Cherdvong Saengsupavanich

Ports are vital components of a nation’s economic development. Increasing port performance is always a question for every port operator. This article reviews recent published during the last 4 years (2022-2025) to gather state-of-the-art articles on how we may be able to enhance port performance. A traditional review was applied based on the authors’ direct experience without implementing a systematic review approach. We review how port operators applied digitalization and automation to increase their performance. The second section discusses the human element and how they are related to port performance. Later, we show that environmental protection and communities’ well-being are also necessary to increase port performance. Our review concludes that port sustainability must consist of business (development), social (human), and environmental pillars. Lacking any one of those pillars is not sustainable.

Maintaining natural sandy shoreline behaviour following human intervention is quite challenging. Anthropogenic activities have disrupted sediment transport, leading to insufficient sediment supply, causing a loss of natural beach characteristics. The Terengganu coastline, located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, directly faces the South China Sea, historically featured pristine sandy beaches. Recent observations of beach conditions showed that some of the Terengganu shoreline has been exposed to downdrift erosion, which has increased. There has been increased pressure to find efficient mitigation solutions. The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) was used to study the rate of change of the shoreline. Meanwhile, beach profile data and sediment sizes were used to evaluate the beach status on a bi-monthly basis following the seasonal monsoon. A MIKE 21 model was used to understand the relationship between sea-land interactions and responses. The result demonstrates that historical shoreline evolution confirmed the downdrift erosion due to insufficient sediment supply from the updrift beaches. Contrarily, seasonal changes from beach profile, sediment size, and wave modelling evidenced the topographical, grain size, and wave changes, respectively distracts the littoral transport in the study areas. This article intends to discover the relationship between the changes in littoral transport concerning the anthropogenic and natural effects on the Terengganu coastline, especially in Kuala Nerus and Dungun, Malaysia.

The Bay of Bengal has been at the heart of human civilisation and trade for many centuries. Accordingly, this oceanic space has seen influx of people from around the world including European traders who plundered natural wealth of this region for many years. Unabated exploitation of natural resources has been the primary reason for deterioration of environment of this part of the world. To add to this, supporting a growing population through unsustainable anthropogenic activities for decades is considered a primary cause for deterioration of marine life, habitats, coastal and marine ecosystems and numerous ocean ecosystem services of this oceanic space. Since the health of the oceanic space is critical for survival of life of Earth, a detailed study of the impacts of a growing population on the coastal environment of the Bay is considered important. Unfortunately, since the anthropogenic activities causing this deterioration are numerous, they cannot be covered in one paper. Hence, only a select few critical anthropogenic activities causing coastal erosion, resource degradation, and marine pollution are being analysed here. The study shows that as a result of increasing population, terrestrial activities such as increasing built up area, industries, land use activities, fisheries and aquaculture, and construction of shore protection structures have resulted in reduced coastal vegetation and increased pollution of the ocean. As a result the coastal landscape is witnessing increased coastal erosion, coastal flooding and inundation, loss of vegetation and faunal communities especially fishes. While local initiatives and projects reflect a positive commitment to address resource degradation and to create resilient coastal ecosystems, these efforts need to be transformed into achievements by dedicated and nuanced involvement of all stakeholders, especially the public, for the desired results.

A stepped revetment has proven to be able to attenuate wave run-up height and wave overtopping discharge more effectively than a dike or a smooth-slope revetment does. However, the investigation into the optimal design of a stepped revetment, tailored to different wave and coastal conditions, is notably lacking. This paper introduces a computational model developed from the non-linear shallow water equations and the Genetic Algorithm. The aim is to optimize the width of a stepped revetment's step and crest, considering wave run-up and overtopping as key parameters. Multiple benchmark tests were conducted to validate the model's accuracy in estimating wave run-up and overtopping for specific setups. The results demonstrate a strong correlation between the numerical findings and experimental data. The Genetic Algorithm was then employed to predict the optimal step width for minimizing wave run-up height and determining the optimal step and crest widths to reduce wave overtopping discharge to an acceptable level. The findings reveal that for a gently sloping stepped revetment, the optimal step widths, based on wave run-up, remain relatively consistent across different wave heights. In contrast, when optimizing for wave overtopping, the optimal step width tends to fluctuate in most cases, although it shows some consistency in certain scenarios.

Seaports are gateways that connect a nation to the world economy. With trade by sea increasing due to globalization, the need for the improvement and development of seaports cannot be overlooked. While the development of ports is considered essential for the economic growth and prosperity of a nation, they also result in environmental deterioration that can hurt the future of humanity. The factors that cause such deterioration are many and have been discussed and studied in some detail over the years. Of these, however, studies associated with the environmental impacts of seaports emanating from the oceanfront are limited. It is with this understanding that the current work discusses the physical and biological impacts that occur due to the oceanic environment in seaports, the existing policy provisions, and the possible ways ahead to reduce environmental deterioration and allow their sustainable operation, by means of reviewing published works.