Seaports are important maritime commercial facilities and key hubs for national and global trades. There is a growing need for seaborne transport and, hence, seaport facilities, especially in emerging economies due to economic and population growth, such as in Africa. In sedimentary environments, port construction may induce coastal impacts regarding up-drift accretion and down-drift erosion. These coastal impacts potentially increase risks such as harbour siltation and coastal area erosion. To mitigate or even avoid these risks in the pre-construction stage, coastline evolution around ports needs to be well-understood. Analysis of long-term shoreline position data around existing ports can provide this understanding. However, long-term in-situ shoreline position data around ports are often unavailable or inaccessible, especially in emerging economies which are often data poor. Nevertheless, nowadays a growing database of satellite images provides these data on a global scale for the last decades. Furthermore, the launch of Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform in 2016 enabled accessibility and efficient processing of these satellite images. This development allows building an evidence database for shoreline positions around African seaports. With this database, coastline evolution trends around all ports can be analysed, inter-compared and related to environmental and port characteristics to derive lessons for future port development.
According to the World Port Index, 165 African seaports (after excluding river ports, offshore platforms and anchorages from 266 African ports) are identified. Only 125 ports at sandy coastlines, where SDS detection has been validated, are focused in this research. The results from this study show that coastline evolution, especially coastal area erosion, around the majority of African seaports is limited by the narrow sandy beach and rocky substratum of Afro-trailing coasts. However, there are still some ports at sediment-rich coasts having dramatic erosion and/or siltation hazards. After analysing common characteristics of these high-hazard ports, lessons are learnt for port development. Regarding site selection and breakwater design, ports with massive river sediment supply and/or ports at open coasts have larger negative coastal impacts. For coasts with river sediment supply, it is better to construct ports at the up-drift side of the river mouth to avoid interruption of river supplied sediment transport, which is found helpful for ports around West Mediterranean Sea. Shoreline management plan should be coupled with methods to maintain or increase river sediment supply, which can be learnt from shoreline retreating around ports in West Africa. Furthermore, to reduce coastal impacts around ports, port breakwaters at open coasts should be carefully designed regarding length and orientation to achieve a smaller shore-normal projected length, especially when the gross longshore wave power is massive. Regarding mitigation methods for coastline evolution impacts, shoreline protection structures are effective in reducing erosion hazards in the time scale of 30 years. Extension of the port breakwater (s) can be a temporary solution to mitigate the potential siltation problem but to reduce the down-drift erosion problem at the same time, sediment by-pass system, which is proved to be successful in South African ports, can be designed.

The inland ports play an important role in the Dutch transport system, but it will undergo changes as a result of the societal changes in demand for services and goods and the changes in hydraulic conditions. The inland port has to adapt to these developments in order to reduce the threats and to increase the opportunities, but this requires adaptations to the current infrastructure or services. It is preferred to know the opportunities and threats beforehand, so that the inland port can already adapt to these projected changes ahead of time. This research focussed on the development of a method to assess the future-proofness of a Dutch inland port in the period up to 2050, result in the following main research question: What method can be provided to assess the future-proofness of an inland port in The Netherlands until 2050 with regard to the current port activities? The first step of this research was focussed on defining future-proofness of an inland port. An investigation into literature on the definition of future-proofness resulted in the following definition of the future-proof inland port: A future-proof inland port remains useful and successful in the transfer of goods, the storage of goods and facilitating industrial processes for the production of cargo in the future and is flexible enough in port services and infrastructure to deal with potential changes. Subsequently, the activities of various inland port were analysed, resulting in thirteen main port activities in the inland port. In combination with the identified port indicators, the port characteristics of each inland port can be determined. In the final step before the set-up of the method, more insights is obtained about the uncertainties in long-term developments and the related methods to deal with these uncertainties. In the end, it was found out that trend-based narratives can be used for this assessment, because this new method reflects the threats and opportunities for different port activities for specific inland ports. The obtained knowledge about future-proofness, the port activities and the uncertainties in long-term developments were used to set-up of a method to assess the future-proofness of the inland port, which exists of four different parts:•Part 1: Determination of the current inland port’s strengths & weaknesses (port characteristics)•Part 2: Determination of the port specific opportunities and threats (impacts)•Part 3: Determination of the flexibility of the specific inland port•Part 4: Assessment of the future-proofness of the specific inland port The applicability of this method was demonstrated through three case studies, in which the future-proofness of three existing inland ports is assessed. These case studies were the inland ports of Bergen op Zoom, Oosterhout and Wageningen. For these three case studies, the inland port of Wageningen seems very future-proof. It scores good on the current port characteristics, the impacts and the flexibility. The other two inland ports are still considered to be future-proof, although they might face some (minor) challenges in order to become future-proof. Overall, it is concluded that the generated method can be used to assess the future-proofness of the inland ports. It presents a first insight in the degree of future-proofness of the inland ports and can be used as a starting point to improve the performance of the inland port in the future and thereby becoming future-proof.

