Short Sea Shipping in the Age of Sustainability, Autonomous Navigation and Digitalization

Abstract

This paper presents the comprehensive state-of-the-art on the challenges that short sea shipping currently faces across the world. The concept and its relationship with coastal shipping are introduced, followed by a review of the EU policies for short sea shipping and its practical impacts in modal split. A survey of the literature on the strong and weak points of this form of transportation is carried out, aimed at explaining the difficulties in achieving relevant modal shifts from road to sea. The experience with short sea shipping across the world is described and discussed, providing a global perspective. The paper then discusses the main challenges and opportunities in this field, namely decarbonisation, autonomous navigation, and digitalization. Conclusions are drawn on the possible impact of these game changing developments in this segment of the shipping industry.

Short Sea Shipping as a Sustainable Modal Alternative: Qualitative and Quantitative Perspectives

“…In the EU, SSS has demonstrated numerous advantages compared to road haulage; notably, improved highway congestion and cost reduction have been touted as the most significant benefits of this mode shift. Most of the literature on SSS has focused on EU countries, which can be attributed to their well-connected waterways and their supportive policies designed to mitigate the negative externalities associated with trucking [22]. For instance, Raza and Svanberg [4] published a systematic review on a mode shift from truck haulage to SSS.…”