Climate change impacts on international seaports: knowledge, perceptions, and planning efforts among port administrators

Abstract

Seaports are located in vulnerable areas to climate change impacts: on coasts susceptible to sea-level rise and storms or at mouths of rivers susceptible to flooding. They serve a vital function within the local, regional, and global economy. Their locations in the heart of sensitive estuarine environments make it an imperative to minimize the impacts of natural hazards. Climate impacts, like a projected SLR of .6m to 2m and doubling of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes by 2100, will result in more extreme events at many seaports. To assess the current state of knowledge on this issue, we surveyed port authorities from around the world about how administrators felt climate change might impact their operations, what sea-level change would create operational problems, and how they planned to adapt to new environmental conditions. The planned rapid expansion of ports reported by the survey respondents indicates that adaptation measures should be considered as ports construct new infrastructure that may still be in use at the end of the century. Respondents agreed that the ports community needs to address this issue and most felt relatively uninformed about potential climate impacts. Although most ports felt that SLR would not be an issue at their port this century, sea-level rise was nevertheless an issue of great concern. Our results suggest opportunities for the scientific community to engage with port practitioners to prepare proactively for climate change impacts on this sector. KEY WORDS Seaports, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change Impacts, Climate Change PlanningCite as:Becker, A., S. Inoue, M. Fischer and B. Schwegler (2012). "Climate change impacts on international seaports: knowledge, perceptions, and planning efforts among port administrators." Climatic Change 110(1-2): 5-29.

Seaport Climate Vulnerability Assessment at the Multi-port Scale: A Review of Approaches

“…A port with robust planning procedures and more wealth, for example, may be considered to have a higher adaptive capacity than a port that has lesser planning and resources. In 2011, Becker and collaborators made a first attempt at quantifying international seaport adaptive capacity by developing a scoring system based on port authority responses regarding climate adaptation policies currently in place (Becker, Inoue, et al 2011). …”

A review of potential physical impacts on harbours in the Mediterranean Sea under climate change

“…Table 1 Impulsive storms, such as medicanes (Romero and Emanuel 2013) in the Mediterranean, will result in higher than usual MSL occurring (according to available projections) with a lower level of yearly average wave energy. Such explosive cyclo-genesis leads to extreme precipitation that could cause localized flooding and changes in sedimentation patterns that will increase dredging requirements (Becker et al 2012). These heavy rains can also interrupt land transport and, as a consequence, disturb cargo arrival to or evacuation from the port.…”

“…for overtopping and flooding). Port infrastructures have often been designed for present climate, including storm events with centennial return periods (Becker et al 2012), which are likely to be affected by climate change. Port suitability under future climates (multi-decadal scale) has either not been assessed or only partially evaluated as part of the port development plans.…”

Socio-economic Impacts—Urban Complexes

“…Disruption in supply chains can have a devastating impact on the regional economy. For example, it is estimated that Hurricane Katrina caused damage estimated at USD 1.7 billion and affected business in over 30 US states (Becker et al 2012). In a global review of sea ports, port authorities stated that sea-level rise is likely to have negative impacts on their port that systematic adaptation is not taking place and that more research is needed (Becker et al 2012).…”