures in a sample of 93 of the world’s largest ports, covering all continents and mobile emitters. We test five hypotheses with a Linear Probability Model to disentangle the impacts of key port characteristics on the current adoption of abatement measures and identify three key drivers for adoption: Population density, the port landlord business model, and a specialization in servicing container shipping. We also find that ports are more likely to implement specific bundles of measures, in particular combining pricing and new energy sources. Our work has implications for ports, as we suggest that they should coordinate abatement efforts to achieve effectiveness in their work.