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This study examines the port planning dynamics of the neighbouring ports of Koper (Slovenia) and Trieste (Italy) since the Second World War. Through an analysis of port-related planning documents, it offers insights into how geographical proximity, divergent geopolitical circumstances, and a unique border context have shaped the development trajectories of these two ports. We argue that their spatial planning is somewhat idiosyncratic because the presence of a border did not necessarily condition unrelated planning efforts and vice versa. Max Fabiani was the only urban planner to propose a joint development plan for both port cities in the immediate post-war period. The port and local authorities pursued separate planning paths for the two port cities after the Yugoslav–Italian border was established in 1954. As the border became more permeable, a certain relatedness can be seen in the spatial planning of both ports. The port authorities worked toward a unified port system at the turn of the millennium, but the persistence of phantom borders prevented this. In recent decades of European borderless integration, there are fewer obstacles to planning cooperation. Currently, both ports are planning similar development, such as the expansion of container terminals, which is leading to their increased competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over time, a large number of stakeholders have affected the Italian port city of Naples. The millenary history of Naples reveals a port that has been strongly intertwined with the city. Yet, recent history shows a different story. The historical investigation analysed in this article points out a conflict between several different authorities that led the port. As these developed into separate entities they detached people from the water. This article offers an institutional history. Using the concept of path dependence it argues that a past system of decision-making concerning the development of the port city reinforced the separation of land from water in Naples. Path dependence is understood as a resistance by institutions (rules) and actors (decision makers) to changes in patterns of behaviour and a tendency to repeat previous decisions and practices. This article analyses a series of critical junctures so as to analyse the constellation of actors and decisions which have prevented the city from living with water. The article concludes by arguing that understanding the articulated system of past decision-making is a key to (re)conceptualizing the current state of the city and (re)imagining ways by which the city might be reunited with its waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canton (present-day Guangzhou) has long flourished as a port city. As the city expanded in the nineteenth century, the risks of conflagrations increased; streets became more crowded, buildings were more often made of wood, and there was more use of open fires. The reconstruction of Canton after conflagrations provides an excellent way to observe the resilience of urban space, understood here as the result of interactions among different stakeholders. This paper explores how authorities, local communities, foreigners, and Hong merchants addressed fires and rebuilt through laws, regulations, technologies and cooperation, and how responses to fire destruction shaped urban space. Divers stakeholders affected the reconstruction of buildings and streets. The government made laws to widen streets, communities built watchtowers, and foreigners made new plans for Thirteen Factories, a neigbhorhood along the Pearl River. At the same time, conflicts between communities and foreigners obstructed plans for urban transformation and maintained the stability of urban structures. The communities kept the traditional local community organizations the 'Kaifong' (local organization in street) who opposed the widening streets and fought against proposed fire zones around Thirteen Factories, thus pitching local interests against those of the foreigners in a complex social, political, and cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the distinctive characteristics of commercial development and its effect on the shaping of the urban form in rapidly developing port cities with a special emphasis on Mersin, which had been an emerging city in the Eastern Mediterranean from the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. This paper questions the relations between commercial development and morphological change in terms of the functional and spatial patterns that emerged as a result of commercial activity, and the motivating force behind them. The port city is conceived as a spatial expression of core–periphery relations, in which they serve as an essential intermediate stop from where commodities are transferred to and from the agrarian periphery and the industrial core. The findings of the study revealed that the commercial development of Mersin between the late nineteenth century and mid-twentieth century was in the form of sui-generis development as a mercantile port of exchange in the Eastern Mediterranean. The commercial development, which came into being in a gradual and piecemeal manner rather than depending on planned and coordinated large-scale redevelopments, revealed itself spatially through land-use differentiation and specialized commercial environments. The notable tradesmen at the very top of the hierarchical structure positioned themselves at the very centre of the process by organizing a network of distribution and credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ten-Year Plan for the port of Antwerp (1956-1965) funded the expansion of the port's infrastructure over a 10-year period. Strictly, a national government-funded infrastructure programme for the construction of a set of canal docks, the programme laid the basis for a broader urbanization of the north-eastern Antwerp metropolitan region. The importance of the operation lies primarily in its role as an instrument of urbanization rather than in the improvement of the transport and transshipment capacity of the port because it opened up a large territory to industrial settlement. The linear layout of the project along the Scheldt River led planners to conceive the further urbanization of the adjacent region on a linear city model, with satellite communities attached to the industrial and infrastructural strip. Compared with the contemporary Europoort plan for the port of Rotterdam, where several planning agencies implemented conflicting plans for functionally distinct infrastructures and the construction of a new town, the success of the Antwerp approach resides in the flexible and strategic implementation of the project as a co-production between various authorities and private parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]