Valencian Port Authority

The Valencian Port Authority, hereafter VPA, is the public entity responsible for the management and administration of the three state-owned ports located along 80 km of Spain’s Eastern Mediterranean coastline: Sagunto, Valencia and Gandía.

The Port of Gandia receives more conventional general cargo traffic, with a high degree of specialization in handling goods such as: paper rolls and papermaking pulp, imported woods and agricultural products from the area.

Currently, 70% of the cargo traffic at the Port of Sagunto consists of iron and steel products, the remaining percentage being other types of goods such as fertilizers, building materials, wood and perishable products. At this moment the port is involved in an expansion process of its infrastructure and facilities, to prepare itself for the receival of other types of goods, such as natural gas, -estimated at more than 3 million tons per year-, by means of specialized berths and a regasification plant. This preparation process for the future coincides with the building, next to the port facilities, of the major business and technological Park of Europa, ‘Parc Sagunt’.

The Port of Valencia channelizes traffic from all economic sectors and nearly all types of goods. Among its main clients are the building industry (cement, clinker, tiles, marble, etc.), agro-cattle and food (cereals, animal feed, wine and drinks, canned food, fruit, etc.), energetic (gasoil, petrol, coal, etc.), chemical, automotive (Ford, Fiat, Kia, Iveco, etc.), furniture and wood, textile, shoes and machinery industries etc. The Port of Valencia also handles regular passenger traffic to/from the Balearic Islands and Italy and a growing number of cruise ships.

Valenciaport enjoys a privileged location in the centre of the Western Mediterranean coastline, in line with the East-West maritime corridor crossing the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, which makes it the first and last stopover port for all major regular shipping lines connecting America, the Mediterranean basin and the Far East. Therefore, it is the best and most efficient option for maritime transport in the South of the European Union, with more than 140 regular lines, among which are the main international shipping companies, that connect it to more than 850 ports on the five continents.

Moreover, Valenciaport has a hinterland with a radius of 350 km, which generates 55% of Spain’s GDP and includes half of the entire working population of the country. Its proximity to the capital of Spain, together with excellent road and rail connections and a state-of-the-art maritime port infrastructure, specialized in all types of traffic, make it the ideal natural port for Madrid and the centre of the country, and one of the main platforms for other economic regions in Spain, such as Castilla la Mancha, Aragón, Murcia and Eastern Andalucía.

At the same time, Valenciaport acts as a hub port on the Western Mediterranean enabling the efficient distribution of goods within a radius of 2000 km, not only to countries in the South of the European Union, but also Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) with their huge consumer market of 243 million people.

This strong combination makes it Spain’s leading Mediterranean Port in terms of commercial traffic, mainly containerised cargo, and a key element in the international projection of the Valencian Community, as well as the maritime gateway for production and consumption goods to and from the entire Iberian Peninsula

Its leading position is based on a management that is fully committed to innovation in different areas: information technology, service quality, sustainable development, training, etc.

The VPA has always tried to make its leading position in the activities that it undertakes compatible with care and respect for the environment.

This environmental commitment, one of the first priorities the VPA established, was defined in the implementation of its Environmental Policy, approved by the Management Board of the Port Authority on the 12th of April 2000.

The need to adopt environmental guidelines and protection measures in its strategic business planning and a general preoccupation for the environment, made the VPA launch the ECOPORT Project "Towards a Sustainable Transport Network”, with the aim to provide the companies of the Port Community with an environmental management tool in tune with the European sustainable transport policy. The ECOPORT Project was presented to the European Comisión in the framework of the LIFE Programme in november 1997, was approved in july 1998, and became a pioneer action in the European martime-port sector, in line with the continuous management and improvement policy of the Valencian Port Authority.

From that moment on, the VPA has undertaken different environmental measures and activities of dissemination, awareness-raising, sensitizing and environmental management, among which are the following:

• Meteorological Instrumentation Plan (PIMA)
• Water Quality Control Network (RECA Project)
• Waste Transfer Centre (CTR)
• Publications on port environment

          

• To study the meteorological conditions and predict local weather.
• To monitor the concentrations of sedimentable and suspended particles.
• To predict air quality indexes.

• Facilitate the collection and management of waste generated in the ports of Sagunto, Valencia and Gandia.
• Optimise collection systems and port waste management.
• Facilitate the administrative procedures associated with waste removal and management.
• Mantain the port area in harmony with its environment.

 

• Various environmental Bulletins.
• A Guide on Implementation of Environmental Management Systems that describes the results and experiences obtained during the development of the ECOPORT Life Project "Towards a Sustainable Transport Network".
• Environmental Memories issued on an annual basis since 2001, leaflets on environmental actions, that contain the environmental protection initiaves of the Valencian Port Authority.
• Guide of Good Practices for workshops, offices, road transport and solid bulk handling, these last two, together with a guide on Avifauna of the Port of Valencia, are to be issued shortly.
• The creation of a webpage www.valenciaport.com with the aim to obtain more information on environmental activities undertaken in ports, legislative and formative news and any environment-related news item.
• Training courses and seminars for VPA employees, as well as employees of port installations and companies, in order to raise awareness and improve environmental management practices.
• Dissemination of forums and seminars on environment-related issues.

In addition, the VPA, within its I+R+D programme, is involved in numerous environmental projects on a national as well as international level, in particular:

• System of Sustainable Environmental Indicators for the Spanish Port System (INDAPORT)
• Automatic tool for Environmental Diagnoisis (HADA)
• ECOPORTS

SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOOLS FOR THE SPANISH PORT SYSTEM (INDAPORT)

In the year 2003, the VPA, in collaboration with the Public Entity of State Ports (EPPE), decided to develop a "System of Sustainable Environmental Indicators for the Spanish Port System", that was to be a key tool in the Management Systems of commercial ports on a national level, as well as a reference on an international level.

AUTOMATIC TOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DIAGNOSIS (HADA)

In 2002, the Public Entity of State Ports together with 8 Spanish Port Authorities, among which Valencia, started the HADA Life project, that was to have a duration of three years. In collaboration with the Centre of Energetic, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT) they worked on external meteorological prediction models, by means of improving the spatial resolution of the initial model, enabling them to obtain a high resolution meteorological forecast.

ECOPORTS

This Project was financed by the Directorate-General of Transport and Energy of the European Union, as part of the 5th R+D Frame programme of the EU, in which the VPA participated together with another 30 members, among which were the main European ports, such as the ports of Ámsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, British Ports Association, Genoa, Göteborg, Rotterdam, Gdansk, Hamburgo, ...etc as well as different investigation centres and universities. During the duration of this project, from 1 June 2002 to 31 May 2005, and in collaboration with the Port Authorities of important European Ports, The Valencia Port Authority developed a Standard Guide for Implementation of Environmental Management Systems in Port Facilities and Communities, in accordance with the ISO/EMAS models.

The main objective of this project was the elaboration of an EMIS (Environmental Management and Information System) and different tools were developed for this aim.