{"id":13187,"date":"2026-05-15T11:55:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/?p=13187"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:55:30","slug":"maf-564-port-planning-and-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/2026\/05\/15\/maf-564-port-planning-and-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"MAF 564, Port Planning and Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Required for :<\/strong> Elective<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical Semester :<\/strong> Spring<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically Taught By :<\/strong> Austin Becker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Examines seaport planning, operations, governance, and climate resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 This course introduces students to seaport operations, planning, and policy with an emphasis on the role ports play in society and how they interact with various public agencies on the local, state, and federal level. Ports link international supply-chains and comprise a critical piece of the global economy and trading system. Civilization evolved in large part due to this vast maritime transportation system. Many stakeholders benefit from the port and play various roles in operations, planning, and policy. We will examine how groups such as port authorities, tenants, public agencies, non-profits, and research institutes, interact with the port system and shape its future. This course also devotes some time to the pressing problem of climate change adaptation. The world\u2019s ports handle over 80 percent of global trade and many will suffer from a range of climate-related impacts, including temporary and permanent flooding from sea-level rise, high winds and storms. These impacts ripple through society, suggesting that the stakeholders of the port have much to gain from engaging more deeply in port resilience planning and policy. This course helps students hone their writing skills and introduces students to writing policy memos and opinion pieces for a variety of audiences. As part of the course, each student will choose a port as their case study. They will use the port\u2019s master plan as a launching pad for considering the interactions between that port and various governing bodies in its region.

Key questions:
\u25cf        How and why have ports evolved over the past century?
\u25cf        What are some key requirements for a port to thrive?
\u25cf        How does operation and management differ along the spectrum of private to public ports?
\u25cf        Who are the stakeholders of a port and what are their goals and priorities with respect to the port?
\u25cf        What new challenges does climate change present for port planning and development?

Expectations:
By the end of this course, students in MAF 564 will be able to:
\u25cf        Describe the key stakeholders of a port system
\u25cf        Identify the key components of a port master plan
\u25cf        Describe the evolution of ports and port communities over time
\u25cf        Demonstrate knowledge of the mechanics and process of writing policy memos and opinion pieces for a variety of audiences on port-related issues
\u25cf        Present information concisely and effectively in written and visual form

Perquisites and format:
This course is interdisciplinary and follows a seminar format; students from all backgrounds are encouraged to enroll. The course features guest speakers, opportunities to work with outside experts and field trips to local ports (e.g., Boston, Davisville, Pt. Judith, New Bedford). Field trips will be scheduled during class times, but may occasionally run a little late.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Required for : Elective Typical Semester : Spring Typically Taught By : Austin Becker  Examines seaport planning, operations, governance, and climate resilience.  This course introduces students to seaport operations, planning, and policy with an emphasis on the role ports play in society and how they interact with various public agencies on the local, state, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13188,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13187\/revisions\/13188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/maf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}