Location of a seaport by MOORA optimization

Abstract

The problem posed is a problem of location theory. A port authority wishes to install a container terminal. Five alternatives are possible: 1) alternative A, with the installation in land at a riverside. The possibility to bring the huge container ships so far inland is an important advantage of this project. 2) Project B comparable to A but installed behind locks with the necessity to foresee locks and docks. 3) Project C is located at the seaside but behind locks. 4) Project D with a terminal also immediately near the sea but in open docks. This means fast delivery of the goods but with a severe problem of salinity, caused by the open dock system at the seaside. 5) Project E would mean a terminal on an island in sea. Conflicts may arise between local and national authorities and between the protagonists for a more commercial port against those for a rather more industrial one. Finally, more and more port planning has to take into consideration ecological conditions. With other words port planning is concerned with many objectives but mostly expressed in different units, which means a problem of normalization. In addition, port planning attempts to reach optimization. In order to escape from the subjectivity of the traditional multi-objective methods, a ratio system, under the name of MOORA, is developed, in which normalization is not needed. Using MOORA, a minmax metric with a Reference Point forms a second approach to test the first outcome.