(Post 1)Economies and businesses around the world rely heavily on freight transport. The heavy reliance on freight transport makes the intermodal transportation industry one of the biggest users of energy and producers of emissions in the world. According to Winebrake, Corbett, Falzarano, Hawker, Kormacher, Ketha, and Zilora, in 2008 25.7% of the United States non-military energy use was consumed by the freight transportation industry. That number has grown by approximately 1.8% per year since 2008 (2008). However, the increased use of railway and coastal shipping provide a more environmentally friendly form of shipment (Konings, Priemus, & Nijkamp, 2008, Ch. 4, Pg. 59-60). With the use of intermodal transport between railways and coastal shipping, the efficient use of ports plays an extremely important role. Ports allow products and shipments to change from one mode of transportation to another. Without ports, the exchange of a product from a boat to a truck would be extremely inefficient. The design of the supply chain network between the different modes of transportation must be well-designed and extremely efficient for the network to work properly. Ports and networks are extremely expensive to build, but over time a well-built network design will provide a method of expedient intermodal transportation for freight transport and will pay for itself (Konings, Priemus, & Nijkamp, 2008, Ch. 4, Pg. 60).
(Post 2) Environmental impact could be defined as “environmental stressors such as pollutants, noise, or exotic species are released in natural ecosystems” (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, n.d.). The vehicles that the transportation world uses (and all combustible engine vehicles in general) contributes significantly to polluting the environment through the emissions that those vehicles produce. It is those same emissions that have both local and global impacts on the environment. Aside from air pollution, most people do not even think of other types of pollutions.
Noise pollution, for example, is measured in decibels. People talk to one another at around 60 decibels, breathing alone is around 10 decibels. But a jet taking off can get as loud as 120-150 decibels and rupture ear drums. That is why the Concorde was banned from many airports because of the sonic boom it produced flying over cities.
Water pollution has been a global issue for many years. Oil spills have been a major contributor to polluting the oceans entire ecosystems have been damaged or destroyed by oil spills. Trash that we humans pollute in the oceans usually ends up hurting or even killing marine life. Dredging waterways to deepen channels for ships to maneuver through also pose a risk due to the silt and sediments that have been contaminated by oils and heavy metals.
According to Konings, Priemus, and Nijkamp (2008), When designing a container liner service, “there are three key decisions for service planners to make: the service frequency, the loading capacity of the transport equipment used and the number of stops at intermediate terminals (if any)” (p.67). When designing port operations, there will never be a perfect ideal configuration that works for all types of situations. But it stands a better chance if a port had a shipper and or a shipping line that can provide a continuous flow of cargo at high volumes.
