This paper does not aim to simply highlight the need of elaborating a broader concept of the transport investment evaluation techniques. The objectives are the following:
• a critical definition of the port function;
• said that, an analysis about the way of evaluating port activities over time.
The original aspects which are considered are concerned with the definition of the purposes for which a port is built and that must be pursued over time.
The need to implement an economic process of analysis of the port activities stems from this in such a way to put principles and techniques of the welfare economics in a dynamic contest
