in leghorn, the AiVp retrace the evolution of city port relationshipsOn 4 July last a semi-nar entitled “Livorno Domani. Una Città portuale Europea” was held in Leghorn (Italy). This was the occasion for Denis Davoult to retrace the evolution of city port relationships and to present some of the lessons learnt from the very recent 13th AIVP World Confe-rence. Nearly quarter of a century after the founding of AIVP, questionings on the future of dock wastelands is indeed still topical. However if the development of the port outside the city is still a reality in numerous port cities, a new vocabulary and new strategies have been seen to gradually emerge: not only re-conquest, but also the maintaining of the active port within the city; no longer cut off, but blending and integrating with it, as a kind of a return of the port towards the city.The resolution of the city-port equation and the challenges posed by the development of the city port interface still remain one of the major challenges in the management of our port cities. Placed precociously in the front line of globalisation, the port cities appear as complex territories of exceptions. But they also draw their strength from this specificity. They are also tremendous fields where the solutions of blending and the models of the co-development of tomorrow are invented and experimented. A strong idea was thus expressed during the concluding round table: after the era of coexis-tence, of cohabitation, and beyond cooperation, it is now the time for partnership or, an even stronger expression, for the mutualisation of resources and territories.
� Study #1: New solutions for improving the reception of cruise activities in The South-Western Indian Ocean
The offer for cruise products has known quite an evolution in the last three decades, and the cruise business became one of the most dynamic segments in global tourism over the last few years.Undoubtedly, the two main navigation basins constituted by the Caribbean and the Medi-terranean areas have reached a fairly intensive level of exploitation, and the growing world-wide demand offers today strong opportunities for developing cruise activities in other navigation basins.Among these secondary basins, the Western part of the Indian Ocean is positioning itself and the launching of targeted products along with the emergence of new shipping companies in the Indian Ocean environment reveals the exis-tence of potential development for cruises as the emergence of local demand contributes to rooting the activity in the region thus comforting this prospect in the medium term.The port cities of Durban, Mombasa, Mutsa-mudu, Port-Louis, Port-Réunion, Toamasina and Victoria are working in this direction. The development of cruise activities lies with the setting-up of a comparatively homogeneous and coherent package in terms of reception of cruise liners calling and cruise tourists in the town and its hinterland, be the various actors public or private.
� Study #2: Observations on the environ-mental practices of seven port communi-ties of the Indian Ocean
Logistics and industrial interface between the flows of maritime cargo and their hinterland, the port area generates a polluting activity and concentrates a certain number of environmen-tal risks on ecologically sensitive and peopled areas.In order to prevent the risks, the ports of the Indian Ocean follow strict regulations. According to the activities targeted, a part of this legislation stems from international law, but another part belongs to the country. On the other hand, the city which nevertheless maintains particularly strong economic, social and environmental links with its port conceives its development essenti-ally within the framework of national law.Major environmental risks, pollutions with multiple causes and effects; both entities are exposed. In function of the regulatory framework and the resources available, the measures for attenuating the impacts, the capacities of reaction in face of risk and the capacities of adaptation to climate and industrial change appear diverse. The seven port communities which are Durban, Mombasa, Mutsamudu, Le Port, Port Louis, Toamasina and Victoria provide a rich scope for studies. In each of these port communities, the local stakeholders are conscious of the neces-sity of collaborating between urban stakeholders and port stakeholders in order to structure development and better master the challenges. Certain of these port communities have already transformed this awareness into action.
two new studies availableThe Indian Ocean Observatory of Ports and Cities has recently comple-ted the production of two new studies which come to enrich the work started in 2011; one the one hand on the development of cruises and on the other on environmental practices. The recommendations stemming from these studies have been examined in more detail and formulated through the “action notices published with the studies in the form of two “working documents”. These documents are pursuing three objectives:
� To arouse efforts of local coordination around the topics studied;
� To stimulate exchanges of knowledge within the network;
� To accompany the implementation of synergies on the regional scale.
