A carbon emission evaluation model for a container terminal

South Korea has focused on strategic economic growth for the last several decades, resulting in booming international trade. To accommodate this trade, activity in container terminals has been steadily increasing, with corresponding environmental impacts. This study proposed a model using a system dynamics approach to evaluate the total amount of carbon emissions produced in a container terminal, while calculating the required reduction amount of carbon emissions in the container terminal at a given carbon emission reduction goal from the year 2017 to the year 2030. The results of this study indicated that the container terminal will produce annually on average 108.18 million kg of CO2 equivalent emissions from the five types of processes - vessel maneuver, vessel at berth, container loading and unloading, container transportation, and container receiving and delivery - from the year 2017 to the year 2030. The total carbon emissions of the container terminal were comprised of 51.13% from the container vessel maneuver process, 0.57% from the vessel at berth process, 37.34% from the container loading and unloading process, 1.04% from the container transportation process, and 9.92% from the container receiving and delivery process. The results of this study indicated that the container terminal required the annual reduction of on average 0.53 million kg of CO2 equivalent emissions from the year 2023 to the year 2030 in order to comply with the South Korean government's emission reduction targets. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.