A comparative CO₂ emissions analysis and mitigation strategies of short-sea shipping and road transport in the Marmara Region

Figures & data

Figure 1. Thirteen ro-ro and ferry lines in the Sea of Marmara.

Figure 2. Highway and seaway distance and seaway advantage factors of nine ro-ro and ferry lines in the Sea of Marmara.

Figure 3. Number of voyages of thirteen ro-ro and ferry lines in the Sea of Marmara in a year.

Figure 4. Number of vehicles carried by thirteen ro-ro and ferry lines in the Sea of Marmara in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (This figure is derived from the statistical data on [33] ) .

Figure 5. Comparative analysis of the CO₂ emission results for the ro-ro and ferry lines and highways, using the applied methods.

Figure 6. Total CO₂ emission computation by the methods of Entec and Trozzi and Vaccaro for the thirteen ro-ro and ferry lines in the Sea of Marmara in a year, and the hypothetical CO₂ emissions for road vehicles carried by the ro-ro and ferry lines .

Table 1. Recommendations and management strategies for reducing carbon dioxide emissions generated from short-sea shipping.

Stakeholders	Recommendations
Policymakers	Cost–benefit analysis of transportation management should involve carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions assessment for the existing and new ro-ro and ferry lines (RFLs) in order to take measures for more environmentally friendly transport.
	To contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, new investments in RFLs should be made for high truck shipment potency lines.
	Priority in a new investment should be given for the lines that have high seaway advantage factor (SAF) value.
	The new investments in the regions of the emission-advantaged lines such as (1-9), (2-9), (3-9), which allow trucks coming from Europe to cross to Anatolia, bypassing Istanbul’s traffic and having a high distance advantage considering their SAF value.
	Truck transport by the ro-ro ships (choosing an appropriate RFL depends on its route) should be supported in the region at the current situation.
	The optimum number of lines for the fast ferries in the Sea of Marmara should be determined considering their high CO2 emissions generations and service functionality.
	Newly purchased ro-ro ships and ferries (RFs) to serve in the Sea of Marmara should be cleaner energy ships. For this case, ship owners should be supported.
Ship owner/ service providers	CO2 emissions assessment should be a part of transportation managers’ job, and not done just to comply with International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations.
	Line management should be supported to provide the optimum ship’s speed by captains for the bunker efficiency, which provides economic and environmental advantages.
	High SAF-valued lines in the Sea of Marmara are highly competitive and environmentally friendly compared to lower SAF-valued lines.
	New investments for a new RFL should be evaluated for more CO2 emissions-advantaged origin–destination pairs; this also supports economic competitiveness.

MTI. Official Maritime Statistics of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. Repub. Turkey Minist. Transp. Infrastruct; 2020. Available from: https://atlantis.udhb.gov.tr/istatistik/istatistik_yuk.aspx%0A.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [figshare] at [https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12644192.v1].