Seaport operation

& the environment

CHAPTER 4
A. Global trend of sustainable development
B. Environmental legislation affecting ports
C. Environmental audit
D. Planning processes at ports
E. Impact of ports operations on the coastal zone
F. Future concerns and direction.

The content:-
• According to World Commission on Environment and
Development (also known as the Brundtland
Commission):

• “development that meet the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.”
• Common concept used in the definition of sustainability is
the idea of balancing economic, environmental and social
needs.

Port Sustainable
development
 Economic

Sustainable
Development
Environment Social
• Sustainable production and consumption
• Societal infrastructure and services
• Energy and climate
• Development and poverty
• Ecosystems
• Corporate Responsibility
• Risk
 Coast Protection Act 1949
 Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992 (Biodiversity Convention)
 Dangerous Substances in Harbour Areas Regulations 1987
 Merchant Shipping Regulations 1981
 Environmental Protection Act 1990
 Food & Environmental Protection Act (Part II) 1985 (FEPA)
 Harbours Act 1964 and Transport and Works Act 1992
 Hazardous Waste Regulations 1998
 International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972
 Landfill Tax Regulations 1996
 MARPOL 73/78 - International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
 MARPOL regulations relating to port reception facilities for ship generated wastes.
 Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Co-operation Convention)
Regulations 1997
 Merchant Shipping (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulation 1997
 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982

Environmental legislation
affecting ports
• Coast Protection Act 1949
• Permission is required from the Marine Directorate of the
Department of Environment Transport & the Regions for
any dredging works proposed in navigable waters under the
Coast Protection Act 1949.
• Section 34 of this Act provides the mechanism for
controlling the effect of marine works on navigation.
• In addition to this permission a disposal license is required
in order to deposit the dredged material.
 Dangerous Substances in Harbour Areas Regulations
1987
The Dangerous Substances in Harbour Areas Regulations
1987, controls the carriage, loading, unloading and storage
of all classes of dangerous substances within harbour areas.
The former Department of Transport (DoT) regulates
control of routine activities on board ship under various
Merchant Shipping Acts including:-
 Environmental Protection Act 1990
 Harbours Act 1964 and Transport and Works Act 1992
 Hazardous Waste Regulations 1998
 MARPOL 73/78 - International Convention on the
Prevention of Pollution from Ships
 The most wide ranging and comprehensive legislation for the
control, ashore and afloat, of waste arising from shipping
activities is the International Convention on the Prevention of
Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78).
 The objective of the measures introduced by MARPOL is to
regulate and minimize pollution from ships by oil and other
harmful substances.
 The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) maintains the
convention through its marine environment protection committee.
 MARPOL 73/78 covers the five main forms of ship generated
waste in five specific annexes
• Annexes I, II, IV and V provide specific requirements for
the handling and discharge of ship generated wastes.
• Annex IV regarding the discharge of sewage from ships.
These regulations will apply to ships over 200 tons gross or
a ship carrying more than 10 persons.
Annex Category of Waste Reception facilities Types of waste for reception
required?

I Oil Yes Covers all types of wastes from the carriage of

oil: as fuel, engine room slops, cargo (tank
washings) or dirty ballast water.
II Noxious liquid Yes Chemical wastes derived from bulk chemical
substances in bulk transportation, including residues and mixtures
containing noxious substances.
III Harmful substances No -
carried by sea in
packaged form
IV Sewage from ships Yes Raw sewage – retained in holding tanks for
disposal in port or outside 12nm;

Partially treated sewage – retained in holding

V Garbage from ships
VI Air pollution from ships
tanks for disposal in port or outside 4nm.
Yes Garbage includes domestic (food and
packaging) and operational (maintenance, cargo
and miscellaneous) wastes.
No -
• According to DOE of Malaysia under Section 33A,
Environmental Quality Act, 1974 :-

• “environmental audit” means a periodic, systematic,

documented and objective evaluation to determine:-

• the compliance status to environmental regulatory requirements

• the environmental management system; and
• the overall environmental risk of the premises

Environmental audit
 The primary objective is to assess the compliance status of
industrial facilities and development projects that are
subject to the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and to
provide a systematic approach to ensuring compliance.