The inland waters of Ghana have a considerable potential for the operation of inland water transport (IWT) services. These services could be part of a multimodal transport corridor, to connect the northern regions and the northern landlocked countries with the industrial southern part of the country, which also includes the port of Tema, one of the gateways of the landlocked countries. However, despite the many advantages of IWT, these waters are currently barely used for freight transportation. The absence of a high quality IWT service is mainly unfortunate, as Ghana suffers from the consequences of the unilateral road transport market: the many trucks leads to congestions, traffic hazards and long (and unreliable) transport times. Besides this, the freight transportation by road is rather expensive.
An IWT service on the Ghanaian inland waters could be able to improve the cost and time performances of the Ghanaian transit corridor.
The Ghanaian inland waters are mainly formed by Lake Volta and the upstream Volta Rivers. The water levels of these waters are subject to the local climate, which results in (very) low water levels during the dry season (from November to July). The water levels of Lake Volta allow year round navigation, but that does not hold for the Volta Rivers. In fact, Buipe Port, along the Black Volta, is probably the most upstream location that can be reached for most part of the year, while a year round accessibility can be guaranteed after dredging a shoal, a bit downstream of the port.
The potential container market for the IWT service is quite small, being about 8,000 TEUs per year. Nearly all these containers are currently transported by road from Tema Port to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Due to the congestions and (bad) conditions of roads and trucks, the northbound journey (about 1,000 km) takes about four days. The corresponding price for transport is also very high, being about USD 2,600 for a 20 ft. container. The only commercial IWT service at Lake Volta, is not able to deliver better performances, due to bad and inappropriate equipment.
The feasibility of three different IWT services is investigated: roll-on/roll-off of truck/trailer combinations or roll trailers on the one hand, and lift-on/lift-off of containers on the other hand. All the alternatives are based on the concept of barges being pushed by push tugs, as this is the most promising concept from a financial point of view.
It can be concluded that the potential transit container market of 8,000 TEU/year, for which the IWT service has to compete for, is too small to result in a profitable service. However, when relocating the transit traffic (clearance) procedures from Tema Port to Buipe Port, the yearly container throughput via Lake Volta will be much higher, making an IWT service viable and profitable. Besides, this relocation will result in extra space in the port of Tema, and can result in more efficient clearance procedures, thereby decreasing the total door-to-door time of transit traffic.

The European energy system is significantly changing to restrict the rise in global average warming. There is a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, which resulted in an exponential growth of offshore wind energy capacity in the North Sea. However, the North Sea is already one of the most intensively used sea basins in the world and space is limited. Offshore wind farms are therefore increasingly constructed under less favourable conditions. On the one hand the industry is rapidly developing and the cost of offshore wind energy goes down, but on the other hand offshore wind farms are constructed at greater water depths and further from shore. This latter development counteracts the cost reduction achieved by the industry, but countries are forced to construct offshore wind farms under less favourable conditions in order to achieve the climate agreements.

In June 2016, Dutch transmission system operator TenneT proposed the Hub and Spoke concept. It is an alternative method to connect offshore wind farms with the onshore grid and makes the parameter distance to shore far less important. Basically, the concept combines offshore wind farms with interconnector cables. An artificial island is created somewhere in the centre of the North Sea which is surrounded by offshore wind farms, thereby being far away from the crowded coastlines while profiting from near shore conditions. The interconnector cables subsequently transport the generated electricity to shore.

Dogger Bank is the envisioned location for the Hub and Spoke concept. The area contains strong winds, shallow water conditions and is centrally located. However, the unique characteristics of the shallow sandbank make it also very favourable to a variety of species. The area is therefore appointed Natura 2000 territory and could cause major resistance from environmental organisations. The general consensus amongst environmental organisations is not yet known, but industry experts indicate this as the major reason which could stop the Hub and Spoke concept from being realised on Dogger Bank.

The objective of this research is to determine the optimal location for the Hub and Spoke concept in the North Sea. The concept feasibility has never been determined and it is not even certain if Dogger Bank is the most beneficial location, while the location contains a very large risk. Therefore, the site selection model is created. The model contains input data from metocean conditions and electricity markets, which makes it possible to calculate the feasibility of the Hub and Spoke concept for every location in the North Sea. The result is a contour plot with the net present value of the Hub and Spoke concept, which shows the optimal location in the North Sea.

The Hub and Spoke concept is divided into five components to determine the influence of certain conditions on cost or revenue and to compare the components between each other. The artificial island and offshore wind turbines are primarily influenced by water depth, while the subsea interconnector cost is mainly influenced by the cable capacity and length of the cable. The optimal location for the island and offshore wind farms with respect to cost is thus along the shallow coastlines or at Dogger Bank, while the optimal location for the subsea interconnector cables is determined by the minimum total cable length. This point is equal to the centre of gravity of the countries surrounding the North Sea and is located just above the Netherlands and Germany.

In terms of revenue, the wind conditions are normative for the production and revenue of offshore wind farms and interconnectors derive their congestion rents from electricity price differences between countries. Offshore wind farms generate most electricity in the northeastern part of the North Sea where the wind conditions are strongest. This negatively impacts the generated revenue from subsea interconnectors as the cable is used more often for offshore wind energy. Interconnector revenue of the Hub and Spoke concept is therefore lowest at locations with the strongest wind speed, but in total the highest revenue is generated. A comparison between these components for four various locations is presented in Figure 1.

XXX

Offshore wind farms are both in cost and revenue the major component in the Hub and Spoke concept. The optimal location is thus expected to be found in areas with shallow water depths and high wind speeds. Finally, each component with its cost and revenue has been determined and can be merged in the site selection model to determine the feasibility of the Hub and Spoke concept in the North Sea. See Figure 2.

XXX

It can be concluded that the highest net present value for the Hub and Spoke concept is situated along the coastline of Denmark and Germany. However, these locations are known to be very crowded and the reason to investigate alternative locations in the first place. Dogger Bank and the northwest of Denmark are two very interesting alternatives. Dogger Bank is very shallow with depths of 10 m, while the northwest of Denmark is slightly deeper with 20 m but contains roughly 10% higher wind speeds. Both locations are primarily free from other marine uses, although Dogger Bank is protected Natura 2000 territory and therefore contains a very large risk. It is therefore advised to construct the Hub and Spoke concept at the northwest side of Denmark.