Date of Award
11-4-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Science in Maritime Affairs
Specialization
Oceans Sustainability, Governance & Management
Campus
Malmö, Sweden
Country
India
First Advisor
Rudd, Murray.
Abstract
Ports and shipping play a crucial role in the coastal development, however, it possesses numerous potential risks to the marine environment and the coastal community. Sustainable development is a key concept which integrates the triple bottom line: economic, environmental and social elements into all aspects of decision making. This paper explores and analyses the challenges towards the progression of sustainable development of Indian ports, taking the Ennore port in India as a case study. My objectives in this research were to highlight the lack of consensus on the importance of the two pillars, environmental and social in the concept of sustainability and explore varying degrees of limitations in the implementation of the existing framework of sustainability in India. I report the results from the port operators and coastal community, who are involved and directly affected by the Ennore port development. My analysis found that the tools like EIA and CRZ, to achieve the sustainable development of ports in India, have failed to achieve its desired results due to the biophysical and organizational uncertainties. The lack of public hearing process in the EIA leads to the overlook on social issues. The stakeholder engagement, especially the coastal community engagement is crucial in the sustainable development of ports. The ignorance of coastal ecology and potential threats due to port development leads to the socio-economic impacts of the fishermen and coastal community and adverse effects on the marine environment. The uncertainties of sustainability may be reduced by understanding the importance of the ecology and social issues and by effective community involvement during all stages of the process of development. This article concludes with some suggestion and recommendation to improve the sustainable port development in India.