Port-city Relationships Research Articles

Reshaping port-city relationships through underground logistics system: A mixed qualitative approach

Against the backdrop of explosive growth in freight demand, the negative impacts of the traditional road-system-based port-city logistics mode on urban transportation, environment and safety have become prominent livelihood issues, as well as significant economic and social problems. Port-city underground logistics system (PC-ULS) has been widely recognized as an innovative way to ensure the sustainable development of port cities. However, the influence mechanism of PC-ULS on the port-city relationships is still unclear. Thus, this paper attempts to explore the PC-ULS-based port-city relationships formation process and the main influencing factors using a mixed qualitative approach. The social, economic and environmental impacts of PC-ULS on the development of port cities were systematically analyzed using the Shanghe Port ULS and Shanghai Port ULS as the case studies. The results show that the impacts generated by PC-ULS are positive and widely distributed across the economic sphere, port-city traffic, logistics governance, urban equity, stakeholders, ports, and urban spaces, as well as ecological sustainability. Furthermore, the urban planning, technology compatibility and engineering risk related factors have a strong impact on the PC-ULS implementation. A set of incentive policies has been designed to promote the effectiveness of PC-ULS. The findings provide a unique perspective on underground space development and utilization to address port-city conflicts, as well as a reasonable implementation pathway for PC-ULS application.

Culture-led regeneration and the contestation of local discourses and meanings: the case of European maritime port cities

ABSTRACT Culture-led regeneration, understood as a range of policies using cultural activity as a catalyst for urban regeneration, has been widely implemented by many European cities. The interest of local businesses and politicians in these processes seems undiminished despite the various systemic crises hitting European cities. In the meantime, the ways in which culture-led regeneration and its promoters interact with, shape and manipulate local discourses and meanings have become critical for its successful implementation. Drawing upon the literature on the politics of urban development, this paper looks at how culture-led regeneration promulgates, negotiates and manipulates local discourses and meanings. It takes the example of European maritime port cities, where these processes have often served as a means to address the challenges associated with shifting meanings and practices surrounding port-city relationships. We argue that culture-led regeneration schemes operating in port cities in the twenty-first century strive to engage directly with local discourses and meanings associated with past economic activities but, in doing so, renegotiate them, producing hybridized models of regeneration that mirror and align with the agenda of culture-led urban growth coalitions.

Exploring Port–City Relationships: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

Planning for port development presents a complex challenge. Along with fostering cooperation and economic synergies, port development also necessitates careful balancing with existing city functions. Previous research on port–city relationships (PCRs) has yielded valuable insights, but a comprehensive systematic and bibliometric review to identify future research directions is lacking. Moreover, existing research in this field has not addressed the need for a comprehensive classification of content, methods, and driving forces. This study addresses these gaps by analyzing 113 academic articles published on PCRs between 2000 and 2023. Using a bibliometric approach, this study leverages the JavaScript programming language, VOSviewer 1.6.20 software, and the Scopus database. This paper aims to identify key research areas and influential studies within the field of PCRs. This analysis reveals emerging research topics and themes within PCRs. Additionally, it depicts which research countries, journals, and keywords are the most prominent with regard to this field, outlining the relationships between them. This study’s findings provide valuable insights into the current state of PCR research, including geographical distribution, publication trends, methodological approaches, and key research variables.

Research on the Interactive Relationship of Spatial Expansion between Estuarine and Coastal Port Cities

In both developed and developing countries, port-city relationships have always attracted much attention. However, in the port–city interface, views differ as to whether the port drives the city or vice versa. The combination of remote sensing data and geospatial big data (point of interest) has provided a favorable solution. Taking the typical estuarine and coastal port cities in China’s coastal zone as an example, this study examines the following contents based on the port–city interface: the formation age of urban built-up areas and port areas on both sides of the port–city boundary; interaction between port and urban built-up areas; and the distribution of urban functional areas outside the port. Results show that the degree of spatial integration in estuarine port cities is higher than that of coastal port cities and that in the past 30 years, the expansion of ports has led to the expansion of cities. This expansion is port- and sea-oriented, and the expansion direction of the port city is consistent. On the port–city interface, the estuarine and coastal port cities form different urban regional structure modes. Aside from enriching literature on the port–city relationship, this study provides a reference for the spatial planning and transformation of ports and cities in the future.

