Acute port congestion and emissions exceedances as an impact of COVID-19 outcome: the case of San Pedro Bay ports

Luka Vukić () and Kee-hung Lai ()
Additional contact information
Luka Vukić: University of Split
Kee-hung Lai: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Journal of Shipping and Trade, 2022, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-26

Abstract: Abstract In the second half of 2020, the shift in consumer demand and reduction in containership capacity, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to the disruption of the global supply chains, especially on the US West Coast. This article provides an environmental view of acute maritime congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach anchorage areas aiming to calculate air emissions of anchored ships consistently in a specific month of the year and compare the dynamics of the emission levels with previous years. The findings determine the causes of the increased environmental pollution and conclude on the preservation measures improvement. CO2, SOx, NOx, PM10, and PM2.5 emissions are examined in this study, considering the statistical data on port performance, productivity and competitiveness elements, ship specifications and propulsion, and emission factors of principal pollutants. Results of our mathematical calculation showed an exponential increase of air emissions generated from ships' auxiliary engines and boilers in 2021, compared with the previous periods, reaching more than 45,000 tons of pollutants emitted in November (mainly carbon dioxide). The increased port congestion and pressure upon the environment and human health also exposed the vulnerability of the intermodal chain on the landside, manifested in higher utilization of trucking services inland, contributing to the additional growth of total emissions. The environmental degradation caused by the surge in demand for products carried by container ships coincides with increased social impacts and the requirement for investments in mitigation measures for emissions to reduce the harmful effects of shipping activities.

Keywords: Air emissions; Port congestion; Anchored ships; San Pedro Bay; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41072-022-00126-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:josatr:v:7:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1186_s41072-022-00126-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://jshippingandtrade.springeropen.com/

DOI: 10.1186/s41072-022-00126-5

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Shipping and Trade is currently edited by Kee-Hung Lai

More articles in Journal of Shipping and Trade from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().