For further information, please contact Annick Miquel: [email protected] / +262 692 850 777
The worldwide network of port cities5, quai de la Saône 76600 Le HavreTel. : +33 (0)2 35 42 78 84 fax : +33 (0)2 35 42 21 94Email : [email protected]
www.AIVP.orG
the 13th world conference of cities and ports organised in saint-nazaire and nantes from 18 to 21 June 2012 assembled 450 participants coming from 46 countries. This new World Conference of AIVP had the ambition to take bearings on the answers brought by the stakeholders of the develop-ment of port cities to their problematics of development. The angle of approach of the city-port projects chosen this time by AIVP was that of the place of the port and of its func-tions in the implementation of the sustainable development strategies of the port cities and regions. Globalisation, the effects of which on cities and ports were more at the centre of the reflections over the last few years, is today perfectly digested by the territories. The parti-cipants to this latest AIVP Conference are no longer questioning themselves about globali-sation but revealed the emergence of new ter-ritorial strategies and of cooperation illustrated by numerous examples: energy transition and reconversion of city and port territories; new cooperation between port activities, industrial sectors, and University and research spheres; “tailor made” governances, in particular asso-ciating the citizens…
Through the exchanges of experience orga-nised around the projects developed in the port cities of all continents, the first of the obser-vations to be made is that the question of the city-port connection remains central nearly 25 years after the foundation of AIVP. Over and above the classic strategies of the recuperation of abandoned port spaces for urban purposes for waterfront projects, it is the whole question of city port governance which is posed. The question of the city-port integration of “how to
build the port with the city” is at the heart of the debates in most port cities. Urban development projects are today much more than projects for the improvement or the reconversion of the city-port interfaces, they stem from an overall reflection on the identity and specificities of the contemporary port city where the integration of urban and port functions finds its full place.
This new AIVP conference enabled the measure of the local challenges to be taken. These now go well beyond urban planning strategies to directly tackle more overall notions of economic performance, of the well-being of the citizens and of sustainable development.
In this respect, the creation in numerous port cities of research centres which constitute as many “think tanks” on the problematics of local development is revealing. It testifies to the desire of the stakeholders to place innovation at the centre of the strategic reflections in order to respond to global economic but also social and environmental challenges. Politicians, port
rio london, london… rioSummer 2012 is drawing to an end in the Northern hemisphere whilst the Southern winter is ending. These last three months will have been marked by two international events held at opposite ends of the world…. It all started in Rio with a morose Earth Summit during which no major decision for the construction of the world of tomorrow was able to be taken. A few weeks later, the Olym-pic spirit reigned over London, and in the port cities of the five continents we all vibrated at the exploits of the Jamaican Bolt, of the Kenyan Rudisha, of the Chinese Shiwedu, or of the British Wiggins. The contrast is striking. Could these two weeks of festivities and sharing not inspire us to meet at last the challenges of our human race? We are at the start of the last straight, and if the nations manifestly are still unable to clearly determine the place of the winning post, this should not slow down the local initiatives so dear to AIVP. Exchanges of good practices, apprenticeships, diffusion of know-ledge, solidarity, pooling of ideas… here we find our Olympic spirit. We are counting on you to maintain it. In 2016, the Games will be held in Rio : a unique occasion to come full circle.
The President Lecomte thanks Gilles Bontemps, Vice-President of the “Région des Pays de la Loire”, and Joel Batteux, President of the “Communauté d’Aggloméra-tion de Saint-Nazaire”, for the organization of the 13th world conference of the AIVP.
lessons from saint-nazaire and nantes...
the worldwide network of port citiesdockinfos
managements, and enterprises are clearly mobilising to encourage a new spirit for the port cities and regions.
The energy problematic constitutes without doubt a fairly good illustration of this phenomenon. Faced with the energy and industrial challenge represented by the programmed disappearance of fossil energies, the port cities are mobilising. The existing port infrastruc-tures, the density of networks and the proximity of centres of industrial production and consumption make port cities privileged places for the implementation and experimentation of renewable energies connected with their marine or waterway environment and of systems of industrial ecology connected with the economic tissue. Offshore wind farms, marine current power, thermal energy of the sea or wave mechanics, even the production of hydrogen on offshore platforms are so many paths being explored or which are already the subject of industrial wagers. In thus becoming a producer of energy, the port adds to its classic functions at the service of the transport of goods a new sector and a new challenge. It also obtains a new image vis-à-vis the commu-nity and the populations.
Still in the context of this research for a new spirit for the port cities and regions, the debate is today opening around questions of multimodality and new territorial strategies. Initiatives having recourse to the waterway in order to assure proximity logistics in the big cities are mul-tiplying and becoming economically viable as well as desirable from the environmental and urban development point of view. Through the port and its functions, the connection is thus made better between the port city and the metropolitan region.
