Abstract
Port cities located within various metropolitan or functional regions face very different development scenarios. This applies not only to entire municipalities but also to particular areas that play important roles in urban development—including ports as well as their specialized parts. This refers also to the various types of maritime industries, including the processing of goods, logistics operations, shipbuilding, or ship repairing, to name just a few. Since each of these activities is associated with a different location, any transformation process that creates changes in geographic borders or flows will dynamically affect the port cityscape. Municipalities may evolve in different directions, becoming ‘major maritime hubs,’ ‘secondary service centers,’ ‘specialized waterfront cities,’ or just distressed urban areas. Within each metropolitan area, one can find several cities evolving in one of the above-mentioned directions, which results in the creation of a specific regional mosaic of various types of port cities. These create specific ‘port regions’ with specific roles assigned to each of these and shape the new (regional) dimension of the geography of borders and flows. As a result, these port regions are created as porous structures where space is discontinuous. To further develop the issue of the creation and evolution of port regions, the authors present the case study of the Gdańsk Bay port region. This study in particular allowed for the development of both the theoretical background of this phenomenon and the presentation of a real-life example.
Highlights
Exploration of port city development calls for an analysis of the evolution of internal and external bound‐ aries and flows of goods and passengers and for stud‐ ies on the consequences of regional transformation pro‐ cesses
The analyzed evolution of spatial changes in the Gdańsk Bay port region generally fits the theoretical models of the port‐city relationship defined by Hoyle (1998) and Meyer (1991), as well as the model of the port system developed by Notteboom and Rodrigue (2005)
Considering such an alternative scenario for the development of the Gdańsk Bay port region elaborated according to the subsequent phases of the Notteboom and Rodrigue (2005) model, it could be supposed that Gdańsk would have become the central city of the region
Summary
Exploration of port city development calls for an analysis of the evolution of internal and external bound‐ aries and flows of goods and passengers and for stud‐ ies on the consequences of regional transformation pro‐ cesses. One should note that ports and port cities exist as ‘stand‐alone entities,’ and as nodes within their ‘catchment areas’ or centers within their ‘functional regions.’ These port‐city areas are shaped by factors similar to ones influencing the development of. The study aims to outline the evolution of changes in the functional struc‐ ture of the Gdańsk Bay port region and to indicate the impact of selected technological and infrastructural, eco‐ nomic, and political factors on the shaping of port cities and port regions. It seems especially important to discuss the historical relation a port has had to its regional hinter‐ land This relation has changed throughout the ages, hav‐ ing been influenced by the development of new trans‐ port technology and the evolution of ports themselves. The aim of the arti‐ cle is to visualize the importance of the influ‐ ence of global decisions of various characters on port regions and their local context, and at the same time to present the evolution of porosity in the Gdańsk Bay port region
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