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Dear Colleagues,

Increasing the sustainability of the shipping industry is necessary in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 14 to conserve and sustainably manage ocean and marine resources by 2030. The environmental impacts of shipbuilding, shipping, and vessel dismantling include discharges to water and soil, air emissions, and physical impacts, and a wide range of measures involving many stakeholders is necessary to reduce them.

Furthermore, the implementation of environmental policy instruments is hampered by many innate characteristics of shipping (including a broad range of stakeholders, multi-cultural and multinational aspects, ship-based and shore-based personnel, and the complexity of ship operation).

Therefore, there is a need to improve scientific knowledge and to develop new technologies to enable policymakers and resource managers to formulate science-based solutions that have the potential to improve the environmental performance of maritime transport.

Taking that into consideration, this Special issue welcomes original research, review articles, and case studies from a wide range of disciplines, including those which are inter-/trans-disciplinary in nature that focus on various topics, including but not limited to:

Design of ship and equipment;

Analysis of environmental pressures from shipping and vessel dismantling;

Optimizing ship operations;

Changes of water, air, and soil quality and consequences for marine biota and humans;

Increasing ocean literacy among seafarers, shore-based personnel, and maritime students;

Developing, improving, and assessing policy instruments;

Improving compliance with environmental regulations.

Prof. Dr. Jelena Čulin
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Ship-related pollution
Operational discharges
Atmospheric ship emissions
Ballast water
Anti-fouling compounds
Ship dismantling
Environmental compliance
Pro-environmental behavior
Maritime education and training

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

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18 pages, 580 KiB

Open AccessReview

How to Measure Environmental Performance in Ports

by Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, Guido Salazar-Sepulveda, Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia and Jonathan Sanhueza-Vergara

Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 4035; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13074035 - 05 Apr 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5696

Abstract

Oceans, seas, and marine resources are highly relevant for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Such relevance has given rise to the blue economy approach, where scholars and policymakers see activities carried out in cargo ports from a different perspective. The blue economy approach stresses the emergence of multiple transnational networks in relation to these topics and the development of green ports plus environmental measurements at seaports in general. In this context, our study aimed to review the various scientifically documented methods for measuring environmental performance in ports, ports companies, or port authorities in the maritime transport and inland waterways framework. The study followed a scientometric meta-analytic methodology to accomplish its goals. The study strictly referred to the Environmental Performance in Ports (EPP) and extracted the corpus to analyze data held in five databases embedded in the Web of Science Core Collection. Then, the selection was processed and refined with the PRISMA guidelines to establish the eligibility criteria for articles with the PICOS (Population, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, and Study) tool. A limited study set was identified. This included port environmental performance indicators and studies that were strongly influenced by the European Sea Ports Organization and Green Marine networks. These were compared based on the ecological Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), scale structure, and diversity in application. Finally, we assessed two measurement forms documented in the scientific research on the subject at a global level and discussed their pros and cons. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reducing the Environmental Impact of Maritime Transport)

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Other

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19 pages, 932 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

The Impact of Nautical Activities on the Environment—A Systematic Review of Research

by Helena Ukić Boljat, Neven Grubišić and Merica Slišković

Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10552; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131910552 - 23 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2913

Abstract

As nautical tourism and recreational activities involving boats have become highly popular, research interest on various effects of nautical tourism is also increasing. This paper aims to analyze the main scientific contributions in the field of nautical tourism and its impact on the environment. The focus of the analysis is on the methods used to estimate and model recreational boating activities. Since nautical tourism plays a crucial role in the context of the growth and development of the economy, it is necessary to consider the environmental component of its development. The background objective of the paper is to provide a representation of environmental descriptors, i.e., to highlight in particular the environmental impact of nautical tourism. A search on the Web of Science Core Collection, touching on this topic, is composed of scientific papers published in the period 2010–2021. The papers examined are divided into five categories according to the impact of nautical tourism they study: Environmental, Economic, Social, Technical or Other. The results show that most papers were published in the area of environmental impacts of nautical tourism, with most papers examining invasive species, antifouling and impacts on species. The analysis showed that the negative impacts were mainly studied individually. Based on the analysis and evaluation of the scientific publications, a basic recommendation is given for the construction of a model to estimate recreational boating activities and its impact on the environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reducing the Environmental Impact of Maritime Transport)

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