Please follow directions or I will dispute
Please answer original forum with a minimum of 250 words and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 100 words each
page 1 Original Forum with references
page 2 Said response with references
page 3 Sabrina response with references
page 4 Patricia response with references
original forum
Reflections on your learning:
- Create a reflection post describing the issues facing ports in the future.
- Provide a summation of how you will use these content in the future.
- Student Response
Said
There are lots of issues that ports might face in the future, in my view. First issue is probably financing the renovations, expansions, and new projects. As demand for the seaports increase, investment in ports should grow accordingly. Not every owner can afford it due to many different reasons. With today’s inflation around the world this “can” probably be kicked further down the road even at the federal levels. Next issue might be due to changes happening in the world geopolitics. Regulations built for decades are facing serious tests. Some countries or a cluster of countries might challenge the requirements to comply with the existing rules and regulations. Today we see many ships being trapped at the ports in Ukraine due to the war. No regulation can free them at this moment. Environmental damage to the coastal areas because of the expansion of the ports and dredging projects might be colossal. It might take many years for nature to recover from the damage made by us. Last issue that I want to mention is constant growth in global trade. It can put an immense pressure on ports. Ongoing congestion at ports, backlog in supply chain probably are not going away anytime soon. If port stakeholders, investors, local and federal governments do not take timely and proper action the issues with delays might become a new reality.
The content of this course directly linked my day to day duties. The knowledge earned here is invaluable and already being implemented in the real world. I am very interested to see the future of fully electric and automated vessel developments and more interested to see the new ports which hopefully start servicing those vessels. Hope all that happens in our lifetime.
Good luck!
Respectfully,
Said
Sabrina
As we head into the future, I believe that the most prominent issues that ports will face are technology, innovation, and environmental conservation. Looking at technology, ports will be required to stay up to date with all technology and automation to enable high port efficiencies. This will require continuous port research and innovation themes to be in their base institutional objectives for port authorities (FAL, 2016). These areas will need additional funding or investments. I foresee this increase funding requirement leading to a greater importance on public-private sector relations. With the overall growing importance of environmental conservation, ports will be required to significantly increase energy efficiency while reducing their overall carbon footprint and manage waste within all aspects of their operations (FAL, 2016). Additional unforeseen issues will continue to affect ports and how they operate; however, ports with adaptability to ensure all port activities are sustainable will remain competitive.
Over these past eight weeks, I have learned about several aspects of the port and terminal realm. This has broadened my understanding of port policy and performance as some of the topic areas provided new information to me. I appreciated the additional research I conducted during this class to help me better understand some of the material. Most of the material is not relevant to my current career; however, after learning about the wide-ranging network that is required to manage port operations effectively, I have grown an interest in learning more and potentially seeking work following my military career involving the direct aspect of resourcing and managing allocation within ports.
REFERENCE
FAL. (2016). Reflections on the future of ports: From current strains to the changes and innovation of the future. Facilitation of Transport and Trade in Latin America and the Caribbean, 352(8). https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/41857/1/S1601354_en.pdf
Patricia
Congratulations everyone! We made it to the last week. Ports of the future will have many different issues to face. One of the issues will be a continuing demand for goods from the population. As online shopping continues to grow, we will see more products being shipped from across the seas, and hopefully, the ports will be able to handle these issues. Intermodal transportation and offshore ports look like they will be a big help to ease the congestion that is currently happening at the ports today. Port planning will be essential as we come out of the current epidemic. Ports need to have plans in place in case it happens again because no one was prepared for this one.
I also believe more ports will embrace automation to make it easier to load and offload ships. Of course, some ports will have more automation than others, but they must do what is suitable for their area. I found an interesting article on Google that talks about Kalmar’s 2060 vision of how cargo handling will take place in 2060. They talk about drones doing a lot of the shipping work and artificial intelligence taking over port operations. You can watch the three-and-a-half-minute video here: https://youtu.be/IqAhz1EUruo.
To be honest, I am not sure how I will use the information I learned in the future. My position now only deals with a small part of the supply chain. One day I hope to find a position with a manufacturer, but I do like my job now. Only time will tell. Good luck to everyone in your future endeavors.
