Achieving Port Sustainability by Harnessing the Potential of Port Operations, Ships and Tugboats

Port sustainability focuses on balancing economic growth by focusing on environmental protection and social well-being, involving green infrastructure, renewable energy, efficient operations, and community engagement to reduce pollution, cut emissions, manage waste, and support sustainable supply chains, guided by global goals. The port is one of the most important parts of the transport system; therefore, when assessing the sustainability of the port, it is necessary to assess that the port could receive ships characterized by maximum possible parameters with minimal delays when they enter the port due to hydro meteorological and other adverse conditions. One of the conditions for a sustainable port is to optimally use the port’s capabilities, provide high-quality and fast passenger services and cargo processing, and reduce the negative impact on the environment due to the generation of pollutants emitted by ship and terminal activities. As ship parameters in ports increase and port sustainability is achieved, appropriate and accurate assessment of ship maneuvering capabilities and port tugboat capacities, as well as optimal use of port infrastructure and superstructure, becomes increasingly important. Ensuring shipping safety in ports, optimizing port loading operations, reducing environmental impact and achieving port sustainability are very important parts of maritime transport activities. Since port sustainability includes technical, technological, environmental, social and other aspects, this article focuses mainly on technical, technological and environmental aspects. This article presents a methodology for assessing port infrastructure related to shipping safety in the port, port (terminal) activities and reducing environmental impacts, based on a method expressed as a comparative port sustainability index. The developed methodology can be applied in various ports, port terminals and other locations to achieve port and maritime transport sustainability.