Sustainable Development of the European Port-City Interface: Evolving Insights in Research and Practice

Seaport regions are the most urbanized and challenging places on the planet. Home to the highest concentrations of human enterprise and diversity, seaport regions offer the best conditions for cities and industries to develop and create economic as well as social wealth. In Europe, many seaport regions accommodate economic clusters and industries that need to innovate and transform in order to survive and contribute to a prosperous port as well as a liveable city—two goals that are often at odds with each other in seaport regions across the union. The innovation and transformation needed in seaport regions demand new planning approaches and governance arrangements on the interplay between economic and spatial conditions. At the geographical centre of such arrangements lies the so-called port-city interface: waterfront zones that serve as areas of transition between the services and amenities-based urban economy on the one hand, and the production and distribution-based business of the port on the other. The usual planning and development approach to these areas is port-to-urban transformation. In this approach, former places of production become ‘places of consumption’ characterised by upmarket property development and iconic architecture—transformation projects that frequently yield criticism with regard to the sustainability of their outcomes in economic, social as well as environmental terms. Throughout the past decade, it has been observed that responsible authorities in seaport cities have started to reconsider the transformation-oriented planning and development approach to their respective waterfront zones. This reassessment seems influenced by progress in academic understandings of the European port-city interface in tangible as well as more elusive—but no less significant—terms. Authoritative policy advice organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Association for Cities and Ports (IACP) have also adopted conceptualisations of the port-city interface that promote sustainable planning and development approaches to waterfront zones. This ERES paper revisits, updates and expands upon a 2007 paper on the sustainable development of the European port-city interface. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, we will draw together and assess the—largely case study-based—body of academic literature on the changing European port-city interface and the related phenomenon of waterfront