Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 2413: The Introduction to System Dynamics Approach to Operational Efficiency and Sustainability of Dry Port`s Main Parameters (Sustainability)

The continuous increase of trade between China and Europe brought congestion problems at major Chinese seaports. An effective way to solve this issue is to set up intermodal terminals often called dry ports. However, the dynamics of various influenced factors on dry port’s implementation calls for the adaptive and flexible planning of the terminal. This paper analyzes the shortcomings of previous research related to the dry port’s implementation from the perspective of the applied numerous parameters concerning evaluating its operational efficiency and sustainability. The operational efficiency and sustainability of a dry port are evaluated by the developed system of the main parameters. This system gives the understanding of how these parameters are interrelated between each other and fills the gap in studies of inverse interrelations between main parameters of a dry port. To fully understand the sustainability of the main parameters of a dry port, this paper puts forward the simulation models description of the developed system. The developed model is a practical tool to evaluate the reliability of hypotheses about the functional interrelations between the main parameters of the dry port, as well as to evaluate the sustainability of the system. Finally, in order to develop functional interrelations between main parameters, the data from several Chinese dry ports has been collected. Finally, the developed multi-agent system dynamics model has been validated in the case study of Yiwu dry port located in Zhejiang, China.