FACILITATING RETURN ON ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTMENT - RESPONSIBLE AND PROFITABLE PORTS

BUSINESS, UNINTERRUPTED!

Dr Louis CelliersSafe and Sustainable Ports

CSIR – South Africa

African Ports and Maritime Conference in Swakopmund, NamibiaNovember 2011

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About the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research

Key areas of relevance to port management:• Environmental health and compliance assessment and monitoring.• Informing sustainable & safe port design and operations.• Environmental planning and management frameworks.

Materia

l Scie

nces a

nd Manufat

uring

Built Envir

onment

Consulting a

nd Analytica

l Servi

ces

Natural R

esource

s and th

e Environment

• CSIR is a parastatal comprising about 2500 staff members. • Has a dual research and consulting role.• Science and technology partner to TNPA for more than 50 years.

Port City – Urban Centre

Port Area &Operations

Hosting Environment

Safe

, sus

tain

able

and

pro

fitab

le p

orts

Rapidly changing and highly dynamic clim

ate

Natural goods and services to society?

How do ports optimise profits and maintain

operations?

Investing in Science and Environmental Assessment and Monitoring

THE PORT TRIPARTITE

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• Economic - ports must operate uninterrupted using the opportunities within the hosting environment and avoiding or planning for threats

• Ethical – being a good neighbour to the port city and the hosting environment

Why assess and monitor the natural environment in ports?

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• Legal requirements - many countries have established environmental quality objectives for port environments.

• International conventions - many countries are signatories to international conventions for the protection of coastal waters and oceans (e.g. London Convention). * CASE STUDY

Why assess and monitor the natural environment in ports?

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• Environmental and human health – many African ports are very important habitats for flora and fauna, and are used by humans for recreational purposes and as a source of food (e.g. fishing).

Why assess and monitor the natural environment in ports?

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• A port in southern Africa requires extensive maintenance and capital dredging.

• Original study of contaminants in sediment to determine whether dredging and dredged sediment disposal is environmentally safe was performed by an international company. Conclusion: sediment was significantly contaminated with chromium and nickel, and that further detailed studies and disposal strategies were needed.

• Port operating authority was about to implement an extensive coring program to determine the extent and depth of sediment contamination by chromium and nickel.

• This program was estimated to cost about R5 000 000.

Case Study: Dredging AssessmentEvidenced Based Conclusion: US$ 720 000 saved in 30 minutes

• This ‘story’ has implications for all African ports. • So how did science provide this saving of money?• Understanding metal geochemistry.

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• Metals are a ubiquitous, naturally occurring component of sediment.• Wherever there is sediment (or soil) there are metals.• If you want to determine whether sediment is metal contaminated you need to

separate the naturally occurring and anthropogenically introduced concentrations.

• This is achieved through the establishment of baseline metal concentration models.

Case Study: Dredging Assessment

So what?: dredging not required based on data from local metal concentration models!

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Case Study: Dredging Assessment

How did this situation arise?• Compared the measured metal concentrations to sediment quality guidelines

developed for Canada!• Sediment quality guidelines are supposed to predict the probability of adverse

impacts to sediment-associated organisms.• FAILED to consider local geology and geochemistry. • These sediment quality guidelines simply do not apply to the east coast of Africa

(at least not of South Africa and the lower portion of Mozambique).

Al (mg.g-1)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Cr (µ

g.g-1

)

0255075

100125150175200225

TEL

PEL

Al (mg.g-1)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Cr

(µg.

g-1)

0255075

100125150175200225

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Key message• Sound scientific understanding saved the client a large amount of money in a

very short period of time, the saving was only possible as a result of informed, baseline research that was required to address this specific issue.

• Required the collection and analysis of a large number of sediment samples distant from human activities.

• It is often very difficult to convince port operating authorities that they sometimes need to perform research outside of the port environment to address and identify problems within the port boundaries.

• This simple example has convinced the port operating authority to develop site specific baseline metal concentrations.

Case Study: Dredging Assessment

Key Question: How to spend your savings?

• STRATEGIC (the tripartite systems of the port): planning – design using opportunities and avoiding environmental threats – sustainability of profits.

• TACTICAL: dredging, monitoring of breakwaters, late as possible but not too late (reduce cost - improve efficiency.

• OPERATIONAL: Safe shipping – understanding the physical environment (currents, waves, winds, tides).

Using Science: Evidence-based Decisions

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Land

Mud Flats

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Sand

Shallow water

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Kilometers

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State of Ports Africa: Environmental Management and Water Quality

Objectives• Conduct a rapid assessment and report upon a first African

Environmental State of Ports;• Design a regionally accepted generic framework for establishing Port

Water Quality Management Plans;• Assess capacity in LPPs to implement water quality monitoring in ports;• Strengthen technical and environmental information and best practice

exchange networks; and• Develop and implement best practice guidelines.

Abidjan & Nairobi Conventions & PPP?Inviting PMEASA collaboration

Thank you

Louis CelliersResearch Group Leader: Coastal SystemsNatural Resources and the Environment

CSIRlcelliers@csir.co.za

+27312422412www.csir.co.za