Smart Port City between folding containers and killer apps

Plenary Session 2 : Tools and good practices to built the Smart Port City

The Smart Port City is folding containers, teaching apps, cloud, recycling and the sustainable development of passenger terminals. These were the themes presented and discussed during today’s afternoon session, which saw seven representatives from seven port cities extending over Europe, China and South Africa.

The port of Ningbo (China), one of the top ten ports in the world, has plans for diversified development that connects up e-government and e-commerce. Tallinn (Estonia) intends upgrading its ferry and cruise ship terminal to accommodate more than nine million passengers a year. Helsinki (Finland) has seen strong expansion towards the East, and has town planning solutions for the new passenger terminal that will reorganise the flow of pedestrians, and reduce the use of cars. The port system in South Africa draws its inspiration from the taxis in Tokyo and the port of Hamburg, so as to get port operators to dialogue through a single digital interface. Antwerp (Belgium) presented their innovative Port of Antwerp app, aimed at encouraging people to get to know their enormous port, using a multiple-choice quiz. Rotterdam introduced 4FOLD, the first folding container that should overcome the phenomenon of “transporting air”, in other words, transporting empty containers, with this being the case for 60% of those moving around the planet. Finally the river system of Ghent-Brussels presented the complex recycling system for material flows, which meets the urban needs of the port city, by combining eco-sustainability and port logistics.