Managing the ship movements in the Port of Venice

The new mobile gates at the inlets of the Venice lagoon and the new previous environmental laws issued in response of the Costa Concordia wreckage in 2012 have forced the Port Authority of Venice to rethink the harbor activities. In this paper, we tackle the Port Scheduling Problem that the Port Authority faces in scheduling both ships’ and tugs’ movements within its canal harbor in this new context. We introduce the problem, explain which data it needs, and provide the description of an original heuristic algorithm for its solution. Finally, we present some practical applications.