Towards sustainable infrastructure with planned adaptation

In the present turbulent environment, adaptability and robustness belong under the overarching definition of sustainability. Sustainable infrastructures should not only achieve economic, environmental, and social objectives, but should be robust and adaptable under uncertainty. This paper examines the current guidelines for port development and concludes that a comprehensive planning approach that systematically accounts for uncertainty during planning, to result in a sustainable plan, is missing. It proposes an approach for port planning based on planned adaptation. Case studies illustrating how planned adaptation can effectively help to deal with short- and long term vulnerabilities, and seize opportunities to come up with sustainable plans that are able to achieve economic, environmental, and social objectives for a long-term uncertain future, are presented.