 The longer term goal is for industry and developers to

eventually self-regulate its environmental management
and help achieve the sustainable development objectives of
the country.

 The primary type of environmental audit that will be required

by DOE is a regulatory compliance-type audit.
 A regulatory compliance-type audit investigates the
organization’s intent to manage its environmental issues for
compliance to the regulations.

 The main objective of the compliance-type environmental

audit is to identify conditions that are out of compliance
and for bringing the condition back into compliance as
soon as practicable.

 The audit seeks to set the organization on a path to sustainable

practices in which resources are utilized efficiently and waste
and pollution are correspondingly reduced.
• The audit process is commonly structured into three
phases:
• Pre-audit
• Select auditor, review preliminary information and prepare
audit plan and checklist
• On-site audit
• Opening meeting, conduct the audit at site, closing meeting
• Post-audit
• Prepare audit report and implement corrective and preventive
action
 Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA)/(EIA)
 According to Environmental Quality Act, 1974,
environmental risk is defined as “any risk, hazard or chances
of bad consequences that may be brought upon the
environment”
 According to the European Environment Agency (EEA),
environmental risk assessment (ERA) is the examination of
risks resulting from technology that threaten ecosystems,
animals and people.
 It includes human health risk assessments, ecological or
ecotoxicological risk assessments, and specific industrial
applications of risk assessment that examine end-points in
people, biota or ecosystems.
• In the developed countries, the development of
environmental policy and regulation are shifting from
hazard-based to risk-based approaches.
• A risk-based approach attempts to examine the actual
risks imposed by an environmental issue rather than the
potential hazards that may, or may not arise
 The port planning process is generally designed to include a number
of tasks which examine in turn the various aspects of the project in
order to produce the overall port master plan.

 The master plan (often in the form of a layout drawing) will define
the future long-term development of the port area (often over the
next 25 years) and also define the immediate requirements (often to
be built in the next 5 years).

 Construction in the intervening period (of 20 years) will be timed to

suit the speed of growth of the traffic being handled by the port but it
will be generally in accordance with the master plan so that all
development is carried out in a planned and orderly fashion.

Planning processes at
ports
 The main steps in this process can generally be defined as follows,
however this will be adjusted to suit the individual requirements of
each project:-

 Step 1 - Review of Existing Situation

 This will generally include an inspection and report of the existing port
facilities, the port equipment, staff and management, the types and
volumes of cargo, the port tariffs and profitability.
 Study of port efficiency including cargo handling, stacking, customs and
police procedures, may also be made.
 Land-use in and around the port site will be identified.
 In the case of a completely new port, alternative sites for port location will
be identified
 Step 2 - Traffic Forecasts
 The next step will be forecasting possible future traffic levels for the port.
 This may be done in a number of ways. At its simplest level a mere extrapolation of past
trends may be used to estimate future growth.
 However this approach is likely to be over-simplistic and it is likely that macro-economic
modelling will be carried out – this will reflect a number of additional factors such as the
government’s long term development goals, global trends and business cycle effects.
 It may also include competitor analysis for adjacent ports. Sectoral studies may also be
carried out by interviewing potential port users to incorporate their long term plans into the
port master plan.
 Finally, an allowance may be made for the marketing strategy of the port; those with an
aggressive policy being more likely to attract additional trade.
 Traffic forecasts are generally prepared for High, Medium and Low development alternatives
for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 year periods. It will include imports and exports.
 Step 3 – Environmental Assessment
Our maritime engineers are cognizant of the environment
requirements of port projects and able to draw attention
early to possible fatal constraints for development projects
such as contaminated land, disposal of dredged materials,
flora and fauna, noise, dust, etc.
The environment division who will carry out initial
environmental assessment, organize base-line surveys and
plan the needs for full environmental impact assessment
and monitoring.
 Step 4 – Development of the Port Master plan
With the first 4 steps in place, the port master plan will be
developed and finalized.
The master plan will show the development of the port and
its infrastructure as the traffic levels increase and will show
the requirements for funding and planning.
As well as showing the complete development of the port
construction (in the 25 year horizon), the actions needed in
the short term (in the next 5 years) will also be identified.
 Step 5 – Economic and Financial Assessment
A financial assessment will show the capital and operating
costs of the alternative development options (including the
do nothing option) over time, together with the forecast
income stream, thus identifying the financial status of the
project (usually expressed in terms of the internal rate of
return (IRR)).
Economic assessment (EIRR) will also be carried out as
required.
 Major sources of these adverse effects can be categorized into three types:
 Location of port;
 construction;
 port operation, including ship traffic and discharges, cargo handling and storage,
and land transport.
 Location of port connotes the existence of structures or landfills, and the
position of the development site.
 Construction implies construction activities in the sea and on land,
dredging, disposal of dredged materials, and transport of construction
materials.
 Port operation includes ship-related factors such as vessel traffic, ship
discharges and emissions, spills and leakage from ships; and cargo-related
factors such as cargo handling and storage, handling equipment, hazardous
materials, waterfront industry discharges, and land transport to and from

