The aim of the CritSupPort research project is to develop cross-sectoral measures that strengthen Germany's security of supply when port operations are restricted. The TUHH sub-project addresses the central role of ports as logistical hubs and critical junctions in freight transport. Disruptions in the port quickly have far-reaching cascading effects along the supply chains. The aim of the sub-project is to systematically record, analyze and model the “port hub” (in detail, its physical structures, dependencies and communication channels) as a central element of maritime supply chains and to evaluate its crisis capability and resilience.

Ports are central hubs in global supply chains and play a crucial role in ensuring the security of supply for the economy and society. Disruptions caused by crises, extreme weather events, geopolitical conflicts, or technical failures can have far-reaching consequences. Therefore, it is all the more important to systematically understand and strategically strengthen the resilience of port and logistics systems. Within the CritSupPort project, logistical, technical, organizational, and communicative processes of port operations, as well as their interdependencies in the upstream and downstream stages, are examined. The primary focus is the scientific development of methods for the system-analytical description of complex logistics infrastructures under crisis conditions. By combining empirical analyses with model-based methods, new insights into the functionality, vulnerability, and adaptability of port and logistics systems will be gained. A key objective is also the development of a generalizable system model of the port that integrates logistical, organizational, technical, and communicative structures and can represent both normal and crisis operations. This model forms the basis for deriving measures to strengthen security of supply, for developing decision-making and communication procedures that enable coordinated prioritization and supply of critical goods in the event of a crisis, and also represents a methodological innovation, as it analyzes and evaluates the cross-sectoral dependencies between actors, processes and information flows in this depth for the first time.