The increasing damages and losses bring requests to improve coping capacities for extreme conditions on the identification of and improvement to socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Disruptions to critical infrastructure (CI) influence the capacities for resilience and sustainable daily operations both directly and by causing failures in one system that in turn affects other systems. Among the transportation systems widely identified as national CI that should be protected, ports provide substantial employment, industrial activity, along with national and regional development. This study thus examines the vulnerability of port failures from an interdependency perspective. Fourteen vulnerable factors are developed by literatures as well as in-depth interviews. Four international commercial ports in Taiwan are employed as empirical cases to evaluate port vulnerability through semi-quantitatively systematic methods, including fuzzy cognitive maps and sensitivity model, while geographic information systems are used to clarify the spatial-functional interdependency. In addition to the underestimated vulnerability because of omitted interdependency, analytical results reveal that capacity and efficiency significantly affect port vulnerability. Increasing local cargo bases and co-opetition are suggested to improve the port vulnerability. The proposed assessment framework helps decision-makers understand the interdependent vulnerabilities and adopt appropriate strategies for the mitigation of losses.

Knowledge capital promotes innovation in production, management, and marketing; decreases costs; and increases benefits, quality, and sales growth. Increasing numbers of firms are establishing links with educational and research institutions (ERIs) to accumulate knowledge capital. Such links generate knowledge spillover: firms located near ERIs can enhance innovation through spatial knowledge externalities. Accessibility to ERIs, its effects on innovation in the electronics industry, and the role of transportation infrastructure in the development of knowledge-based economies were studied. The study samples analyzed by multiple regression models were located in northern Taiwan between 1996 and 2001. The empirical evidence supported the following conclusions: (a) improved accessibility to ERIs significantly enhanced innovation, (b) the effects of enhanced innovation were significant within a distance limitation of 20 to 30 km from ERIs, (c) accessibility to universities creates more effects than does accessibility to research institutions, and (d) the effects of ERIs on innovation in metropolitan areas were less significant than were those in nonmetropolitan areas. Empirical evidence showed that integrating the policies of industry, education, and transportation is essential for stimulating further innovation in the electronics industry.