The challenge for port developments is to minimize long-term uncertainties associated with port operations, risk of increased costs, and large environmental impacts. The aim of this study is to develop a comparative methodology to assess the sustainability performance of a mixed set of ports (different locations, sizes). This methodology involves ranking various long-term port plans and port vision documents against a set of social, economic, and environmental key performance indicators (KPIs) in order to evaluate and interpret future sustainable port-city development plans. The assessment aims to determine the efficiency and sustainability of each of the case study port plans, relative to other ports. Furthermore, the assessment ranks the considered ports based on comparison of pressures within the ecosystems and society, using publically available data in order to evaluate future changes resulting from these pressures. The classification and ranking of each port have been used to gauge the ability of each port to achieve its sustainability goals for port planning as set out in their port plans. The comprehensive results have been compared with the long-term port plan KPIs to evaluate an array of measures both quantitatively and qualitatively. Most of the highest ranking ports have developed a combination of integrated plans, measures, and regulations for sustainable port developments. This indicates that green-port policies need to be interlinked via social, economic, and environmental dimensions utilizing an integrated approach in order to realize maximum potential and strengthen port processes aimed at developing a sustainable port.

A sustainability assessment of ports and port-city plans: Comparing ambitions with achievements

Many estuaries worldwide are modified, primarily driven by economic gain or safety. These works, combined with global climate changes heavily influence the morphologic development of estuaries. In this paper, we analyze the impact of human activities on the morphodynamic developments of the Scheldt Estuary and the Wadden Sea basins in the Netherlands and the Yangtze Estuary in China at various spatial scales, and identify mechanisms responsible for their change. Human activities in these systems include engineering works and dredging activities for improving and maintaining the navigation channels, engineering works for flood protection, and shoreline management activities such as land reclamations. The Yangtze Estuary is influenced by human activities in the upstream river basin as well, especially through the construction of many dams. The tidal basins in the Netherlands are also influenced by human activities along the adjacent coasts. Furthermore, all these systems are influenced by global changes through (accelerated) sea-level rise and changing weather patterns. We show that the cumulative impacts of these human activities and global changes may lead to exceeding thresholds beyond which the morphology of the tidal basins significantly changes, and loses its natural characteristics. A threshold is called tipping point when the changes are even irreversible. Knowledge on such thresholds or tipping points is important for the sustainable management of these systems. We have identified and quantified various examples of such thresholds and/or tipping points for the morphodynamic developments at various spatial and temporal scales. At the largest scale (mega-scale) we consider the sediment budget of a tidal basin as a whole. A smaller scale (macro-scale) is the development of channel structures in an estuary, especially the development of two competing channels. At the smallest scale (meso-scale) we analyze the developments of tidal flats and the connecting channels.

Human impacts on morphodynamic thresholds in estuarine systems

The effect of land reclamations and sediment extraction on the suspended sediment concentration in the Ems Estuary

Quantifying the impact of bathymetric changes on the hydrological regimes in a large floodplain lake: Poyang Lake

Coastal managers worldwide increasingly recognize the importance of conservation and restoration of natural coastal ecosystems. This ensures coastal resilience and provision of essential ecosystem services, such as wave attenuation reducing coastal flooding and erosion. In the continuum from unvegetated tidal flats to salt marshes and mangroves, fundamental physical controls as well as biotic interactions, and feedbacks among them, determine morphology and vegetation distribution. Although these processes are well described in established literature, this information is rarely applied to understanding the role of these ecosystems as coastal defense. The focus is often on specific elements of the complex system, such as vegetation structure and cover, rather than on their complex natural dynamics. This review examines whether and how the dynamic nature of tidal flat - wetlands systems contributes to, or detracts from, their role in coastal defense. It discusses how the characteristics of the system adjust to external forcing and how these adjustments affect ecosystem services. It also considers how human interventions can take advantage of natural processes to enhance or accelerate achievement of natural coastal defense.

Tidal flat-wetland systems as flood defenses: Understanding biogeomorphic controls

The impact of channel deepening and dredging on estuarine sediment concentration

The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure Working Group on Beneficial Use is developing a report that will provide technical information and guidance regarding the state of the practice for sediment as a beneficial resource, drawing from existing approaches and best practices. The report considers and evaluates the following elements: concepts of beneficial sediment use and existing scientific knowledge related to different uses; sediment contamination and how contamination can constrain sediment reuse alternatives; and use of cost-benefit and ecosystem services frameworks as tools to better understand how the value of different reuse options can be quantified, and to compare different beneficial use and disposal alternatives. Aspects of the report we present include opportunities for sediment beneficial use and how to transition barriers to catalysts. Several case studies are presented to illustrate recent successes and challenges associated with the beneficial use of dredged material. 

L. Sittoni

Papers

The impact of channel deepening and dredging on estuarine sediment concentration

Development of New PIANC Guidance for the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material