Adoption of a multi-criteria approach for the selection of operational measures in a maritime environment

Abstract

In recent times, there have been developments in the maritime industry that underscore the need to optimise operations to yield maximum productivity. Apart from this, stakeholders in this industry have also advocated improvements in seaport operations' critical areas. However, there is no known study in which the relationship between performance criteria and seaport operation measures is investigated. This study proposes a framework for selecting operation measures for the maritime industry. It uses stakeholders' expectations for operational criteria and fuzzy logic to design the framework. Nine criteria were considered in the framework, while Fuzzy VIKOR (VIsekriterijumska optimizacija I KOmpromisno Resenje) and fuzzy Shannon entropy were incorporated into it. The framework's applicability was tested using information that was obtained from Tin can port, Lagos, Nigeria. During this process, hinterland traffic diversion (A1), congestion pricing (A2), off-dock container yards (A3), Fast rail shuttles (A4), expanded rail connections (A5) were considered as alternatives for seaport operational measures. When the developed framework was used to analyse the collected information from Tin Can port, Lagos, Nigeria, the fuzzy VIKOR index ranked the alternatives as A1 » A2 » A3 » A5 » A4. Therefore, this study's insights show that mathematical models can be used to make informed seaports decisions.