IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

The transport of both goods and passengers are important parts of our society. Several different modes of transport are available, such as rail, sea, air, and road transports. These transport modes have different properties and transport performance. For example, the different modes have different accessibility and distribution range, different energy use, different environmental performance and different transport speed and time. Transport is a very big business worldwide. This makes it important to ensure that the transport systems work optimally and that correct mode of transport is used for the right purpose. This requires knowledge of the properties for the various modes of transport and their real performance and a strategic transport planning in the community and among the different market participants.

A transport needs not only a transport carrier transporting goods from one place to another but also a transport infrastructure. Thus, a transport should be viewed from a system perspective where all the system's various parts are taken into account. This means, for example, that roads, railways, airports and ports, etc. should be included in the assessment models. This study covers a system analysis of different port infrastructures using a Life Cycle Assessment methodology (LCA).

The present study and report are parts of the overall project and includes an LCA study and LCA models of maritime infrastructure which mainly include various types of ports and its operation.