Beyond the dikes: an institutional perspective on governing flood resilience at the Port of Rotterdam

Seaports, infrastructural nodes in global supply chains and production processes, are vulnerable to flood risks: they are crisis-prone critical infrastructure (CI) systems. However, the governance of their flood resilience involves many different private and public actors in a complex institutional environment and there is no scholarly consensus about how resilience can be successfully governed. We investigate the governance of flood resilience at the Port of Rotterdam (PoR) from an institutional perspective, by studying institutional arrangements for flood resilience within and across vertical, horizontal and territorial dimensions to elucidate the strengths and ongoing challenges of shaping the port’s flood resilience. We conducted semi-structured expert interviews (n = 17) and an analysis of policy documents and legislation (n = 33) relating to flood risk management and CI protection. We find that the institutional design for flood resilience in the Netherlands consists of a complex matrix of responsibilities, capacities and plans. While coordination is visible in the shared visions and strategies for flood resilience developed at different policy levels and domains, we find fragmentation and persisting institutional challenges, including siloed governance approaches, knowledge gaps and blurred distribution of responsibilities; these are significant barriers to enhancing flood resilience for CIs and port–city relationships.

Love Thy Neighbour: Social Benefits and Port-City Relationships

As awareness of the negative externalities created by ports increases, and the perceived local benefits decrease, ports must find new ways to improve the local noneconomic benefits they provide if they are to obtain local support. This global survey collected data from 51 ports in 26 countries. The results highlight a recognition by port authorities that ports face increasing pressure from local residents to reduce their negative impacts and that they should seek to improve the public perception towards the port by increasing local benefits. At present, port information and social media (81%), port events (67%) and education (63%) are the most adopted options. There is a lack of evidence that these measures are effective in improving local perceptions. Maritime museums and public access show a positive association with increasing local awareness of the benefits a port provides, despite their lower levels of adoption (45%). Port centres are the least adopted option at present (29%) and can be expected to increase significantly, with a 43% increase anticipated between numbers of current and expected future centres. Education (14%), public access (13%) and maritime museums (4.5%) also show increases in levels of interest. Maritime museums and public access should be pursued as proven, effective options for improving local perceptions of ports, whilst port centres may provide a new focal point for port-related social and cultural activities.

Materiality in the Seam Space: Sketches for a Transitional Port City Dome District

Biomass material volatility generates new opportunities for port-city relationships. Alternative energy markets require specialized port facilities to handle new bulk commodities like biomass. Wood pellets, a type of biomass, present warehousing challenges due to combustion danger. The industrial response to this risk has generated new storage forms for port regions. The return to bulk cargo reintroduces materiality as a focus for port city research, which had generally been regarded as a peripheral concern since the advent of the shipping container. The container had come to represent a borderless, ‘fast capitalism’ throughput model, but research on port ‘accidents’ has complicated this reductive globalization narrative. The programmatic dynamism of wood pellet dome structures suggests new spatially-porous possibilities for an interstitial border space at the port-city interface with material commonalities and hybrid potentials for resilient logistics and civic facilities. In contrast to container cargo unitization, the dome signifies the standardization of the coastal/riparian port environment. Dome structures can help ports plan for the complex challenges of cargo material behaviors and increasing extreme weather events. The article begins with wood pellet materiality to then explore programmatic possibilities that industrial construction technology generates. Conceptually, this joins the proposal of port as ‘seam space’ with port-city resilience planning and the porosity celebrated in recent urbanism literature. Scaling up from wood pellet materiality to an interstitial port-city district, the article contributes to calls for increased attention to materiality as a means to envision new urban agendas.

Dynamic measurements and mechanisms of coastal port–city relationships based on the DCI model: Empirical evidence from China

The port–city relationship is not only one of the major contradictions in the development of port cities but also an important factor that affects the sustainable development of coastal areas. Therefore, determining the port–city relationship and identifying the mode of port–city interaction are difficult yet popular topics in research on port cities. The argument is based on a reciprocal port–city relationship. This study uses the main coastal port cities in China as research objects to propose the dynamic centralisation index (DCI) of port–city relationship based on the relative concentration index and to verify its effectiveness. In accordance with the measurement and classification of port–city relationships between 2001 and 2015, we discuss the influences of port sizes and internal structural changes on the port–city relationship. In addition, we use the impulse response function to explore the mechanisms of different types of port–city relationships. The primary objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to propose a new measurement model of port–city relationship that fully reflects the relationships of port sizes and structural changes to urban development; (2) to use the DCI model to classify port–city relationships, explore the change characteristics of different types of port–city relationships and further verify the validity, sensitivity and applicability scope of the DCI model and (3) to determine the manifestation of port–city interaction and identify its dominant factors in different port cities. The strength or tendency of port–city relationships is not directly related to port or city size but is closely associated with underlying issues, such as the development stage of port or city and the relationship between port and hinterland.

