This content was originally published on The Resilience Shift website. The Resilience Shift, a 5-year programme supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and hosted by Arup, transitioned at the end of 2021 to become Resilience Rising. You can read more about The Resilience Shift’s journey and the transition to Resilience Rising here.
In a complex and uncertain world, resilience is essential to the business continuity of ports and the critical infrastructure systems that ports connect. Society needs resilient, low carbon gateways to prosper.
In September 2020, the Resilience Shift launched Resilience4Ports, a collaborative initiative to enhance the resilience of ports. After an extensive scoping exercise, engaging the entire ports value-chain, we are launching the Resilience4Ports phase one report, identifying the trends and transformations affecting the resilience of ports.
Ports are resilience gateways. They serve as critical linkages between global economies, handling nearly 90% of internationally traded goods. Ports also provide value-added services to goods that they handle and act as bases for an array of marine and terrestrial activities. This agglomeration effect means they often act a hub for research and development, for piloting new technologies and for innovation more broadly. As such, their reliability and performance are essential to the flourishing of the economy, and society at large.
In the UK, recent port congestion resulting from Covid-19 and Brexit related stresses, has had far reaching effects beyond the port: from empty bookshops to shutdown car manufacturing. As the world becomes more connected and complex, we will see more stories like this – unless we act now. Ports are facing multiple transformations: towards low carbon, smart logistics hubs that act in harmony with the environment, delivering increased value for communities.
This report describes our case for port resilience – including the key action areas where cross-industry collaboration is required.
