The development of the Port has, in recent years, sparked a series of discussions, questions and initiatives. Different opinions are recorded in the plans for the construction of the third pier. Many stakeholders were included in spatial planning and local community was heard in order to include the necessity of citizens in the development of port’s area. It started mainly by discovering a poor knowledge of port’s work and familiarity with how developers are implementing their responsibilities to the environment in the port.
In order to be better informed about the activities related to the port, Luka Koper, d.d. has established a portal for the sustainable development of the port of Koper – www.zivetispristaniscem.si through which citizens and interested stakeholders or public entities can obtain an idea about the level of pollution and can find “live” data about emissions.
In this respect, Luka Koper’s idea about the definition of a “Sustainable port” is that it’s always linked with the better quality of life across the area of the port. Being aware of the port’s impact on the environment, Luka Koper has committed in its policies to sound management of the environment in order to preserve it for future generations. The processes of monitoring and reducing environmental impacts have become part of regular activities. To this end, Luka Koper, d. d. works with competent specialized institutions.
The development strategy of Luka Koper is based on environmental management. It follows from the principle which should also represent the local definition of “Sustainable port” which can be expressed like an “Introduction of measures that will not only meet legal requirements, but also reduce the adverse effects with the best technology available, to preserve the environment and allow the port to grow “.
In this respect, Luka Koper has developed also an Action Plan within specific activities of the SUPAIR project, which includes concrete initiatives and measures for the monitoring and control of noise levels from the port’s area, the monitoring and analysis of water quality in port’s basins as well as monitoring of underwater flows and noise. The installation of additional microphones allows measurements of noise from the first basin, for which the data is always available on the Luka Koper’s dedicated website www.zivetispristaniscem.si which includes also data about measurements of dust and microparticles’ levels in the air.
The Action Plan includes also other mitigation measures for the reduction of impacts of port’s works on the local community. Actually the implementation of the plan is foreseeing the creation of a fund dedicated by Luka Koper to the citizens living near the port, to allow a better isolation of their buildings. The initiative is ongoing and the first calls for the co-financing of works on citizens buildings are being evaluated.
Featured images by JAKA IVANČIČ.