From the 5th until the 10th of February 2017, the Sustainable Ports Development research team travelled to Ghana on a fact-finding mission. The multi-disciplinary research team consisted of 11 researchers from the TU Delft, Deltares, Unesco- IHE, Wageningen Marine Research and The VU Amsterdam. During and prior to this week they actively worked together with their Ghanaian counterparts, 9 researchers from the University of Ghana. The objective of the exchange visit was to learn from the past and from each other, but mostly from the Ghanaian experts and local stakeholders.

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Integrated & Sustainable Port Development in Ghana

Africa is on the rise and new ports are essential to unlock production and trade opportunities and enable future growth. However,  an integrated inter-disciplinary approach to sustainable port development, which embraces the four perspectives of engineering, ecology, economy and governance is lacking. The ongoing NWO-UDW project “Integrated and Sustainable Port Development in Ghana” addresses this gap.This paper describes the project including the underlying vision and the objectives, the work-plan and the expected project results. It also describes the results of a workshop in Ghana in July 2015 to identify needs and values of relevant stakeholders with respect to Tema port development.

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Stakeholder Inclusive Design for Sustainable Port Development

It is being increasingly recognized that sustainable port development requires an integrated planning approach which includes working with nature, a stakeholder inclusive design and co-creation of values, as well as an adaptive design that can cope with future uncertainties without losing its functionality. The multi-disciplinary character of port design whereby engineering, ecological, economic and governance aspects are integrated, makes the implementation of this approach very challenging. Not surprisingly, concrete examples of port projects incorporating and demonstrating these principles are rare. This paper proposes that pilot case studies would go a long way towards the acceptance and implementation of the approach.

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Kick-Off Meeting Report

This report provides a full overview of the 'Kick off Meeting and First General Workshop for Supporting Parties'. The contents includes what the group defined as a 'sustainable port', what specific concepts should be considered in building a sustainable port in Tema, Ghana, an overview of the outcomes of the 'Port of the Future' game, and more.

Download the full report here, or a shorter summary here.