IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i11p4341-d1398862.html

Exploring Port–City Relationships: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Melika Zarei

    (Department of Urban Planning and Design, School of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71877335, Iran)

  • Mojtaba Arasteh

    (Department of Urban Planning and Design, School of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71877335, Iran)

  • Sina Shahab

    (School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3WT, UK)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Melika Zarei & Mojtaba Arasteh & Sina Shahab, 2024. "Exploring Port–City Relationships: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4341-:d:1398862
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4341/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4341/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qifei Ma & Peng Jia & Xinran She & Hercules Haralambides & Haibo Kuang, 2021. "Port integration and regional economic development: Lessons from China," Post-Print hal-04046221, HAL.
    2. Zeyang Li & Weixin Luan & Zhenchao Zhang & Min Su, 2023. "Research on the Interactive Relationship of Spatial Expansion between Estuarine and Coastal Port Cities," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-25, January.
    3. María J. Andrade & João Pedro Costa & Eduardo Jiménez-Morales, 2021. "Challenges for European Tourist-City-Ports: Strategies for a Sustainable Coexistence in the Cruise Post-COVID Context," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Ričardas MALKUS & Jūratė LIEBUVIENĖ & Vida JOKUBYNIĖNĖ, 2020. "Inland Water Transport Applicability For Sustainable Sea Port Hinterland Infrastructure Development. Klaipeda Sea-Port Case," Transport Problems, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Transport, vol. 15(2), pages 25-31, June.
    5. Funke, Michael & Yu, Hao, 2011. "The emergence and spatial distribution of Chinese seaport cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 196-209, June.
    6. Olaf Merk, 2013. "The Competitiveness of Global Port-Cities: Synthesis Report," OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2013/13, OECD Publishing.
    7. Van den Berg, Roy & De Langen, Peter W., 2011. "Hinterland strategies of port authorities: A case study of the port of Barcelona," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 6-14.
    8. Keren Ben Hilell & Yael Allweil, 2021. "Infrastructure Development and Waterfront Transformations: Physical and Intangible Borders in Haifa Port City," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 43-57.
    9. Bin Wu & Guanhai Gu & Wenzhu Zhang & Liguo Zhang & Rucheng Lu & Caiping Pang & Jixian Huang & Hongxin Li, 2022. "Multi-Scale Influencing Factors and Prediction Analysis: Dongxing Port–City Relationship," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Markus Hesse, 2018. "Approaching the Relational Nature of the Port‐City Interface in Europe: Ties and Tensions Between Seaports and the Urban," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(2), pages 210-223, April.
    11. María J. Andrade & João Pedro Costa & Eduardo Jiménez-Morales & Jonathan Ruiz-Jaramillo, 2021. "A City Profile of Malaga: The Role of the Port-City Border throughout Historical Transformations," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 105-118.
    12. Amira Ghennaï & Said Madani & Carola Hein, 2023. "Evaluating the sustainability of scenarios for port city development with Boussole21 method," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 87-106, March.
    13. Tom A. Daamen & Erik Louw, 2016. "The Challenge of the Dutch Port-City Interface," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(5), pages 642-651, December.
    14. Li, Jiewei & Li, Xiaobing & Zhu, Ruihua, 2023. "Effects of ports on urban economic geography: A study based on the natural experiment of decentralization reform in China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    15. Monios, Jason & Bergqvist, Rickard & Woxenius, Johan, 2018. "Port-centric cities: The role of freight distribution in defining the port-city relationship," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 53-64.
    16. Qifei Ma & Peng Jia & Xinran She & Hercules Haralambides & Haibo Kuang, 2021. "Port integration and regional economic development: Lessons from China," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04046221, HAL.
    17. Annabelle Duval & Jean-Baptiste Bahers, 2023. "Flows as Makers and Breakers of Port-Territory Metabolic Relations: The Case of the Loire Estuary," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 319-329.
    18. Jūratė Liebuvienė & Kristina Čižiūnienė, 2021. "Comparative Analysis of Ports on the Eastern Baltic Sea Coast," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-29, December.
