The role of port smartness in achieving sustainable development goals

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the simultaneous effect of smartness and sustainability in port cities. For this purpose this study introduces the Smart Port Sustainability Index (SPSI) as a key metric for measuring the impact of port smartness on sustainable development goals. The results of SPSI values for different ports show that higher levels of intelligence do not necessarily correspond to greater sustainability. Ports that solely focus on adopting smart technologies may disregard environmental and social components of sustainable development. Alternatively the efforts made by ports to achieve sustainable development goals can be regarded as a favorable factor in enhancing the intelligence and sustainability of ports. Furthermore the regional analysis indicates that European ports outperform ports in North America and Asia across all three: sustainability indicators Smartness operation and the Smart Port Sustainability Index. © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.