Multimodal, intermodal and terminals

The chapter looks at rail freight terminals, rail--sea interfaces, in particular, as part of a multimodal, or integrated transportation network. Terminals are key infrastructure for linking individual transport modes and governing and managing their interchange in a manner that creates a seamless and sustainable transportation system. Therefore, their performance is critical for maximising transport efficiency and modes integration. This chapter focused on how to measure the operational performance of rail freight terminals in a framework of integrated transportation network. In an increasingly competitive and commercialised world, there is an increasing demand to be able to rank transport options and routes in some way. Drawing on new material, this talk attempts to outline possible methods for how to measure the performance of rail terminals. It focuses on the identification of suitable methods to assess performance by key indicators. Intermodality demands for going beyond safeguarding the individual modes to ensuring the security of the intermodal inter-faces (terminals), the nodes that link and integrate passenger and freight flows. That demands for an integrated holistic approach built on the collaboration between international, national organisations and operators. The study put emphasis on the security challenges and threats to freight transport generally and in rail-sea interfaces more specifically. It moves onto the regulations already governing security in rail-sea interfaces. Finally, it focus on the role that infrastructure planning can play in improving security and offer some conclusions and recommendations for the futur

Decisions made on scant information: overview

This chapter brings an overview to an edited book that looks at how decisions can be made at the front-end of major projects, in circumstances where information is usually scant. The book examines how projects can be successfully aligned with the desired direction; how sufficient, appropriate and valid information can be gathered at the front-end; how information can be analysed; and finally how decisions can be made. Each chapter of the book is written by an expert in the field, and each chapter speaks for itself. However, some key themes run throughout the book. These include the need for alignment between organisational strategy and the project concept; dealing with complexity, in particular the systemicity and interrelatedness within project decisions; consideration of the ambiguity implicit in all major projects; taking into account psychological and political biases within estimation of benefits and costs; consideration of the social geography and politics within decision-making groups; and preparation for the turbulence within the project environment, including the maintenance of strategic alignment

Maritime security: Issues and challenges

The concept of maritime security has changed dramatically over the years. For centuries it was limited to the ability of a state to project naval power to protect its interests, usually during times of inter-state conflict with occasional forays against pirates and smugglers. In recent decades, however, maritime security has expanded to encompass a new threat - terrorism - as well as enhanced traditional threats such as smuggling and piracy. Thus, maritime security now involves the protection of a state’s land and maritime territory and assets from all potentially harmful acts that can emanate from the seas. These may be the outcome of illegal fishing, people smuggling, illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons, piracy, terrorism and intentional and unlawful environmental damage. The damage caused by such acts may not only be economic but also environmental and/or societal (implying the loss of several or many lives). And, modern terrorists and pirates have at their disposal deadlier weapons than ever before. The present chapter aims to provide a general overview of the main phenomena that have had a momentous impact on maritime security in the last decades. Section 2.2 discusses the various facets of the relationships between technology and security; the increased globalization, container-based transport, destructiveness and (social and physical) distance. In Section 2.3 an analysis of piracy, in its various forms, is developed. Moreover, the impact of a terrorist attack on a port as a main hub of international trade is discussed

Innovations in governance: Global structuring and the field of public exchange-traded markets

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/esob-facbooks/1029/thumbnail.jp

Innovations in governance: Global structuring and the field of public exchange-traded markets

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/esob-facbooks/1029/thumbnail.jp