The port system is immersed in a process of digital transformation towards the concept of Ports 4.0, under the new regulatory and connectivity requirements that are expected of them. As a result of the changes that the industrial revolution 4.0 is imposing, based on new information technologies and the change of energy model, the electrification of modes of transport from alternative energies and the total digitalization of the processes is occurring. This conversion to digital, intelligent, and green ports requires the implementation of the new technologies offered by the market. The inclusion of these enabling tools has allowed the development of automated terminals under a functional approach. This article aims to offer the responsible entities a new methodology (BOT) that allows them to successfully undertake the automation of terminals, taking into account the reality of the conditions of the environment in which they are developed. By quantifying the factors that facilitate or impede implementation, it will be possible to determine the strategy to be followed and the necessary measures to be adopted in the project; constituting, therefore, a novel management and planning tool.

We are currently seeing how new marine fuels are being introduced, such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, batteries, etc., for the propulsion of the world fleet with the aim of complying with the increasing IMO emissions regulations. The frenetic effort made by shipping companies to decarbonize maritime transport must be followed by an unstoppable adaptation of ports from the historical supply of only fuel and diesel to covering the demands of new fuels, ensuring their renewable origin; onshore power supply (OPS); or even the storage of captured CO₂. This article compiles the current environmental regulations applied to maritime transport to provide an analysis of the current situation and a link between vessels’ requirements to comply with such regulations and port environmental infrastructure. This work demonstrates that technological development is growing faster onboard vessels than at ports. It is demonstrated that except for the case of LNG, the theoretical shipping fuel world demand of each type of alternative fuel cannot be absorbed by current world production, where we found big gaps between supply and demand of up to 96.9%. This work concludes that to speed up this process, ports will need European aid as well as private investment. It is proposed that for the next steps, the port system needs to provide the required infrastructure to vessels on time, which inevitably means improvements in competitiveness and governance to promote the blue economy and the concept of smart ports, attracting main international shipping lines with a complete decarbonization hub on their routes by taking advantage of the geostrategic role of the Iberian ports. At the same time, the port governance model must be more flexible in the decision-making process, anticipating changes in maritime regulations with the challenge of coordinating public and private interests, serving as a link, once again, between ship and society.

The Spanish port system is subjected to a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-Bootstrapping analysis of its operational and financial efficiency to be compared to two other scenarios. One of these presents a port cluster based on the grouping of ports because of their proximity, and the second scenario proposes a port cluster based on seafronts. The analysis is made up of a DEA-Bootstrapping of two inputs and two outputs for both the operational and financial efficiency analyses. The results of the DEA-Bootstrapping analysis show a series of results that favour these two scenarios against the present situation, as both the operational and financial efficiency are improved in relation to the current scenario or scenario 0.

Environmental concerns have become important in the shipbuilding industry. The concept of the Blue Economy was linked to a new model of economic development based on regeneration, where the production of waste is seen as the possibility of creating a new activity, product, and employment. Nowadays, when we talk about the Blue Economy, it is from a much more transversal perspective, deeply linked to the maritime economic sectors. The aim is to develop these coastal productive sectors from a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable point of view. Due to the great development that the Blue Economy has experienced in recent years, it is considered appropriate to carry out a study of this economic model in the port sector. For this reason, this article analyses the Spanish port system, determining the most important dimensions for measuring the degree of development of the Blue Economy and indicators for each of them. It is concluded that the main emerging sectors in the Blue Economy are biotechnology, research and education, sustainable infrastructures and gastronomy and tradition. The final result of this article is the development of a tool which, by introducing certain data, provides the degree of implementation or development of the Blue Economy both at a general level for the port and at a specific level for each dimension.

This paper introduces the concept of R4 (road-rail-ro-ro), a concept increasingly used in transport and logistics research circles that defines the modern concept of the transport chain as it passes through the intermodal use of rail, road, and ship via ro-ro. The integration of the new rail-road freight services into the reference supply model allows us to define the supply model for the design scenario on which the evaluation is now focused in terms of service-mode demand shares and in terms of design network flows and performance indicators carried out by demand-supply interaction models applied to all available service-modes. The use of strength-weaknesses-opportunities-threats analysis (SWOT) allows for the identification of some strategies to enhance and improve the current rail and maritime corridors in order to attract more customers using the different services, ultimately triggering the involvement of more actors in generating bigger and better integrated logistic chains using intermodality. The SWOT analysis allows the identification of a series of measures in order to adapt, maintain, enhance or exploit the aspects arising from the expert analysis.

In recent decades, the Spanish port system has been investing in the development of infrastructures aimed at attracting the cruise market. For this reason, this paper analyses, using a methodology based on data envelopment analysis (DEA), the efficiency of the Spanish port system for the cruise market. Most of the port authorities want to attract and maintain this traffic in their ports, due to the economic impact it has on them. Based on the data provided by Puertos del Estado and the port authorities in their annual reports, such as the number of cruise passengers per port or port authority, the number of stopovers or ships that visit our ports each year, and the infrastructures that have been developed for this market, an efficiency analysis was carried out to draw conclusions at the level of the port system and each port authority in terms of operational efficiency. Focusing the research on Malaga, the current situation was analyzed, as well as the forecasts that resulted from the research for the future development of the port in terms of cruise ships.