TDEQ-Special Session: Smart Solutions for Climate-Resilient Port and Maritime Transport Systems

Quay walls are vital for port operations, providing structural support and protecting against erosion. However, conventional design approaches rely on conservative assumptions about soil properties, leading to over-engineered solutions with excessive material use, increased costs, and environmental impacts. This study introduces a novel approach integrating digital twin technology with sensor data to optimize quay wall design.


Quay walls are subject to large stresses, particularly at extreme low tide, when the effects of soil pressures are greatest. The stresses are heavily influenced by the soil layers behind the wall, which vary in composition and thickness through its depth. Since soil properties are typically known only at discrete locations where physical tests have been conducted, high safety factors are used to account for uncertainties. This paper presents a methodology to back-calculate soil properties using Bayesian updating, based on measured strain and deflection data in supporting piles and through the depth of the wall. By making use of the measured data, this approach enables an accurate estimation of the soil conditions, even in areas without physical testing.


Results demonstrate that this methodology enhances design accuracy, reduces material use, and decreases reliance on high safety factors while maintaining structural integrity and safety. This data-driven approach represents a significant advancement in quay wall design, contributing to more efficient and sustainable coastal infrastructure.

Freight transport networks face increasing disruptions that negatively impact port-inland operations, causing delays, economic losses, and environmental risks. The lack of real-time visibility across intermodal transport modes further exacerbates inefficiencies, increasing costs and reducing service reliability. While synchromodality offers flexibility in mitigating disruptions, effective decision support tools are needed to enhance its resilience. This paper presents SYNCO2LOG, a modular, learning-based decision support system designed to model and manage disruptions in port-hinterland transport. The tool integrates optimization-based simulation with reinforcement learning to provide adaptive responses to disruptions, even in cases of missing historical data. Through an interactive interface, decision-makers can simulate disruptions, analyze Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and identify response strategies. By continuously learning from historical and imitated disruptions, SYNCO2LOG supports planners, evaluating alternative transport modes, strategies to react to disruptions, and improving resilience in freight transport networks.

The transition to low-emission alternative fuels is essential for maritime decarbonization, yet uncertainties in fuel availability, pricing, and bunkering infrastructure pose challenges. Establishing bunkering centers at hub ports is critical for the operational reliability of alternative-fuel-powered ships, requiring effective cooperation between shipping companies and fuel suppliers. Long-term contracts help mitigate price volatility and secure bunkering infrastructure investment, ensuring a stable fuel supply. However, these agreements require joint decisions on fuel price, procurement volume, and market price, as both parties seek to maximize profit. Their interdependent decisions complicate negotiations, necessitating a structured approach to optimizing contract terms. This study models the strategic interaction between a fuel supplier and a shipping company as a Stackelberg game, where the supplier sets the fuel price based on production costs and market conditions, while the shipping company determines its procurement volume and bunkering price to balance cost efficiency and supply security. By analyzing these interdependencies, this study offers managerial and policy insights to foster long-term cooperation and support the large-scale adoption of alternative fuels in maritime transportation.

Climate change poses significant threats to Greek ports, impacting infrastructure, operations, and supply chains. The ResPorts project evaluates port resilience through the development of a Port Resilience Index (PRI) using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Case studies of Chios, Volos, and Heraklion reveal varying vulnerabilities, with Volos showing the highest resilience. Living Labs (LLs) engage stakeholders in co-creating adaptive strategies. Flood risk modeling and heatwave projections highlight critical climate threats. Findings inform policy, emergency planning, and investment prioritization. The PRI framework supports data-driven decision-making, enhancing Greek ports' ability to withstand climate-induced disruptions and ensure resilient maritime operations.

A comprehensive set of economic, environmental, and social Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was established to assess an autonomous Short Sea Shipping (SSS) and Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) system in Europe. The system is being developed in the context of the highly ambitious "SEAMLESS" multi-partner EU research project. The project aims to develop an integrated system comprised of waterborne SSS and IWT shuttle services, whose core enabling modules will revolve around highly automated and autonomous technologies. It also plans to demonstrate these technologies in various demonstrator use cases, both real-world demos and simulations. This paper focuses on the KPIs that will be used to assess the system's performance. 

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events poses significant challenges to inland waterway transport, a vital mode of port-hinterland connectivity in Europe. Low water levels disrupt vessel operations by reducing their transport capacity. This study investigates the potential of transfer hubs along the Rhine-Alpine corridor to address this challenge and maintain efficient cargo flows during drought conditions. It offers a replicable methodology for evaluating hub placement and transport resilience, incorporating multi-criteria decision-making and transport modeling. Using a transport competition model, three scenarios, including baseline, drought, and transfer hub application, are simulated to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of implementing these hubs at strategic locations. The integration of hubs, particularly near Duisburg and Andernach, demonstrated the potential to sustain 80% operability during disruptions by enabling modal shifts and alleviating bottlenecks. While competition in the North-Western European hinterland, involving ports such as the Port of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp, is further intensified by climate-induced disruptions, our results show that transfer hubs can help ports secure their competitive advantages by ensuring reliable cargo flow under adverse conditions. Our findings highlight the strategic importance of transfer hubs in mitigating climate impacts, enhancing port competition, and supporting sustainable hinterland logistics.