The port-channel and the availability of piers are strongly influenced by physical environmental conditions such as sea current, sea tide, sediment transport, and wave. The best size of vessel and pier length depends on the location’s demand and sea environment. The uncertainty of these environmental factors results in the low efficiency of port infrastructure, the load factor for back cargo, and the reliability level of port users. This paper presents the role of MuHydro3D and MuSed3D software, a three-dimensional hydrodynamic, and sedimentation models to determine the best vessel size. Using a non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinate technique, also known as the boundary-fitted technique, MuHydro3D and MuSed3D can accurately and quickly simulate the environmental conditions at the port. Knowledge of environmental conditions is expected to be an accurate basis in determining the depth and dredging duration, pier length, ship size, or the need of breakwater. The Port of Kuala Tanjung is one of Indonesia’s designated international hubs and was chosen as the case study in this paper. The result shows that the sedimentation rate of dredging for a vessel with up to 3,000 TEUs capacity is not too sensitive. Moreover, a vessel design with an approximate capacity of 3,000 TEUs is the optimum size from the pier length aspect.

Tol Laut is an Indonesian government containerized sea freight program which is aimed at reducing the price disparity, as well as extending logistic distribution from developing regions. The program can be enhanced by determining the optimum dredging depth of port navigation channel and the optimum size of vessel. The required channel depth is affected by the size of vessel, which is represented by its draft, on the respected hub port. The significance of vessel size and dredging depth in accommodating the container demand will be evaluated by considering the physical environmental conditions such as surface water elevation which affected by tidal conditions. Genetic Algorithm is utilized in this study since it showed robust results on optimizing port performances problems that have many dependent variables and solutions. As a hub port within Tol Laut Program, Port of Belawan is selected as a case study due to its strategic location. Several demand scenarios were run using the algorithm, resulting several channel depth-vessel size pairs as the solution. In conclusion, the feasibility of the dredging activity relies significantly on the growth of the demand.