Can ports keep goods moving as climate changes?

Helen Wilcox  0:03  
Welcome to the Hydrofiles, the HR Wallingford podcast. I'm Helen Wilcox and with me is...

Tom Matthewson  0:09  
My name is Tom Matthewson. I'm the ports harbours and sector lead at HR Wallingford, and I also advise clients on the environmental impact support projects.

Maria di Leo  0:19  
My name is Maria di Leo I am the business development lead for the coastal sector in HR Wallingford and technical director in the coast and oceans group.

Mark Lee  0:29  
I'm Mark Lee, I'm a technical director at HR Wallingford. I've been here about 14 years, I manage a team which deals with dredging, marine monitoring, and marine environmental studies.

Helen Wilcox  0:40  
Today we're talking about how climate change impacts could disrupt the operation of ports and harbours, as well as looking at the sort of adaptation measures that ports and harbours need to take to avoid such disruption. We will also be discussing how they could help cut carbon emissions. Maria, can I start by asking you why ports and harbours should be concerned about climate change?

Maria di Leo  1:02  
As we know sea levels are rising, as is the frequency and intensity of storm events. And these two effects together affect the ability of a port to operate safely. Not only marine terminals, but also other infrastructure may be affected. And by it, I mean, still water systems, wastewater systems, transportation network and critical infrastructures. So to help ports operate safely, we need to take measures that counteract the effects of sea level rising and increase dominance.

Helen Wilcox  1:37  
And what what happens if we don't take those measures, what sort of damage occurs?

Maria di Leo  1:43  
What happens is that for instance, marine terminals, or other areas within a port can be flooded. And when that happens not only causes damages to the infrastructure, but also affects the ability of the port to operate. For instance, let's assume an area of a Marine Terminal is flooded. What happens is the lifting equipment cannot offload ships or load ships. And that causes disruption because each hour a ship is docked without being able to work causes a financial impact on the shipping industry.

Helen Wilcox  2:23  
And it's not just about the shipping industry is it, Mark? It has a much wider impact on international trade. 

Mark Lee  2:30  
Sure, yeah. I mean ports are obviously essential for effective international trade. About 80% of goods have at least one maritime transport leg and the ports are really key nodes for the transport networks, particularly in developing countries, the quality of the port infrastructure can affect the logistics performance and seaborne trade volumes that the country has. And this in turn can affect their economic growth.

Maria has talked a little bit about the climate impacts already. Tom, what do you see as the main climate change impacts for ports? What do they need to be prepared for?

Tom Matthewson  3:07  
Certainly the sea level rise implications of climate change are the greatest concern. Alongside that there are other climatic factors that we are seeing changes to that have affects on port operations. That includes things like air temperature, which can affect how a port can operate safely, including of course, fire risk, and also particularly flood risk in terms of storm drainage and the capacity to deal with the more intense rainfall events we're starting to see around the world.

Helen Wilcox  3:38  
And Mark in your role as a dredging expert, how are ports effective in terms of sediment when there is a storm, for example?

Mark Lee  3:47  
Well, climate change impacts in some parts of the world are likely to include things like bigger storm surges, more precipitation and more intense precipitation at times, changes to wave conditions and increases in the occurrence of major tropical cyclones. These can lead to changes in the sediment transport in some rivers, estuaries and coastal areas, which may in turn alter ports dredging requirements, particularly when these extreme events occur. It may mean that different arrangements for dredging would need to be...would be more suitable. For example, ensuring that mobilisation distances and times for dredges are shorter. That may be of assistance, and also different contractual arrangements may be beneficial, for example, those which allow a rapid response without needing to negotiate a contract first.

Helen Wilcox  4:38  
Okay, thank you, Maria. So we've talked about, you know, a bit more about the climate change impacts. Are these risks the same for ports and harbours all over the world and what sort of variation do we see in different places. 

Maria di Leo  4:51  
Really, because each port location is unique in that it has its own meteorological conditions which are responsible for generating winds. Also the water surfaces around the ports can change and in terms of its free surface where waves can generate and then propagate. And also the characteristics of the seabed change, and that has an impact on the way waves propagate towards the port. So, each one has been, has to be seen in its individuality and assessed in its own right.

Helen Wilcox  5:25  
So, given what Maria said, Tom, what can port owners and authorities do to prepare for rising sea level risks and other possible impacts from climate change?