Maritime networks as systems of cities: The long-term interdependencies between global shipping flows and urban development (1890–2010)

This article is the first-ever analysis of cities in relation to maritime transport flows from a relational, or network, perspective. Based on untapped vessel movement data covering the last 120years, this articles sheds new light about the interdependencies at stake between urban hierarchies and port hierarchies overtime. Main results point to the fading correlation between traffic volume, port centrality, and city size, while the largest cities have maintained their prominence in the global maritime network despite contemporary spatial and functional changes affecting the distribution of transport systems and commodity chains. Such findings help better understanding not only the spatial and functional evolution of port-city relationships and maritime transport; they also confirm the importance of taking into account the long-term dynamics and socio-economic embedding of spatial networks in geography and other disciplines.

The changing influence of city-systems on global shipping networks: an empirical analysis

This paper revisits the classical issue of port-city relationships by applying for the first time network analytical methods to maritime flows connecting cities of the world, over the period 1950–1990. A global matrix of interurban vessel flows was elaborated for about 600 cities using data from the Geopolis and Lloyd’s Shipping Index databases and the rigorous assignment of ports to both coastal and inland urban areas. Main results show that although the largest cities have witnessed a diminishing importance in world traffic, they have maintained their dominance in the network in terms of centrality and geographic reach. This research thus contributes to question the ineluctable separation between ports and cities which dominated the literature, while offering new empirical evidence about the structure and dynamics of city-systems and spatial networks in general.

The port–city relationships in two European inland ports: A geographical perspective on urban governance

Urban development projects involve some complex relationships between institutional public agents, who govern local territories, and economic agents, who make urban economies. These relationships between the stakeholders of the economic sectors (transport, water, housing, energy, industry…) and the territories shaped by public action thus define the type of urban governance which results from interactions. In this paper, we develop the hypothesis that the relation between these stakeholders has a major impact on the mechanisms that produce the city. In this perspective, we apply an analytical framework (sector/territory dialogues) to two river cities in order to understand how the interplay between the stakeholders modifies urban geography. Analysing the relationship between the city, the river and the port in Venlo (The Netherlands) and Strasbourg (France) provides examples of project-based urban planning that is founded on negotiation between the river stakeholders (port authorities, inland waterway managers, transport and logistics firms) and the different levels of public policies (municipal, intermunicipal, regional, national levels). Eventually, this approach allows us to consider the forms taken by the above sector-territory dialogue within the urban space in terms of tools and scales. Finally, the paper ends with a discussion about the value of a contribution from geography to an understanding of these governance issues.

Relação Porto−Cidade: entre diferentes Modelos Analíticos, uma Reflexão sobre o Caso de Santos, SP

Este texto aborda a temática da relação porto−cidade apoiando-se na seguinte estratégia expositiva: primeiramente, empreendemos uma breve introdução ao tema, ressaltando a histórica imbricação entre essas distintas entidades espaciais; em seguida discorremos sobre diferentes modelos teóricos sobre a relação porto-cidade, emanados de diferentes autores, os quais têm em comum uma abordagem espaçotemporal. A partir dessas reflexões iniciais, abordamos o caso de Santos, empreendendo uma breve retrospectiva histórica sobre a relação entre o porto e a cidade, para, ao final do texto, propormos um esquema representativo de diferentes momentos que, a nosso ver, marcaram esta relação.

Territórios portuários, documentos de história urbana: as intervenções no porto de Gênova e os desafios da preservação

Old port areas are privileged territories for urban history studies. In different geographical and socio-cultural contexts, the presence of port structures provides relevant information on the processes of urban occupation and social appropriation of the surroundings. Due to its characterization as sites of historical and cultural interest, the urban renewal projects in certain port areas presented a problem to be faced: design projects that pay attention to the historical documents brought to light. Facing this situation, this study aims to analyse the urban intervention projects proposed for the port area of Genoa, Italy. The interventions in progress lead us to reflect upon the issues involved in the treatment of the old port areas, such as the study of port-city relationships, and the importance of dialogue between preservation and urban planning. Ultimately, the article stresses the need for an investigative approach turned to the understanding of the epistemological relationship between History and Design.

Port-city relationships in Europe and Asia

This paper investigates the nature of port-city relationships in two major port regions of the world, Europe and Asia. Although this issue is well analyzed through either isolated case studies or general models, it proposes a complementary approach based on urban and port indicators available for 121 port cities. In terms of demographic size and container traffic, it shows the decline of port-urban dependence, stemming from changes in global transportation and urban development. However, European and Asian port cities are not identically confronted to the same challenges, notably in terms of their hinterlands. A factor analysis highlights a regional differentiation of port-city relationships according to their insertion in both urban and port systems, with a core-periphery dualism in Europe and a port-city hierarchy in Asia. Thus, the distance to inland markets for European ports and the size of coastal markets for Asian ports are the main factors to explain the nature of port-city relationships in the two areas. It helps to evaluate which European and Asian port cities are comparable beyond their cargo volumes, by putting together micro (local environments) and macro (regional patterns) factors.