    19. Ezio Micelli & Elena Ostanel & Luca Lazzarini, 2023. "“Wanna Be Provoked”: Inner Peripheries Generators of Social Innovation in the Italian Apennine," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    20. Stephan Hauser & Penglin Zhu & Asma Mehan, 2021. "160 Years of Borders Evolution in Dunkirk: Petroleum, Permeability, and Porosity," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 58-68.
    21. Peter V. Hall & Wouter Jacobs, 2012. "Why are maritime ports (still) urban, and why should policy-makers care?," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 189-206, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Qi & Tang, Yuhui & Lu, Bo, 2024. "Exploring the evolution trends of port integration policy in China by a text mining approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 159-172.
    2. Zhang, Qiqi & Hu, Xiaozhe & Li, Zhenfu & Zhou, Yutao & Qi, Xinli, 2025. "Port's industry ecosystem construction: Empirical evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 42-60.
    3. Zhao, Qianyu & Xu, Hang & Wall, Ronald S & Stavropoulos, Spyridon, 2017. "Building a bridge between port and city: Improving the urban competitiveness of port cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 120-133.
    4. Dadashpoor, Hashem & Arasteh, Mojtaba, 2020. "Core-port connectivity: Towards shaping a national hinterland in a West Asia country," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 57-68.
    5. Carola Hein, 2021. "Port City Porosity: Boundaries, Flows, and Territories," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 1-9.
    6. Ma, Qifei & Li, Sujuan & Jia, Peng & Kuang, Haibo, 2025. "Is port integration a panacea for regions green development: An empirical study of China port city," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 15-28.
    7. Min Wang & Yu Lan & Huayu Li & Xiaodong Jing & Sitong Lu & Kexin Deng, 2024. "Spatial–Temporal Differentiation and Trend Prediction of Coupling Coordination Degree of Port Environmental Efficiency and Urban Economy: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Witte, Patrick & Wiegmans, Bart & Louw, Erik, 2025. "More claims than land: Multi-facetted land use challenges in the port-city interface," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    9. Zhang, Jun-Qing & Woo, Su-Han & Li, Kevin X., 2024. "Port-city synergism and regional development policy: Evidence from the Yangtze River Region," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Shunquan Huang & Yongsheng Huo & Guangnian Xiao, 2025. "Impact of the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” Construction on the Efficiency of China’s Coastal Ports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, January.
    11. Wang, Shaobo & Zhou, Yutao & Guo, Jianke & Mao, Jinhuang, 2023. "Did high speed rail accelerate the development of tourism economy? – Empirical analysis from Northeast China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 25-35.
    12. Huang, Donglan & Xu, Guoteng & Li, Chengjiang & Yang, Shu, 2025. "Effects of high-tech industrial agglomeration and innovation on regional economic development in China: Evidence from spatial-temporal analysis and Spatial Durbin Model," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 692-712.
    13. Li, Shan & Wu, Jianhong & Jiang, Yonglei & Yang, Xutao, 2024. "Impacts of the sea-rail intermodal transport policy on carbon emission reduction: The China case study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 211-223.
    14. Boqi Liu & Dingjie Zhou & Yang Zhao & Longyu Shi, 2025. "A Cross-Regional Perspective on the Coupling and Coordination of Digital Technology, Ecological Civilisation and Economic and Social Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Theo E. Notteboom & Hercules E. Haralambides, 2020. "Port management and governance in a post-COVID-19 era: quo vadis?," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 22(3), pages 329-352, September.
    16. Hercules Haralambides, 2023. "The state-of-play in maritime economics and logistics research (2017–2023)," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(3), pages 429-451, September.
    17. Ng, Adolf K.Y. & Ducruet, César & Jacobs, Wouter & Monios, Jason & Notteboom, Theo & Rodrigue, Jean-Paul & Slack, Brian & Tam, Ka-chai & Wilmsmeier, Gordon, 2014. "Port geography at the crossroads with human geography: between flows and spaces," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 84-96.
    18. Stephen J. Ramos & Umit Yilmaz, 2023. "Energy transition and city–port symbiosis in biomass import–export regions," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(2), pages 406-428, June.
    19. Hercules Haralambides, 2024. "The Red Sea crisis and chokepoints to trade and international shipping," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 26(3), pages 367-390, September.
    20. Jonas Mendes Constante & Peter W. Langen & Salvador Furió Pruñonosa, 2023. "Innovation ecosystems in ports: a comparative analysis of Rotterdam and Valencia," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4341-:d:1398862. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.