Former port areas can host diverse urban uses, including maritime ones, providing space for new forms of placemaking at a time of multiple transitions (energy, digital, social) while paying homage to or even taking advantage of former maritime structures and historic access to the sea. This chapter argues for comprehensive approaches to heritage preservation and sustainable development in line with the UNESCO historic urban landscape (HUL) approach and its New Urban Agenda. It explores three examples of policy and design approaches to the preservation, transformation and adaptive reuse of historic water- and port-related structures in light of placemaking concepts at the edge of sea and land, between a working port and a living city. The three case studies explored here include Hamburg (Germany), Koper (Slovenia) and Valencia (Spain) and showcase, respectively, planning-led, urban design-inspired, and community-led approaches for heritage preservation as forms of ethical forms of placemaking. In conclusion, we point towards: (1) imagining how heritage practices that include urban scales in UNESCO heritage sites and other port cities allow us to develop sustainable futures in terms of the economy, the environment and society; (2) understanding that the dynamic relationship of ports and cities and the inherent risks in terms of preservation, reuse and sustainable development requires ethical forms of placemaking to accommodate the New Urban Agenda commitments and the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and (3) emphasizing, selecting and designing equitable forms of transformation in port cities that embrace culture, the environment and the economy sustainably.@en

The Atlas was created within the LDE PortCityFutures research group and the Faculty of Architecture TU Delft. It is part of the series on the Urbanization of the Sea, and the kick-off of a sub-series on Mapping Port Cities > An analytical study on the complexity of port cities in Europe A multitude of port cities dots Europe’s coastline, all serving the purpose of facilitating maritime transportation. Over millennia, public and private leaders have built harbours, urban spaces and infrastructures in diverse territories to serve hinterlands, including landlocked capital cities and metropolitan areas. As nodes on the edge of water and land, port city territories embody knowledge on maritime flows and water conditions. At a time of climate change, they can be paradigms and stewards of sustainable development. Taking a comprehensive, mapping based approach, Port City Atlas visualizes 100 port city territories located on four seas and connected through shared waters. It provides a foundation for comparative analysis beyond case study approaches that are often locked into national contexts, select languages or disciplinary approaches. Conceived as a work of reference, the book makes the case for a sea-based approach to the understanding and design of Europe.@en

Port cities around the world have long facilitated trade and the exchange of people. They have developed as part of a network with mirroring facilities for storage, trade and housing in each location. Many of these cities have developed over centuries and share long histories and extensive heritage sites. In this chapter, we argue that while it is relevant to study the reconstruction of a particular waterfront or urban area, it is also important to analyze these projects in the wider context of sea and land, port and city, as part of global maritime networks, and to assess the role that contemporary ports can play in sustainable development of port cities. We argue that the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach is particularly appropriate for exploring the links between port cities and their heritage in individual cities and for examining the maritime links between cities and using these to inspire preservation and new development activities. The chapter proposes a new socio-spatial methodology, the datawheel, with the aim of collecting existing knowledge and developing new knowledge, values, attitudes and preferences related to historic cities and their heritage. Through the use of historical geospatial mapping (HisGIS), which overlays different, abstract data layers and uses a uniform legend, the chapter briefly explores Rotterdam, Hamburg and London as port cities with changing spatial and institutional constellations in a way that develops a new framework for research on heritage and sustainable development.

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Ports are clearly demarcated structures on land and water. They are fenced in, easily recognizable on satellite and orthophoto images, and they have specific functions. This apparent clarity of ports, their function and outline, in relation to nearby urban and rural areas, becomes more complex when explored through the lens of land use, that is the existing and planned future functional dimension or socio-economic purpose of the land. In contrast to urban and rural areas, where land use has been mapped and defined for centuries, the use and function of land and water in port areas has long been multifunctional and not defined on land use maps. This raises questions about the role and understanding of port territory in relation to neighboring spaces, past, and present. This article first defines land use and describes its historical development. Scholars from various disciplines, including geographers, planners, and economists, have addressed the issue of land use in port areas. Land use patterns have emerged over time and are based on earlier demarcations of port areas and distinctions between port and city. As shown by the historical port city borders in Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Koper, these delimitations can change over time, by location and by function. The land use register has only recently been harmonized at the European level. European and national registers distinguish existing and planned land use in port areas differently. Mixed uses prevail in new port interventions, creating a new kind of permeability or porosity; that is, areas where port, urban and rural functions merge. New land use porosity is a particular state of land use (on both sides of the boundaries of port areas) that goes beyond the physical boundaries marked by fences. Land use porosity effectively creates land use continuity, a functional porosity that serves as a hidden blueprint for future planning. Understanding land use porosity can provide a foundation for novel approaches to the development of transition strategies that are needed to address contemporary challenges, including climate change and sea level rise, digitization, and new work and life practices in port city regions. In conclusion, we note that due to the porosity of land use patterns, the separation between the present port and the city is beginning to crumble. However, this process has yet to be made fully visible and used as a basis for design.@en

Many megacities around the world are located in deltas where the possibilities of shipping and the availability of flat fertile lands have attracted large numbers of people, industries and businesses. These areas also face multiple water-based challenges: the provision of clean drinking water, the cleaning of sewage water, subsidence, delivery of water for agricultural and industrial purposes, issues of land reclamation from the sea for agriculture and construction, but also protection against rising sea levels, salination or the need to keep waterways and ports open for shipping. These water-related challenges are interconnected and require coordinated and integrated responses from all stakeholders, city and regional governments, private and public actors, port authorities, as well as NGO’s and citizens. Exploring cities in urban deltas in general and port cities in particular from a long-term perspective shows that these cities have a long tradition of resilience, as diverse public and private stakeholders have developed formal and informal institutional and planning traditions that have allowed them to address and overcome diverse challenges meaningfully, forcefully and rapidly. This paper first proposes that an analysis of resilience in port cities can serve as a foundation for addressing the water-related challenges of the future. It argues that we need knowledge of the spatial and social conditions necessary for developing such systemic and evolutionary resilience. It posits that we need to combine a thorough understanding of socio-spatial patterns of water systems to provide insight into earlier moments of water transitions and into long-term implications of policies and structures and provide a foundation for future design. Taking advantage of the vast number of longitudinal datasets recently digitized or undergoing digitization, we propose to employ a methodology to pursue a multi- and trans-disciplinary analysis. We exemplify it through application of the concept to the theme of water and particularly port cities, calling it the Waterwheel for this specific application. The presentation proposes first steps towards the development of a methodology and presents selected case studies notably from Rotterdam, Hamburg and London to get a better understanding of water culture through the lens of port-city relations. In conclusion, the presentation explores how such a methodology can help explore conflict and consensus around issues of water and heritage through a new water culture that includes a new holistic water management approach in megacities to meet water challenges for livable cities. 1 INTRODUCTION@en