19 April 2023
Enhancing the Resilience of Maritime Transport: Theory and Practice

Risk represents an essential challenge for the resilience of global maritime transport that ranges from adapting to climate change impacts to addressing security threats in the digital industrial era. Risk complicates decisions about when, how, and to what extent appropriate strategies and capacity investments should be committed to successfully adapt to a highly uncertain and complex environment. The inability to address risk properly would cause disruptions in maritime transport system and facilities which, in turn, would jeopardize the well-being of the global economy. Hitherto, the research community has yet to satisfactorily address this gap. Notable examples include an inadequate understanding of the roles and importance of resilience on the efficiency of maritime transport systems and operations, the lack of scientifically robust data, unreliable models/methods, poor communications/engagements of vulnerability findings with stakeholders, to name but a few. This offers an opportunity to develop a virtual special issue (VSI) in maritime transport resilience that could shift risk management from the traditional reactive, single-dimensional practice to a proactive, multi-dimensional, and multi-disciplinary research paradigm. All the papers included in this VSI must demonstrate the potential to facilitate the quantification, measurement, assessment, and/or stakeholder communications within the context of maritime transport resilience and provide directions for future research.

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Guest editors:

1. Adolf KY Ng, Professor, BNU-HKBU United International College, adolfng@uic.edu.cn

2. Olivier Faury, Associate Professor, EM Normandie Business School, Métis Lab, ofaury@em-normandie.fr

3. Yui-yip Lau, Senior Lecturer, School of Professional Education and Executive Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, yuiyip.lau@cpce-polyu.edu.hk

4. Ziaul Haque Munim, Associate Professor, University of South-Eastern Norway, Ziaul.H.Munim@usn.no

5. Austin Becker, Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island, abecker@uri.edu

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Special issue information:

The world experiences different risks which lead to disruptions in maritime transport. Existing research lacks crucial understanding of maritime risks arising from different threats and uncertainties.

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Scope:

• Define and understand ‘resilience’ and its roles and significance in enhancing the efficiency of maritime transport systems and operations.

• Explore and quantify climate risks to rational adaptation planning in maritime transport planning.

• Identify maritime transport hazards due to the rise of emerging technologies and operational environments.

• Risk analysis and control for resilient maritime transport systems and facilities.

• The development of new theoretical frameworks for risk-based resilience studies in maritime transport.

• Theoretical and methodological development of new tools to assess and enhance the resilience of maritime transport.

• Conduct interdisciplinary studies to address the resilience of maritime transport systems and operations.

• Explore and enhance the roles of the major stakeholders in achieving resilience in transport systems and operations.

All the papers in this VSI must directly address a maritime transport issue linked to resilience, as well as environmental and/or sustainability. Ideally, the papers should: 1) effectively apply resilience/sustainability theories in explaining and enhancing the development of new methods and/or case studies in the context of maritime transport; and/or 2) make clear theoretical contributions to the current academic discussions on resilience. Authors can either focus on modelling/forecasting the future or reviewing current/past experiences. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are welcome.

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Timeline:

Full papers are due by November 30, 2023. This issue will be a virtual special issue (VSI). It means that your paper will appear in the next regular issue after it is accepted. After all papers are accepted, guest editors will compile a virtual issue on the journal website. For an example of virtual issues, visit https://www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-soft-computing/news/virtual-special-issue-vsi-introduction

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Manuscript submission information:

Submission Method:

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All submissions must be original and may not be under review elsewhere. All manuscripts will be submitted via the Transportation Research Part D (TRD) online submission system. Authors should indicate that the paper is submitted for consideration for publication in this special issue. When choosing Manuscript “Article Type” during the submission procedure, click “VSI: Maritime Resilience”, otherwise your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript. Author Guidelines: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/transportation-research-part-d-transport-and-environment/1361-9209/guide-for-authors. All submitted papers should address significant issues pertinent to the theme of this issue and fall within the scope of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, and scientific merit. All manuscripts must be written in English with high scientific writing standards. Acceptance for publication will be based on referees’ and editors’ recommendations, following a detailed peer review process.

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Keywords:

maritime transport, resilience, climate change, mitigation, adaptation, risk, model, database, new technology

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