Sustainability and the Spanish port system. Analysis of the relationship between economic and environmental indicators

Abstract Research into the methodological development of alternative systems of sustainability measures is recent. In understanding sustainable development in a multi-dimensional sense, one of the most significant advances was the construction of Synthetic Indexes, applicable to different spatial spheres or to organisations, businesses, institutions, etc. The Spanish port system of general interest comprises 46 ports integrated in 28 Port Authorities, which in 2014 moved 482,000,000 t of goods and more than 28 million passengers. This gives an idea of its importance for the Spanish economy. Using a derivation of the procedure used to calculate the Port Sustainability Synthetic Index, in this research the analysis of the relationship that exists between the findings obtained for the economic and environmental dimensions is used. This enables the existence of links between ports and economic and environmental indicators for a sample of 16 Port Authorities of Spain to be verified.