Impact of ports
the port.

operations on the coastal

zone
 Environmental aspect to be considered in relation to port
development are categorized into nine groups:
 water quality;
 coastal hydrology;
 bottom contamination;
 Marine and coastal ecology;
 air quality;
 noise and vibration;
 waste management;
 Visual quality;
 socio-cultural impacts.
Figure 1: Major impacts of port development on the environment
 Water quality includes five elements:
 General features such as:-
 temperature, salinity, pH, colour, transparency, oil and grease, and
organic material concentration measured by total organic carbon (TOG),
chemical oxygen demand (GOD) or biochemical oxygen demand (BOD);
 Turbidity measured by:-
 suspended solids (88);
 Eutrophication-related factors measured by:-
 dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P);
 Harmful or toxic substances including heavy metals such as
mercury, cadmium, lead, and pesticides; and
 Sanitation-related factors determined by measuring the amount of
coliform bacteria.
 Coastal hydrology includes factors concerning currents, tidal flow,
littoral drifts, beach erosion, water drainage, sediment deposition,
groundwater flow, and other physical phenomena in the shore zone.

 Bottom contamination encompasses many kinds of contamination of

bottom sediments by toxic or harmful substances, oils, oily
mixtures and other hazardous materials.

 Contamination of bottom sediments are often measured by the size

of sediment particles, pH, colour, smell, oil and grease, organic
materials, and concentration of organic nitrogen, phosphorus,
sulphide, and toxic substances such as heavy metals and pesticides
including toxic components of antifouling paints.
 Marine and coastal ecology includes aquatic fauna and flora
composed of a large number of species of bacteria, phytoplankton,
zooplankton, benthonic organisms, coral, seaweed, shellfish, fish and
other aquatic biota, terrestrial flora such as mangroves and wetland.
 Loss of bottom habitat and fishery resources are also significant
problems included in this category.

 Air quality consists of two main elements:

 dirt and dust, measured by suspended particulate matter (SPM), which
originate from dry bulk cargo handling and storage, construction work
on land, and road traffic;
 concentration of sulfur dioxide (S02) nitrogen dioxide (N02), carbon
monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons (HC) emitted from ships, vehicles
and various equipment used for port activities. Harmful substances and
odor are also elements to be considered in this category
 Noise and vibration generated by road traffic, cargo
operations, ship traffic and other port activities also cause
nuisances to local people.

 Waste management relates to all kinds of wastes, both

liquid and solid, likely to be disposed of in the port area.

 These wastes include dredged materials, garbage and oily

mixtures discharged from ships, wastes from cargo
operations, and all types of discharges from municipal and
waterfront industry activities.
• Visual quality refers to the aesthetic value of the
landscape, the view of port facilities, the nuisance of
bright lights used for night operations in a port, and
other visual problems.

• Socio-cultural impacts includes all kinds of influence

on the local community and people's life style such as
relocation of villages, industrialization, population
growth nearby, and the formation of slums