ABSTRACT

It is now generally recognised that maritime networks have had an increasing influence on ports and port-city relationships over the last three decades, following the container revolution and the new spatial distribution of industrial activities. Although containerisation has spread globally and homogenously, it has also encountered a regional diversity of heritages and practices. The responses of port-cities to global economic change reveal important differences between world regions, notably in terms of waterfront redevelopment in Europe and America (Hoyle 2000) and portcity planning in the Northern and Southern hemispheres (Carmona 2003a; 2003b). Thus, transport players that are willing to insert the port-city within the global transport chain must cope with normalised logistics systems which are managed by an ever-reducing number of powerful global companies (e.g. shippers, shipping lines, freight forwarders, logistics agents) and local and regional specificities in terms of economic development and spatial planning. Between global insertion and local impediments, a wide variety of situations can be found.