Port

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the facility for ships. For other uses, see Port (disambiguation).
Upper New York Bay
.

A port is a

Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their histories.[1][2]

Ports are extremely important to the global economy; 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port.

world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan. As of 2020, the busiest passenger port in Europe is the Port of Helsinki in Finland.[4]
Nevertheless, countless smaller ports do exist that may only serve their local tourism or fishing industries.

Ports can have a wide environmental impact on local ecologies and waterways, most importantly water quality, which can be caused by dredging, spills and other pollution. Ports are heavily affected by changing environmental factors caused by climate change as most port infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal flooding.[3] Internationally, global ports are beginning to identify ways to improve coastal management practices and integrate climate change adaptation practices into their construction.[3]

Historical ports

Main article: Historical ports

Wherever ancient civilisations engaged in maritime trade, they tended to develop sea ports. One of the world's oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea.[5] Along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found.

Other ancient ports include

Gujarāt.[6] Ostia Antica was the port of ancient Rome with Portus established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. In Japan, during the Edo period, the island of Dejima was the only port open for trade with Europe and received only a single Dutch ship per year, whereas Osaka
was the largest domestic port and the main trade hub for rice.

Post-classical Swahili kingdoms are known to have had trade port islands and trade routes[7] with the Islamic world and Asia. They were described by Greek historians as "metropolises".[8] Famous African trade ports such as Mombasa, Zanzibar, Mogadishu and Kilwa[9] were known to Chinese sailors such as Zheng He and medieval Islamic historians such as the Berber Islamic voyager Abu Abdullah ibn Battuta.[10]

Many of these ancient sites no longer exist or function as modern ports. Even in more recent times, ports sometimes fall out of use. Rye, East Sussex, was an important English port in the Middle Ages, but the coastline changed and it is now 2 miles (3.2 km) from the sea, while the ports of Ravenspurn and Dunwich have been lost to coastal erosion.

Modern ports

An Evergreen ship loading at Container Terminal Altenwerder, port of Hamburg, Germany

Whereas early ports tended to be just simple harbours, modern ports tend to be multimodal distribution hubs, with transport links using sea, river, canal, road, rail and air routes. Successful ports are located to optimize access to an active hinterland, such as the London Gateway. Ideally, a port will grant easy navigation to ships, and will give shelter from wind and waves. Ports are often on estuaries, where the water may be shallow and may need regular dredging. Deep water ports such as Milford Haven are less common, but can handle larger ships with a greater draft, such as super tankers, Post-Panamax vessels and large container ships. Other businesses such as regional distribution centres, warehouses and freight-forwarders, canneries and other processing facilities find it advantageous to be located within a port or nearby. Modern ports will have specialised cargo-handling equipment, such as gantry cranes, reach stackers and forklift trucks.

Ports usually have specialised functions: some tend to cater mainly for

St Helena still have limited port facilities, so that ships must anchor off while their cargo and passengers are taken ashore by barge or launch
(respectively).

In modern times, ports survive or decline, depending on current economic trends. In the UK, both the ports of

Thamesport,[11] a small semi-automated container port (with links to the Port of Felixstowe
, the UK's largest container port) thrived for some years, but has been hit hard by competition from the emergent London Gateway port and logistics hub.

In mainland Europe, it is normal for ports to be publicly owned, so that, for instance, the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam are owned partly by the state and partly by the cities themselves.[12]

Even though modern ships tend to have bow-thrusters and stern-thrusters,[citation needed] many port authorities still require vessels to use pilots and tugboats for manoeuvering large ships in tight quarters. For instance, ships approaching the Belgian port of Antwerp, an inland port on the River Scheldt, are obliged to use Dutch pilots when navigating on that part of the estuary that belongs to the Netherlands.

Ports with international traffic have customs facilities.

Types

The terms "port" and "seaport" are used for different types of facilities handling ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels.

Inland port

Main article: Inland port

An inland port is a port on a navigable lake, river (

Duluth-Superior, and Chicago.[13] The term inland port is also used for dry ports
.

Seaport

A seaport is a port located on the shore of a sea or ocean. It is further categorized as commercial and non-commercial: [14]

  • Commercial ones includes "
    cargo ports
    ". Additionally, "cruise ports" are also known as a "home port" or a "port of call"; and "cargo port" is also further categorized into a "bulk" or "break bulk port" or as a "container port".
  • Non-commercial seaports are
    fishing ports
    .

Cargo port

Cargo ports are quite different from cruise ports, because each handles very different cargo, which has to be loaded and unloaded by a variety of mechanical means.

Bulk cargo ports may handle one particular type of cargo or numerous cargoes, such as grains, liquid fuels, liquid chemicals, wood, automobiles, etc. Such ports are known as the "bulk" or "break bulk ports".

Ports that handle containerized cargo are known as container ports.

Most cargo ports handle all sorts of cargo, but some ports are very specific as to what cargo they handle. Additionally, individual cargo ports may be divided into different operating terminals which handle the different types of cargoes, and may be operated by different companies, also known as terminal operators, or

stevedores.[15]

Cruise port

A cruise home port is the port where cruise ship passengers board (or

Port of Miami, Florida
.

Port of call

A port of call is an intermediate stop for a ship on its sailing itinerary. At these ports, cargo ships may take on supplies or fuel, as well as unloading and loading cargo while cruise liners have passengers get on or off ship.

Fishing port

A fishing port is a port or harbor for landing and distributing fish. It may be a recreational facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the only port that depends on an ocean product, and depletion of fish may cause a fishing port to be uneconomical.

Marina

Izola Marina, Slovenia

A marina is a port for recreational boating.

Warm-water port

A warm-water port (also known as an ice-free port) is one where the water does not freeze in winter. This is mainly used in the context of countries with mostly cold winters where parts of the coastline freezes over every winter. Because they are available year-round, warm-water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. Such settlements as

Alaska Pipeline owe their very existence to being ice-free ports. The Baltic Sea and similar areas have ports available year-round beginning in the 20th century thanks to icebreakers, but earlier access problems prompted Russia to expand its territory to the Black Sea.[citation needed
]

Dry port

Main article: Dry port

A dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations.[17]

Smart port

Main article: Smart port

A smart port uses technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to be more efficient at handling goods.[18] Smart ports usually deploy cloud-based software as part of the process of greater automation to help generate the operating flow that helps the port work smoothly.[19] At present, most of the world's ports have somewhat embedded technology, if not for full leadership. However, thanks to global government initiatives and exponential growth in maritime trade, the amount of intelligent ports has gradually increased. This latest report by business intelligence provider Visiongain assesses that Smart Ports Market spending will reach $1.5 bn in 2019.[20]

Environmental issues