Tom Matthewson  5:34  
Maria is quite right, we need to look at each port individually. And particularly with regard to existing ports, we should bear in mind that many ports are developed over decades, if not longer. Some of them are some of our oldest businesses in the country. And those ports are developed under different sorts of assumptions about sea levels, and other, the other climatic factors we've talked about. So it's important that ports review the design standards and performance of their existing assets to ensure that they can accommodate the changes we're likely to see with climate change.

Helen Wilcox  6:17  
Maria, what's your thoughts? How do we approach at HR Wallingford for example, when we're thinking about designing new ports?

Maria di Leo  6:24  
We need to plan for it properly. I think planning and design are two important phases, because we need to understand what conditions the port is going to find itself in, in terms of environmental conditions, I mean, waves, currents, levels, surges, all of it has an influence, but not necessarily at the moment the design is made. We need to think long term and what likely situation the port is going to find itself in in a few years time. And that few years depends on what scenario we want to look at. So we need to embed projections of climate change in the design, and assess scenarios depending on a number of situation and conditions. So again, planning is important. But another important aspect, as I said is flexibility. Because what we can assess now is not necessarily what is going to happen in a few years time. So we need to embed in the design, that sort of adaptation capability so that the design can be revisited and whatever construction can be rethought, reassessed and maybe changed, depending on what the situation is going to be like, after this interval has occurred. 

Helen Wilcox  7:44  
We've been talking so far, mainly about how ports can adapt to the impacts of climate change. Is there anything that they can do as well to contribute towards cutting carbon emissions? Mark? I believe in the dredging area, there's quite a lot going on in terms of cutting emissions.

Mark Lee  8:00  
Yeah, sure. There's, there's potential for emissions reductions in the in the dredging area. So often dredging, ports can can have been done in the same way for for many years, sometimes decades. And yet sometimes there are opportunities for that dredging to be optimised so sometimes it can be reduced, or it can be done in a different way. And this can lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and lead to cost savings for the client. On our last dredging optimization project, we were delivered a 20% saving for our clients on their on their dredging costs as a consequence of optimization. And the optimization can take several different forms. So it can be things like assessing whether the dredging that is presently being done needs to be done for safe navigation. So navigation assessments. Assessing when the dredging can be undertaken in a more efficient way using a different dredging technique. So perhaps things like agitation, dredging, or water injection dredging, and we have a client who's adopted this approach recently, which has resulted in less greenhouse gas emissions, lower costs, and will have been better for the environment because they've kept the sediment in the sediment transport system. Also optimization can mean finding beneficial uses for dredged sediments close to the dredge site. And again, that can mean that the dredgers don't need to transport material long distances to offshore disposal sites. I mean on the emissions front, also, dredging contracts are working really hard in terms of the technology and the equipment that they're using. So they're already dual fuel. dredgers in operation running on diesel or LNG, liquefied natural gas, and that can lower ships exhaust emissions in terms of sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter.

Helen Wilcox  9:52  
So there's a lot going on in the aera.already

Mark Lee  9:54  
Yeah, there is an awful lot. 

Helen Wilcox  9:56  
Yeah. And Maria was I think there was some other nature based solutions that are stuck to appear or be thought about, could you tell us a bit about those? 

Maria di Leo  10:04  
Yes, these tackle the problem from a different perspective. Rather than reducing emissions, what they really do is to sequester carbon already present in the atmosphere and store it. When we talk about nature based solution, basically, we mean landscape features that occur naturally or can be engineered. What these features do is basically embodying carbon in the biomass or in the sediment, because we're talking about ecosystems, mainly natural occurring, or as I said, re engineered by us. So what happens is that they use this capacity for reducing carbon in the atmosphere. And because of this specific ability, we use them sometimes as offsetting means, which means that sometimes we accompany our design with other means, like restoration of the ecosystem, to basically offset the amount of carbon that our design produces. It's not ideal. That's not the perfect solution. But it's somehow helpful in dealing with climate change.

Helen Wilcox  11:25  
Can you give us some examples specifically of these, what is nature based solutions might be?

