Port and Port Hinterlands Environmental Sustainability Analysis, Impact, and Mitigation

European ports play a strategic role in global supply chains, economic development, and energy systems, while increasingly facing environmental and social challenges due to their close integration with urban areas. Among these challenges, environmental noise, energy consumption in buildings, and greenhouse gas emissions represent critical issues that require coordinated and sustainable mitigation strategies. This PhD research addresses these challenges through a multidisciplinary framework aimed at improving the environmental sustainability of ports and their surrounding urban and hinterland areas. The research focuses on the experimental characterization and application of sound-absorbing materials for noise mitigation, the assessment of building energy efficiency through energy modeling using both open-source tools and commercial Italian certified software, and the evaluation of energy balances between consumption and renewable energy production, with particular attention to photovoltaic systems and Renewable Energy Community (REC) scenarios. Standardized experimental methods are employed for acoustic characterization, while energy analyses are conducted at both building and system scales. The proposed framework integrates technical solutions with policy objectives and stakeholder needs, enabling context-specific and scalable mitigation measures. The results contribute to advancing integrated methodologies that jointly address acoustic mitigation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy integration in port–city environments. By bridging experimental research, modeling approaches, and real-world case studies derived from European projects, this work supports the transition toward more sustainable, resilient, and socially accepted port–city ecosystems.