The applied basic research project of “The Fourth-Generation Ports and Their Management Model” under the Ministry of Transport undertaken by SISI Professor Zhen Hong and his team passed the check at the acceptance meeting hosted by the Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Transport on July 21, 2010. According to the experts of the acceptance committee, the project systematically analyzes the fourth-generation ports and their management model, as well as their concept, connotation and characteristic, and provides quantitative criteria for the intergenerational division of ports based on empirical research; it analyzes the internal and external driving factors for intergenerational changes among ports; it puts forward the four-stage model of the evolution of the fourth-generation port management as well as the concept, forming factors, structural features and development modes of the port supply chain; it also puts forward the concept of port flexibility, establishes a set of factors for assessing port flexibility, and evaluates the flexibility through reasonable mathematical methods. With innovation and practicability, the research results will be of great significance to the development of China’s ports and have a sound prospect in application. In addition, the subject research plays an important role in talents training and discipline construction.