Maria di Leo  11:30  
Yes, for example. Although this is not common in the UK, but for instance, as many of us know, some ecosystems like mangroves are rich in carbon. They are basically storage, but in their biomass in soil, an enormous amount of carbon. And therefore, when these ecosystems occur naturally, they basically perform this function of absorbing carbon from and taking it away from the atmosphere. There are also other other ecosystems, like for instance, seagrass or salt marshes, which perform a similar function. And therefore every time we enhance these ecosystems, or restore them, we basically improve their ability to do so. And this is quite important, there is a lot of focus being placed on these type of interventions in UK in the US and more internationally. So this is quite important.

Mark Lee  12:35  
I think the other important thing is that, you know, with these beneficial reuse schemes, it's a it's a win-win situation whereby we were creating a new habitat or a new recreation area or a new coastal defence with but also at the same time, we're potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions because the dredger would otherwise perhaps have had to have carried that material to a disposal site, which may have been tens, or even hundreds of kilometres away, burning diesel in the process of going there and coming back and doing that multiple times, you know, with every load. So these beneficial reuse solutions are really helpful.

Maria di Leo  13:19  
And we need to remember that also nature based solutions have multiple benefits, in addition to reducing carbon, they also perform other so called ecosystem services, because they can be used to reduce erosion, to tackle other types of problems. And therefore, again, it's a win win situation because we get multiple benefits by one intervention.

Helen Wilcox  13:45  
Do you think increasingly, these are going to become more popular because they are a win win? 

Maria di Leo  13:50  
They are already.  Governments are looking into them. Also, the environment agency is looking into the use of nature based solutions to for a variety of situations.

Mark Lee  14:06  
I don't think we should forget, though about all the beneficial reuse. I mean, of course, the generation of habitats and new recreation areas is important, but also materials can be used in reclamation areas to create new land, which has a purpose but also importantly in terms of raising the ground level up. And here we're talking potentially with climate change about flood risk. If we're raising ground levels with with dredged materials and beneficially reusing it in that way, then potentially we can reduce the flood risks.

Helen Wilcox  14:40  
And Tom, could you talk to us a little bit more about what can be done in terms of design to support low carbon shipping and perhaps in terms also of optimising designing ports?

Tom Matthewson  14:50  
Sure. I mean, low carbon shipping is one of the most exciting and innovative areas in the ports and harbour scene at the moment. We should remember that shipping is already one of the lowest carbon intense forms of transport there is and that's why it's such an important part of our low carbon future. Mark's already mentioned the adoption of lower carbon fuels already and ports have an important role in terms of providing the infrastructure to supply and transport those fuels. So this principally at the moment is LNG which although is still a carbon based fuel is much more efficient and has lower emissions in other regards. And also ports are have the opportunity to provide onshore power to ships when moored alongside And that, again, can reduce the carbon emissions if the electricity is supplied from renewable sources, but also has major benefits in terms of local air quality within ports as well. The future though, is almost certainly not carbon as a fuel for ships. And this again has implications for further infrastructure, the port's supply. The most zero carbon fuel at the moment is hydrogen and that brings new challenges in terms of the, and opportunities, in terms of the infrastructure to supply hydrogen as a fuel to ships. Ammonia is an is another fuel that is actually already used in a few specialised cases, but could also be adopted. And in the very long term as technology improves for batteries, we may see ships using electrical power stored in batteries, as we currently already are starting to see adopted for short haul coastal shipping. But for the very largest ships, this is potentially where the zero carbon shipping of the future lies.

Helen Wilcox  16:56  
Thank you. It's been really interesting to hear all your views about what's happening already, and you know, how ports need to prepare for climate change. What's your view? Are you feeling optimistic for the future?

Mark Lee  17:09  
Yeah, I think it's, I think there are exciting times at the moment. There are there are challenges, but there are also lots of opportunities, and opportunities to develop new ideas and new new ways of doing things. So I think it's a very positive period.

Tom Matthewson  17:26  
There's lots to be optimistic about. I think the will is there to evolve as a sector and the tools are being developed. So I totally agree there's formidable challenges, but they're certainly surmountable and the sector is up for that challenge, I believe.

Maria di Leo  17:44  
To me, the interesting thing is that we can now we have a very good excuse to work with nature, because actually it seems to be really one of the best solutions that we can rely on.

Helen Wilcox  17:59  
That's a great positive thoughts finish on. Maria Tom, and Mark, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your thoughts. Thank you.