Functional resilience of port environs in a changing climate – Assets and operations. Work Package 2 of Enhancing the resilience of seaports to a changing climate report series
Authors: Prem Chhetri, Jonathan Cocoran, Victor Gekara, Brian Corbitt, Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Gaya Jayatilleke, Fatima Basic, Helen Scott, Alex Manzoni and Chris Maddox
Year: 2013
Seaports are critical gateways linking local and national supply chains to global markets. They need to be adaptive and respond to the projected impacts of climate change, in particular extreme weather events, to avoid business interruptions; including closures in the worst case scenario. The methodological framework developed in this project enables Australian ports to map and assess the vulnerability of key assets to climate hazards under future climate scenarios. Three ports (Port Kembla Port Corporation, Sydney Port Corporation and Ports of Gladstone) were selected as case studies for the project and used to develop the framework. Port Kembla, with a diversified cargo portfolio, was used as an exemplar model for analysis and methodology development. One of Sydney Port Corporation’s container terminals was used to develop a Container Terminal Operation Simulator (a simulation of the port logistics-related operation processes) with a view to identifying the productivity impact of disruptive weather events. The Simulator can be applied to any container port terminal. Gladstone is a bulk commodity port, specialising in coal, and was used to examine the adaptive capacity of the workforce and their work practices and to assess their preparedness to manage climatic shifts and extreme events.
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