A case study of environmental impact of harbour activities: analysis and solutions

The problem of the environmental pollution is more and more felt in inhabited zones; in harbours where many ships are berthed simultaneously with high rates of power delivered by auxiliary engines for the services onboard (hot case: cruise ships with their high needs of power also when at berth) may create a very dangerous environment due to the large amounts of pollutants emitted by diesel engines. The paper presents this situation with reference to the case of the port of Naples (Italy) and supplies some relevant figures about the level of environmental pollution generated by ships, suggesting some possible solutions in order to reduce the impact of emissions on the life of people living around the area. Among them, the paper presents the concept of “green ports” as an integrated system to optimize production, distribution, storage and integration by external sources of the energy needed for the operation onboard of ships staying in ports.