Proposing a port decision system approach for dynamic integration of South American sea ports

Abstract

The integration of regional infrastructure is essential for the economic wellbeing of nations, including developing countries. This project is particularly concerned with addressing regional port-to-port integration in the South American context. Towards this goal of integration, this paper proposes an initial interdisciplinary theoretical model to assist computer-based decision-making for port authorities. The approach is based on a review of the factors affecting the integration of not only ports but other nodes such as cities and regions. We also consider current computational decision-making models used to describe the dynamics of sea ports in anticipation that in the future there will be a need for integration between two or more regional sea ports which also takes into account their international role and local socio-economic responsibility.