A NOVIMOVE – smart & sustainable waterways delegation consisting of Edwin van Hassel, University of Antwerp, Cyril Alias from DST – Development Centre for Ship Technology and Transport Systems and Erwin van der Linden from Expertise- en InnovatieCentrum Binnenvaart had the honour of attending the Containertrends 2023 edition organised by Flows in Ekeren, Antwerp in October 2023.
Prof. dr. ir. Edwin van Hassel took part in a panel discussion on the important topic of #congestion. Lack of time is the real challenge now, he said. We have to decide on technical solutions to tackle the problem without knowing what will work best in practice. Of course, one can do simulations, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
According to Van Hassel, it would be helpful to include all external costs (including CO2, NOx, safety issues and congestion) when comparing business cases for specific transport mode solutions. This could help smart solutions that reduce congestion to have a solid business case.
NOVIMOVE’s Mobile Modular Terminal is a good example of such an approach to solving sea port congestion by adding a floating dock to restructure cargo flows.
Technical and operational verification studies of this principle have now been bundled into a handy curriculum that can be downloaded here:
Feedback welcome!