GUIDELINES FOR PORT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

摘要

Ports are the most important gateway for trade in maritime countries and thus make a vital contribution to national economies, and directly or indirectly to employment at all levels. Port development and operations have the potential to impact on environmental and human resources. For example, ports require large areas of land for berths and handling facilities and these areas are usually claimed from intertidal areas of high nature conservation value. Day-to-day operations can result in the introduction of contaminants into the ambient air, surface water, ground water supplies, soil and harbour sediment. More often than not the potential for the Ports to impact negatively on environmental resources depends on their close proximity to highly sensitive environmental resources. This situation coupled with the ever-increasing pressure from regulators and environmentally aware groups onto ports to conduct their business in the most environmentally responsible way, has left ports with the most challenging task since the industrial revolution. That is, the task to satisfy their customers by responding to their needs for newer, larger, and more efficient facilities as well as to satisfy environmental regulators by complying with laws and stringent numerical environmental quality standards. In 1997, HR Wallingford put forward a proposal on preparing Guidelines for Port Environmental Management to the UK Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). This paper introduces the Guidelines and provides extracts from its chapters. It also introduces the Eco-lnformation project, which currently evaluates the progress measured against the 1996 ESPO benchmark survey on implementation of environmental policies.