An Ecological Sustainability Assessment Approach for Strategic Decision Making in International Shipping

Relatively little attention is currently paid to understanding the ecological impacts of international shipping, although ecological sustainability has become a necessary condition for developing international trade. Sustainability assessment, which identifies the sustainability-oriented effects of developmental activities for supporting decision-making, has been widely used. This study attempts to propose an ecological sustainability assessment approach to serve international shipping development based on the general assessment steps initiated by the OECD and the multi-dimensional decision making (MDDM) model. Compared with the existing sustainability assessment methods, the proposed approach is unlikely to be restricted to data acquisition, indicators evaluation, or causal recognition. Through a case study, the results recommend not only to prioritize avoiding the negative impacts of international shipping on noise, air, plants, water, and animals but also to promote continuous improvement of the local ecosystem and international shipping, particularly in the conditions of sediment and micro-organism communities of Xiamen. This proposed approach as a supplement to the current sustainability assessment methodology helps to make informative and integrative strategic sustainability decisions associated with international shipping.