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Resiliency

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Instructor

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Resiliency

Operational delays are a norm within the maritime transportation system. For instance, a

vessel operator may be experiencing surprise security or safety boarding. A ship may have to

wait for another vessel in the landing place to clear before finally docking. As the governor of

KY, a port with a large river system that acts as a pathway for a lot of commerce, I would work

with the industry, the federal government, and the local governments to enhance the resilience of

the rivers by increasing the operational capabilities of the ports and the target hardness, as well

as, enhance the capacity and quality of intermodal connectors to improve the efficiency of the

internal shifting of goods and passengers.

The first step will be to coordinate with the federal and local governments, as well as the

industry, on how to improve the ports infrastructure. KY and other river serving ports such as

Louisville require a technical infrastructure to help enhance the rivers' resilience. According to

the Coastal Resilience Center (2017), ports are vital for the maritime transportation system due

to their ability to be tied at a specific location at the edge of the water body and land. Finance

incentive, large and specialized infrastructure erected for the long-term could enhance KYs port

resilience. The long term infrastructure would include cranes, warehouses, docks, and piers

erected after long-term planning and collaboration with the industry and the federal and local

governments.

Another step will be to target social capital and recovery by enhancing the security

regimes in the river. Reducing the coastal flooding impacts on the river will have an economic

benefit on the port due to its ability to enhance resilience and positively impact the maritime

supply chain (Morris, 2017). Establishing an efficient communication and coordination process
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with the necessary officials in the industry and the federal and local governments on the shared

experiences and responsibilities and the existing trust between the other's experts would

contribute to a better security regime in the river. Efficient coordination and communication

would significantly decrease the port's assets' physical vulnerability by enabling the formulation

of new design improvements to help mitigate any attack consequences.

Furthermore, an overall reduction of the risks may be attained by decreasing the

vulnerabilities that affect critical systems and communications. Enabling the maritime

transportation system to manage complex rerouting processes will be a crucial step because it

would improve the critical systems and communications and contribute to a faster way of

rerouting cargo in congestions and disruptions (Hein & Schubert, 2020). Besides, disruptions are

almost inevitable in the maritime transportation system. The simplest and most important step to

enhance resilience in the rivers is to ensure continued operations and a normal resumption of the

shipping activities. Disruptive events such as hurricanes, government instabilities can have

serious impacts on the economy (Russell, 2020). Ensuring a quick restoration of the operations

would help mitigate the damages and enhance the rivers' resilience.

In sum, as the governor of KY with a large river system that moves a lot of commerce, I

will take the following steps in working with the industry, federal and local governments to

increase the resilience of the water bodies within the state that conduct commerce. Firstly, I will

coordinate with the necessary officials to improve the ports infrastructure, then enhance the

security regimes through social capital and recovery, establish an efficient communication and

coordination process, and ensure continued operations and a normal resumption of shipping

activities after an operational incident.

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References

Coastal Resilience Center (2017). Integrating Maritime and Coastal Resilience, Report from the

7th Annual Maritime Resilience Symposium November 14-15, 2016.

https://coastalresiliencecenter.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/845/2018/09/CRC_2016-

MRS_FINAL-REPORT_07-28-2017_.pdf

Hein, C., & Schubert, D. (2020), Resilience, Disaster, and Rebuilding in Modern Port Cities,

Journal of Urban History.

Morris, L. (2017). Ports Resilience Index: Participatory Methods to Assess Resilience, LSU

Doctoral Dissertations. 4474.

Russell, H. R. (2020), Methodology for Quantifying Resiliency of Transportation Systems,

Dissertations, and Theses. 515.