March 14 marks the start of a series of online and in presence seminars organised by RETE in collaboration with the Research Institute on Innovation and Services for Development of the Italian National Research Council (CNR IRISS) and the Municipality of Livorno, both members of the Association.
A series of 4 appointments looking at the current situation of Italian ports, with the aim of offering different keys to understanding the complexity of the port-city ecosystem and, in particular, the challenges that port cities are called to face in the post-Covid context.
The economic and social effects of the pandemic have highlighted the fragility of the logistics and port system at a global level: flooding of ports, the cost of maritime freight in some cases tripled, a contraction in traffic with a double-digit decrease. As far as the Italian scenario is concerned, during the first 9 months of 2021, Italian ports began to rise, +10%, equal to over 345 million tonnes. Positive data are also recorded for investments in sustainability: at global level 34% of the orderbook refers to ships adopting alternative fuels and propulsion systems (Source: SRM, 2022).
The global geopolitical crisis, with Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, is likely to bring about a setback for the recovery of the system, which is itself characterised by great complexity, which has emerged in the last two years even more strongly in the macroeconomic, social and legal-administrative spheres, which are closely interconnected. Hence the need for in-depth scientific research to investigate the problems of this system – social alarm, pandemic, global dynamics, future governance – and focus on possible solutions.
Based on these assumptions, the RETE series of seminars is proposed as a tool to support policy in order to
- encourage an approach oriented towards understanding the complexity of the phenomena characterising the Italian port system in the macroeconomic, social and legal fields;
- improve the availability of quantitative and qualitative data capable of accurately identifying the current port context to support policy makers;
- encourage a constant and structured dialogue between the world of research, the business world and citizenship through the establishment of RETE Advanced nodes as Port-City Observatories;
- promote innovative ideas on the urban-port heritage in order to make it more attractive to national and international investments.
The first appointment of the series will be the webinar “The geo-economic, social and legal challenges of port cities”, to be held on 14th March from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. CET with streaming on RETE’s YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/3txPKTC ).
Locandina Seminario RETE_14 marzo 2022
The second seminar will be held on 20th April in Naples with an in-depth study of global geo-economic scenarios and local dynamics. This will be followed on 12nd May in Livorno by a third focused on the theme of port work and social hardship after the global crisis. The fourth and last meeting, in Rome on 6th June, will be an opportunity to discuss the legal nature of port governance.
