The term port derives from the Latin portus, which means gate. Ports are interface areas between two types of cargo or passenger transport domains - the land domain and the maritime domain. Ports have developed directly linked to water, which is why, historically, their most important characteristic is easy access to a navigable body of water (canal, river, lake, sea, ocean). Over time, ports have continuously developed to provide specific services for ships (berths, docks, canals, repairs, etc.) and specific services for goods (storage, access to other distribution systems, etc.).
For the purposes of the current study, the specific location of the port itself, in the port city, is considered to be explicit in the port areas. Port areas have traditionally been essential components of port cities and have usually developed in close proximity to the city centre, concentrating economic and transport functions. Port cities are, through port areas, essential components of any supply chain (local, regional or global), as convergence points of the land and sea transport systems that define their area of influence in the territory.
Urban waterfronts are those parts of the port city that physically communicate directly with the water, forming an interface between the local man-made system (port city) and the natural water systems (canal, river, lake, sea or ocean) in the immediate vicinity. The geographical delimitation is different in each case, because the waterfront comprises areas of all three forms of spatial organisation (land, shore and water) in varying proportions, depending on the topography of the land, the dominant urban function and the perception of water in the local collective sense.
The urban waterfront is not a boundary between two systems, but an area of land, a territory of the city-port in contact with a major body of water; from this point of view, the present study defines the urban waterfront as a subsystem of the city-port. In a simplified, purely geometric example, the urban waterfront is considered to be a strip of land along the water, defined by length and width. In this sense, the length of the urban waterfront is the actual length of the water body in direct contact with the port city, and the width (or depth) of the urban waterfront is the level of penetration into the port city, expressed by the water influence. Although the width varies, the limit of the urban waterfront to the port city is considered to be the limit of direct water visibility.
For the purposes of the research in this paper, the urban waterfront is a concept of Anglo-Saxon origin, which basically delimits the portion of urban land at the edge of a water. Although the emergence of this concept on the research map is due to successful urban experiments in North America, there are many other important research teams globally. In order to expose how the (urban) waterfront is recognised in the urban planning community, a few definitions have been selected below that provide relevant insight into it.
The research aims to extract, through applied analysis, the elements that define urban waterfront development in the contemporary port city. In order to accurately establish the scope of the research work, it is necessary to clearly identify the object of the study (urban waterfronts) by:
The evidence that urban waterfront development progresses non-linearly (in leaps and bounds) and often increases social inequalities suggests scepticism about the modern meaning of urban development in the sense that it unconditionally implies improvements on the past. Modern political paradigms, especially neoliberalism, are not a universal panacea, because they have their origins in the early industrial era, which now belongs to the early stage of urban waterfront development. It is therefore important to go beyond the public discourse of the actors involved to analyse the objective data of current urban operations in comparison with the past. The context and resources have changed radically since the start of the global crisis in 2007/2008, both in Europe and America, and urban development on private initiative alone is now a thing of the past. In many cases the state has had to reassert its leading role in investment and development, which inevitably leads to changes in urban planning strategy.
Another important challenge for the urban water front is the linking of scientific and social domains, which branches into two issues. Firstly, it is the dynamics of the environmental implications of waterfronts in post-industrial port cities and the development patterns that have transformed them; secondly, it is the possibility of ensuring the sustainability of urban waterfronts while keeping them socially equitable and economically viable.
