Evaluation of the Implementation of the Dimensions of the Blue Economy in Spanish Ports

Abstract

The Blue Economy is a relatively new concept. In 2010, Günter Pauli coined this term to refer to an economic development where a waste is raw material for a process, using the cycles of the natural world as an example. Currently, the Blue Economy is a much more broad and transversal concept and is strongly related to maritime economic sectors, from maritime transport to off-shore renewable energies through port operations. In short, the Blue Economy encompasses classic sectors such as shipbuilding together with more innovative concepts in the ports, such as digitalization, innovation, or energy transition. In this research, a new tool is developed which, as its main objective, can obtain a degree of implementation of the dimensions of the Blue Economy in Spanish ports through the evaluation of each of the economic sectors that constitute the B.E. in the 28 Spanish port authorities. To this end, a Delphi panel has been used to determine the importance of each economic dimension, a database has also been generated to determine the state of development of these dimensions in each port, and some equations have been developed to determine in base 100 how developed each port is. The results obtained show a notable development in the average of Spanish ports, highlighting Las Palmas as the port that has most developed the Blue Economy.