Port landscapes are excellent social media material if shown in a fun way. At least that is what Israel Canales, a crane operator from the DP World terminal in San Antonio (Chile) believes. He has become a digital sensation in this social media platform with his short and dynamic videos gathering more than 200 000 followers. With his short clips with message, as he says, he brings younger people closer to the port every day, also answering the questions from students from different countries. You can have look at his account here.

The 2021 Business to Arts Awards has published the shortlisted initiatives, recognizing the efforts from Dublin Port Company (Ireland) in two categories. The first one is the Best Large Sponsorship along with axis Ballymun for their project ‘The Pumphouse Presents’, which was the Winter Festival of Plays comprising five theatre pieces recorded in the Victorian era Pumphouse in the summer of 2020 and premiered online last December. The second one is the Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice, developed in partnership with Iarnród Éireann / Irish Rail & Fishamble for ‘Embargo’, one of the plays of the festival, by Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan.

HAROPA – Port of Rouen is developing 16 hectares of wetlands to offset the residual impacts of the future logistics platform project under construction called RVSL Upstream in Grand-Couronne (France). A first phase of work in 2016 created Just under 10 hectares of new wetlands habitats and restored connections between the biodiversity reservoirs at the site, providing species with conditions conducive to their movement and life cycle completion. The 6 additional hectares of wetlands will be created based on new studies from 2018 to 2019. The work will last one year, following 6-month preliminary earthworks stage necessary for the creation of ponds and wetlands and pre-landscaping (planting of plantation pits, planting of plants, etc.). The total cost of the intervention will be €716,332.

Private developer Endel Siff has put forward plans to convert the goods port of Bekker Port into a new residential and business district. Residents will be just a 15 minute walk or bike ride from newly created shops, cinemas, cafés and restaurants, public spaces, and other amenities. An opera house will also be built. The project, designed with Kadarik Tüür Architectures, is due to be presented to the municipality.

The President of the Port has restated his desire to work in tandem with the City to improve the port spaces and allow residents to take advantage of the bay. The port’s headquarters will also be relocated to a building in the city in another measure designed to “make citizens proud of their port”.

Congestion at sea or in port hinterlands, along with the problems posed by pollution, require solutions relying on cutting-edge technology. By combining AI, automation, and satellite data, externalities and coordination costs can be reduced. Based on this observation, Corpus Christi (USA) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) have joined forces to develop innovative technologies together. Substantial funds are being raised around the world, including in Singapore where 23 million dollars have been invested in automation start-ups. The maritime industry is a daunting market, especially in emerging countries. In Jebel Ali (UAE), the port system is set to be automated and managed using a digital twin. As for the very recent autonomous port of Kribi (Cameroon), a hackathon will take place on 26 and 27 March to compare the best digital solutions. The community has every interest in seeing these technologies developed. For example, the oil spill off the coast of Tel Aviv (Israel) is being assessed using satellite data, which could result in the parties responsible being prosecuted.