Impact of Socio-Economic and Technological Changes on Future U.S. Port Development

摘要

The study is to project future port technology, operations and structure under changing socio-economic, trade, and technological developments. The research will evaluate the impact of technological and socio-economic change on port productivity, effectiveness, and costs with special reference to ports as parts of increasingly integrated transportation systems. A decision network model is proposed to be used to determine the impact of alternative development, subject to projected technologies, and socio-economic changes in the environment of ports. The results of this analysis will then be used to project the most likely developments in ports and establish profiles of the ports of the future. The objective is to provide effective guidelines for medium to long-term port planning. The end product of the research is expected to be sets of outlines of ports of the future to the year 2000, which will most effectively meet the projected needs of that time, as established by forecasts of technological and social economic developments.