## 1 Introduction  
The recent globalization process has deeply influenced the maritime transport industry, which experienced technological breakthroughs giving rise to containerization and other developments in cargo-handling facilities [1]. Such growth of containerization requires the optimal design of container seaport terminals not only in terms of requirements of space for activities, but also in terms of operations and related equipment. Of course, in the case of port cities such a growth of container units affects the relationship with the close urban areas: the added value created by ports can be mainly attributed to the economic benefits related to the crucial role played by container terminals in global supply chains [2]; while negative impacts are determined by several factors, such as the influence on the environment and the quality of life of a port city's residents [3].  
While the evaluation of the performance of the ports in terms of freight transport efficiency is now fairly standardized worldwide, environmental evaluation standards and tools are still not harmonized and there is no standard procedure for the evaluation of environmental sustainability of port operations [4]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [5] developed a Decision Support Tool (DST) that helps terminal operators to determine which part of the terminal should be optimized in order to receive a desired ship size in the port. Nevertheless, nowadays it is no longer conceivable to think about the optimization without considering the impact that each stage of development has on the environment. In this regard both the International Maritime Organization and European Union bodies provide some important guidelines that should be considered before planning any port expansion [6; 7; 8; 9; 10].  
Several documents and guidelines provide solutions to issues and impacts of environmental pollution caused by maritime transport in port areas; such documents usually aim to solve immediate problems, without focusing on a global approach to tackle with the different environmental issues. Based on this premise, this paper aims at proposing an integration of the evaluation of freight transport efficiency and environmental sustainability within commercial ports through an innovative Terminal DST (TDST) for the planning of a container terminal. The TDST takes into account both optimization of the efficiency terminal, considering the necessary equipment in the event of an increase in freight traffic, and the consequent environmental impacts.  
The TDST has been tested on the case study of the port of Augusta, evaluating environmental issues in terms of climate change evaluation, noise pollution assessment and dredging impacts, in order to provide a suggestion for actions and measures for its future development. Nevertheless, the methodology is scalable to ports of different sizes and locations that want to optimize their container terminal capacity.  
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: in the following section state of the art is presented; then the methodology's steps are illustrated; in the fourth section the methodology is applied to the Port of Augusta; finally, some recommendations for improving environmental issues are given and conclusions are drafted.