The concept of dry ports has gained significant interest among practitioners and researchers in the last decade. Consequently, publications on this topic have followed this development, and today there are more than 100 papers available in the Scopus and Science Direct databases, compared with only two papers in 2007. The purpose of this paper is to summarize current scientific knowledge on the phenomenon and to identify research outcomes, trends, and future research implications by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). SLR is an explicit and reproducible method that ensures the reliability and traceability of the results. The selection of relevant papers was performed independently by each author using Rayyan QCRI software; the coding and analysis were conducted with the help of NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Findings show that the research area is largely represented by qualitative cases and optimization studies covering various aspects of dry ports. Dry port examples around the world differ based on location, functions, services, ownership, and maturity level. Although the research area is young and discrete, five main thematic areas are identified: debate on the concept, environmental impact, economic impact, performance impact, and dry ports from a network perspective. Keywords Dry port • Intermodal transportation • Hinterland • Seaport inland access • Systematic literature review We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the time and effort devoted by the MEL reviewers to improving the quality of this work. This research was funded in part by the Interreg Valu2Sea project.

The hinterland leg of maritime containerized transport as a part of supply chain has been increasingly pressured by larger volumes, as well as by a need to fulfill sustainability requirements that are expressed by social opinion and formal regulations. There is a potential to relieve this pressure through integration of a dry port, as a seaport’s inland interface, in the supply chain. Therefore, this paper aims to explain how a supply chain can benefit or enhance its outcomes of cost, responsiveness, security, environmental performance, resilience, and innovation, by the integration of a dry port. The data for this case study is collected through interviews and site visits from the privately owned Skaraborg dry port, Sweden; and the study is limited to the actors of the transport system involved in the development and operations of the dry port integrated setup. The results show that the six supply chain outcomes (cost, responsiveness, security, environmental performance, resilience, and innovation) are perceived by the actors as being desirable, and can be enhanced by the integration of a dry port in the supply chains. In particular, the enhancement of the supply chain outcomes can be achieved due to intermodality and reliability of rail transportation and customization of services associated with the dry port integrated setup, and by increasing the capacity of transportation system.