The impact of environmental policy on ports and the associated economic opportunities

The purpose of this paper is to investigate environmental policy issues in ports concerning how and how much an environmental policy affects the cost-benefit structure in a port from the economic and environmental perspectives. To mitigate negative environmental impacts in ports, there are stricter regulations that target creative designs for minimizing pollution. Nevertheless, such policies to mitigate environmental impacts result in a cost for the relevant parties, especially the ports themselves. To analyze the impact of environmental policy on ports, a simulation technique based on system dynamics is introduced with the case of Busan port as an illustration. Results show that both the environmental policies (EPs) and the policy options (POs) create positive effects and negative effects on ports. Although EPs and POs seem to increase the negative effects on the port in the short term, they are helpful to strengthen the competitiveness of ports by the vitalization of port activities and the port cluster.