WCEO - Risk management and resilience for ports and maritime operations

Maritime transportation makes significant contribution to economic prosperity and also suffers much from various risks, including classical (e.g. ship collisions) and emerging ones such as those relating to climate change risks (e.g. flooding, heatwaves, storms). Data uncertainty represents an important challenge for safety science in general climate risk analysis in specific given the insufficiency of historical failure data, compared to classical risks. Broadly data uncertainty is categorized into three groups: fuzziness, incompleteness and randomness, hence triggers risk studies using the uncertainty theories such as fuzzy logic, Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory of evidence and Bayesian probabilistic inference. This chapter aim is to introduce the newest study on the development of climate risk modelling using the three uncertainty theories, individually and collectively within the maritime transport context. It will help understand the state of the art of the relevant research and inspire new ideas. 

Ports are vital infrastructure for insular countries like Greece, playing a crucial role in international trade, economic growth, and social cohesion. However, their coastal locations-often in low-lying or deltaic areas-make them highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. With 227 inhabited islands, most of which rely solely on coastal transport for connectivity, climate change poses significant challenges for both passenger and cargo transportation. This study aims to explore the perceptions and attitudes of key stakeholders in the Greek port industry regarding climate change and its potential impact on port operations. A total of 65 structured questionnaires were anonymously completed via Google Forms by port employees, board members, and specialized environmental staff between September 2023 and May 2024. The findings reveal a strong consensus on the increasing visibility of climate change in recent years, highlighting significant challenges in addressing its effects on ports.

Considering that maritime transportation continues to be the backbone of the global supply chain, with almost 85% of the globally produced goods transported by ships, disruption in the inherently vulnerable just-in-time delivery supply chain can severely affect the functioning of all business operations. It is worth noticing that, in recent decades, due to globalization – the increased interconnectivity of global economies - we have witnessed an unprecedented number of crises affecting the maritime supply chains. The Journal of Management Studies defines crisis as follows: "A crisis may be defined as an organizationally based disaster, which causes extensive damage, social and economic disruption, and involves multiple stakeholders." 


The continuous succession of extreme events, such as public health emergencies, economic recession, natural disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes, wars, and geopolitical instability, has severely disrupted the way shipping companies operate and make strategic decisions, putting pressure on them. For instance, shipping trade patterns are often disrupted as a result of natural disasters or geopolitical tensions, with cargo being diverted to nearby ports and massive delays in the supply chain. The ability of shipping companies to craft robust mitigation strategies and contingency plans for extreme events has become a necessary condition for them to remain competitive. The objective of this research is to identify the strategies that enabled shipping companies to remain competitive in the face of adversity, not only by mitigating the risk of unprecedented events but also by seizing opportunities that arise from them. Exploring the assumption that a crisis event can be both an opportunity and a threat, the present study seeks to practically demonstrate how the strategy - not as a single decision or event but rather as a continuum of activities - can become a tool that allows a company to adjust timely and influence its external environment. 

In the context of sustainability alignment, cruise line companies have as a key part of their strategic plan the reduction of the environmental footprint of their ships. An action directly linked to this goal is investment in new technologies that enable more environmentally friendly cruise ship operations. Until now, the literature has adequately examined the importance of aligning cruise ships with sustainability, but little research has been carried out on i) the identification of the major advanced actions for reducing the environmental footprint, ii) the most significant criteria for ranking these actions and iii) the final ranking of these actions based on the particular characteristics of each company. Due to the inherent uncertainty in the problems related to the selection among alternatives, Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) methods are implemented as appropriate methods in this study's methodology section.