According to the European Commission (2019), Europe's ports are vital gateways, linking its transport corridors to the rest of the world. 74% of goods entering or leaving Europe go by sea, and Europe boasts some of the finest port facilities in the world. Ports play an equally important role to support the exchange of goods within the internal market and in linking peripheral and island areas with the mainland of Europe. Ports are not only great for moving goods around, they also constitute energy hubs for conventional and renewable energies. 400 million passengers embark and disembark in European ports every year. Ports generate employment; 1.5 million workers are employed in European ports, with the same amount again employed indirectly across the 22 EU maritime Member States.
However, European port cities are also places of conflict between economy and ecology. Ports city relationships have weakened recently as the port and city disintegrated with less direct economic benefits for cities while lots of environmental impacts due to air, water and land pollution still remain for local communities. So, the common challenge of many port cities is labelled the local-global mismatch.
The DocksTheFuture Project aims at defining the vision for the ports of the future in 2030, covering all specific issues that could define this concept including among others, dredging, emission reduction, energy transition, electrification, smart grids, port-city interface and the use of renewable energy management.
The project is a H2020 CSA, with the aim to definying accompanying measures such as standardization, dissemination, awareness-raising and communication, networking, coordination, policy dialogues and mutual learning exercises and may develop complementary activities of strategic planning, networking and coordination between programs in different countries.
As final results the project delivers the following exploitation tools:
• Decision Support tool, to assess socio economic impacts of Port of the Future solutions
• Transferability Analysis of the Port of the Future solutions: a methodology to facilitate the ‘transfer’-process and to guide project owners to adapt to a proven methodology.
• R&D and policy recommendations, reflecting the results of the analysis, addresses the problem of how the Port of the Future concepts should be covered by specific support from the European Commission in the years to come.
• Training packages: the topics chosen are the Transferability Analysis, the Project Common Index and the Decision Support System.
•The creation of a Port of the Future Network of Excellence: the DTF Network of Excellence was set up as a free voluntary cooperative Network gathering the most innovative ports willing to team up and take actions to support the maritime community achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and EU Green Deal.
• Realisation of a Port of the Future Road Map for 2030, that includes the 'smartest port' embracing energy transition, digitisation and innovation as an opportunity.
A final comprehensive Dissemination and Communication approach was developed targeting all ports in Europe and other relevant stakeholders, including Mediterranean, Neighbouring Partner Countries
