Monitoring of Ship Operations in Seaport Areas in the Sustainable Development of Ocean–Land Connections

Abstract

The paper is devoted to underlining the important role of monitoring systems in the sustainable development of seaport areas—sensitive ocean–land connections exposed to the harmful effects of multimodal transport. The study concerns the existing monitoring possibilities of the environmental factors and ship traffic near port infrastructure. The main aim of the study is presenting the example of solutions, supporting the sustainable development of port areas, related to the most dangerous ship maneuvering operations carried out near the berths. An indirect method for measuring loads on the seabed from the propeller and thruster jets during ship berthing and an experimental method for predicting the hydrodynamic forces generated on a moored Panamax-size bulk carrier by a similar vessel passing along in shallow water conditions are described in the context of their implementation in monitoring systems. The cloud-based system—installed in the ferry terminal in the Port of Gdynia and developed for monitoring the flow generated by the ship propellers during maneuvers near the berth and warning about the exceedance of allowable pressure on the quay wall—allows, after a two-year operation, to draw the conclusions related to maintenance planning and has an impact on port sustainability. The discussion presented in the paper underlines the influence of monitoring both the environmental elements and hazardous ship operations on the sustainable development of seaport areas.