Funding: €1.8m funded by HORIZON-MSCA-SE-2024
Duration: 48 Months
Summary:
PORTAL is pioneering an innovative, threat-agnostic framework to pre-empt cascading losses and establish resilience benchmarks with fit-for-purpose adaptation measures to proactively mitigate negative impacts on Port Infrastructure and interdependent Socio- eCOlogical systems (PISCO). PORTAL’s vision is important as ports handle 75% of the EU’s trade, and face rising climate challenges, with $7.5 billion in global annual losses due to multi-hazard risks. In doing so, we deliver more resilient, inclusive and environmentally friendly PISCO. We do this through innovation, as we will deliver an interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder inclusive, and scalable approach to optimise PISCO’s resilience and sustainability, with emphasis on people’s needs and environmental benefits. PORTAL integrates cutting-edge technologies such as digital twins and generative AI (GenAI) to enhance sustainable adaptation strategies. This is achieved through tailored designs of win-win solutions, e.g. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), in inclusive and gamified PISCO. To achieve this vision, PORTAL includes a comprehensive training and capacity building programme embedded within its research, innovation, and dissemination activities. PORTAL leverages interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral secondments to enhance the skills of researchers and professionals through knowledge transfer. We facilitate decision-making to incentivise resilience strategies of PISCO operators, foster a safer environment and advance career development of participants, in line with EU policy goals for digital and green transition. PORTAL outputs include an advanced communication platform empowered by predictive tools, immersive training environments using augmented and virtual reality, and a library of actionable adaptation measures. These tools will empower diverse stakeholders identified through the empirical analysis of Socio-Ecological System (SES) to collaboratively improve environmental sustainability and strengthen resilience.
Community of Practice (CoP):
PORTAL fosters a Community of Practice (CoP) that brings together insights from PISCO operators & policymakers, to enhance the resilience and sustainability of port infrastructure and interdependent Socio-Ecological Systems (SES). The goal is to promote safer, more adaptable, and climate-resilient critical ports.
To join the PORTAL CoP, please contact Sotirios.Argyroudis@Brunel.ac.uk
Partners:
- Brunel University of London (Coordinator)
- UCL-The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction
- Politecnico di Milano
- International Hellenic University
- German Aerospace Centre
- Factor Social
- ARGO-E GROUP
- CEMOSA
- ENVIVA
- Research Driven Solutions
- University of California, Berkeley
MetaInfrastructure is coordinating the project and leads WP2 (Threat-agnostic resilience framework) and WP4 (Communication platform and predictive tools).
Objectives:
Obj1. Deliver an innovative, efficient and scalable, threat-agnostic multi-stakeholder people’s-centric framework tailored to incentivise adaptive resilience strategies for ort Infrastructure and interdependent Socio- eCOlogical systems (PISCO)
Obj2. Develop a unique, open, and generalised library of strategies and tailored measures for prevention, absorption and adaptation of PISCO
Obj3. Develop an innovative web-based openly available multi-tier communication platform that deploys predictive tools to enhance vulnerability detection and adaptive response coordination for PISCO.
Obj4. Investigate pathways in governance structures to unlock resilience-driven decision-making across interdependent socio-technical siloes
Obj5. Provide actionable and targeted policy recommendations to enhance the resilience and adaptability of PISCO, informed by insights of Obj1-4.
Obj6. Deliver innovative, comprehensive and state-of-the-art multidisciplinary training to upskill and reskill researchers, practitioners, R&D professionals and stakeholders, accelerating uptake of knowledge into praxis.
Obj7. Sculpt an efficient and impactful dissemination, communication and exploitation strategy for meaningful interactions with scientists, industrialists, infrastructure owners, operators, and people.
 Storm Darragh affected Holyhead in Wales, one of Britain’s busiest ferry ports, and the shortest crossing between the UK and Ireland, causing significant impact on trade, passengers and port customers (December 2024) |  Storm Eunice impacted major ports across Northern Europe, including ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, causing damage to infrastructure due to severe windstorms and severe disruptions to supply chains (February 2022) |
 Fire in port infrastructure after massive earthquakes in Turkey (February 2023)  Explosion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in the Port of Beirut, causing extensive damage over the entire city, 200 deaths, > 6,000 injuries, >$15 billion property damage, >300,000 homeless (August 2020) |  Sea level rise, storm surges and land loss exacerbated by climate change threaten critical port infrastructure and operations of low-lying European ports, impacting global supply chains. https://sp.copernicus.org/articles/3-slre1/5/2024/ |
Recent extreme threat agnostic closures, disasters affected ports & hazards.
Threat agnostic resilience is inspired by the concept of threat-agnostic biodefense and is introduced in our recent paper available here