Ystad Hamn Logistik AB is responsible for all operations in the port of Ystad, which is one of the largest ferry ports in Sweden, the Port of Ystad is a natural port to Bornholm and Poland and further out into Central Europe. With its strategic location on the Swedish south coast, the port of Ystad also plays an important a role for the transport industry and as a supplier to the Swedish business community.

The Port of Ystad, due to the surge in demand for transport as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, had finished the construction of two new berths and a corresponding terminal area. New berths should start working in the beginning of 2021 serving a new ferry line to Poland. The new terminal area contains a pre-gate parking area (H2) and the layout for this parking needs to be allocated and planned.  Blekinge Institute of Technology (PP4  – Connect2SmallPorts) contacted the Port of Ystad (Ystad Hamn Logistik AB) in early November 2020 to start simulation work on their needs with Digitalization or port improvements.

As the ferry traffic is one of the most important activities for Ystad harbor and the ferries have been characteristic of the city since the 1940s, when continuous traffic started between Ystad and Bornholm, the impact of increasing service led to questions on how to organize and configure the H2 area so as to service the new RoRo ships calling at the Port of Ystad from Germany in such a way so that incoming traffic should not create congestion in the H2 area.

After a series of meetings and on-site visits starting on November 23, 2020, decisions were taken to conduct a simulation and emulation project with the Port of Ystad employing a simulation tool, CHESSCON®.  The issue was challenging in that there were already 2 other RoRo services, an adjacent Bulk terminal that was all crossing the H2 area, and certain requirements for the arrival transport to occupy parking for a specific time due to customs procedures.

A number of data, variables, and parameters were collected during the site visit to the port. In addition, the interviews with the port management highlighted the need for IT solutions that could help with improved decision-making under various scenarios and time horizons.  Once the need was clarified, the next step was to then have scenarios developed for small ports, such as Port of Ystad, on how digital technologies use and value-added creation for transport services will be simulated under the “real-life” conditions.

The results of the simulation experiments have proven to be beneficial for the Ystad Hamn Logistik AB in configuring the layouts of the parking area so as to minimize traffic while improving service by increasing the capacity of trucks and vehicles that can be processed during the operational service time. The power of CHESSCON® can be expressed in that real-time simulations can be performed with 3-D view capability as shown in the Figure below that demonstrates the impact  of traffic flow with barrier-blocks employed to separate traffic and parking sub-areas in the RoRo terminal.

About  Connect2SmallPorts – South Baltic Small Ports as Gateways towards Integrated Sustainable European Transport System and Blue Growth by Smart Connectivity Solutions, the project targets real-life existing problems of Blue Growth that are found in areas, such as in the South Baltic (SB) Region in Northern Europe. The project aims at improving IT and infrastructural capacity of small ports in the SB region. At least 15 ports are gathered in the project in order to improve their cargo flows, environmental and economic efficiency by June 2021. Further Pilot projects to be completed and marked as delivered under the work plans outlined in the C2SP Project are: Port of Karlskrona, Sweden on Bulk Emulation/Simulation studies and Port or Vordingborg, Denmark on Digital Compliance for Ports.