Risk Assessment of Port Congestion Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the COVID-19 outbreak hitting the world, the frequency and severity of port congestion caused by various factors are increasing, challenging the stability of international supply chains. Thus, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study on congestion risks to reduce their adverse impacts on congestion. Although traditional criticality analysis techniques may be capable of ranking port congestion risk in common scenarios, new risk analysis methods are urgently required to tackle uncertainty along with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper develops a methodology designed for the identification and prioritization of port congestion risk during the pandemic. First, a novel congestion risk assessment model is established by extending the risk prioritization index (RPI) suggested by failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). Next, the combination of fuzzy Bayesian reasoning, AHP and the variation coefficient method is incorporated into the model in a complementary way to facilitate the treatment of uncertainty and quantitative analysis of the congestion under the different influence of risk factors in ports. Finally, the mode introduces a set of risk utility values for calculating the RPI for prioritization. A real case study and a sensitivity analysis were carried out to illustrate and validate the proposed model. The results proved that the applied method is feasible and functional. In the illustrative example, the top three risk factors are “Interruption of railways/barges services”, “Skilled labor shortage” and “Shortage of truck-drivers/drayage truck”. The findings obtained from this paper could provide useful insights for risk prevention and mitigation.

Developing a resilience assessment model for critical infrastructures: The case of port in tackling the impacts posed by the Covid-19 pandemic

“…However, pandemic disruptions, with their global impact and long-lasting effect, have been neglected. As such, it is pivotal to identify the key factors that affect port CIs during the Covid-19 pandemic ( Gui et al, 2022 ; Xu et al, 2021b ) and to build a BBN framework to quantify resilience and examine the impacts of different factors in port performance. Here we explore two key questions: 1) How is resilience developed in the context of the port industry?…”

Effect of Service Priority on the Integrated Continuous Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment Problem after Port Congestion

“…Constraint (2) guarantees that the vessels begin to berth only after arriving at the port and the departure time is later than berthing time. Constraint (3) ensures that all the vessels must be berthed within the area of the quay. Constraint (4) restricts that the number of assigned quay cranes is not only less than the given maximum number but also over the minimum number.…”

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Evaluating the sustainability of smart technology applications in healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic: A hybridising subjective and objective fuzzy group decision-making approach with explainable artificial intelligence

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