After the time of coexistence of the first years of AIVP, then of cohabi-tation organised between city and port, and even beyond the sectorial co-operations which are developing today, the time is henceforth appearing for the implementation of closer partnerships, or even to the mutualisation of resources and territories; a mutualisation on the local scale between city, port and their partners but also on a regional scale.
In a context of global economic and environmental crisis the field of competition is being displaced. The port cities of a same geopolitical and economic territory are now allying to become more coherent and more competitive ensembles in the face of other regions of the world. This 13th AIVP Conference has shown that regional, national and even transnational “gateways” and “clusters” are multiplying. It is now a question of promoting, around the port functions, a regional territorial development associating several cities and several ports and capable of integrating and handling simultaneously, granting them the same degree of importance, social, economic and environmental problema-tics.
We have perhaps there the strongest message given by the Loire Estuary to the delegates participating in the works of AIVP: the answer to global challenges now supposes having the capacity and the intelli-gence to make the port cities evolve from competition to co-operation !
interview with ronan dantec french senator, spokesman for the rio + 20 summit of united cities and local Governments
AIVP: During your previous inter-vention on the occasion of the 12th world Conference of AIVP in Buenos Aires in november 2010, you drew the attention of people responsible for the development of port cities on the consequences of climate change. what is the position today?rD: The situation is extremely worrying. The subject was not directly tackled in Rio, which was not a conference on climate change. However, the question is in everybo-
dy’s mind. The decision taken in Durban, in 2011, was to try to negotiate a new international agreement on climate by 2015 which would, this time, engage all the big polluters, including the emerging countries. For the ports, one of the impacts of climate warming will be the rise in sea levels. New extremely serious studies, in particular American ones, tend to show that this increase has been underestimated. We are closer today to a rise of 1.50 metres by the end of the century than the 70 cm to 1 metre previously announced. This means tomorrow. There is a considerable difference, and stakeholders in the development of port cities must absolutely already take this data into account today in the context of their investments and projects.
AIVP: After rio+20 green economy has been much spoken about, what is the message to be passed on to the members of AIVP?rD: As I have had occasion to say since Rio at your last confe-rence in Saint-Nazaire, the question of “innovatory financing” in order to support the development of the poorest countries is one of the keys to getting over the current blockages. Amongst the most advanced ideas, there is the famous “Bunker Tax” to which one must be especially attentive. The idea is to find a new recipe built on transport, notably maritime, a taxation contributing to the limitation of emissions of CO2. This will inevitably have conse-quences on maritime traffic, for example in the tight management of vessel arrivals, and thus on the port cities. The first reflex of the shipping community could be to oppose what they could per-ceive as a hindrance to the development of transport by ships. However, this would be a short term vision. It should be under-stood that if we cannot find international agreements on climate and on the objectives of sustainable development, then there is a big risk in seeing the revival of protectionist reflexes… which would be even more prejudicial to maritime transport. Financially participating today in a global agreement would cost far less in the long run!
AIVP: what are your views about the recent debates at rio+20?rD: In many respects this last summit was very disappointing. If Europe defended the development of a green economy, the emerging countries are still blocking it, in the fear of constraints weakening their economic growth, itself hard-hit. Regarding the objectives engaging all countries, in Rio we have mainly obtai-ned an agreement on a timetable for 2015 on the objectives of sustainable development with an increased role for civil society. For the port cities, it should be noted that the final declaration contains interesting new elements concerning the protection of the oceans and the management of oceanic resources. However a global convention on the management of ocean resources is still far from being enacted!
the port of Quebec is playing the city-port cardA natural deepwater port, situated on the Saint Laurent, inland in the North American continent and less than 300 km from the first locks giving access to the shipping route leading to the region of the Great Lakes, the Port of Quebec takes full advantage from its geographical position. It represents a real turntable for Canadian foreign trade. The Port of Quebec enables the industrial and agricultural nerve centre of North America to be connected to the rest of the world.
After a record year in 2008, its traffics fell back strongly in 2009 to rebound in 2010. The year 2011 confirmed excellent results for Port of Quebec with an overall traffic of 28.9 Mt (+18%). The first figures for 2012 are promising since at end May the traffic has progressed by 22% over the previous year. The Port of Quebec is also counting on taking advantage from the mining projects which will be undertaken in the context of the North Plan launched by the Government of Québec.
A necessary modernisationThe good state of traffic in 2011 and these perspectives should contribute to encourage the necessary investments to accompany and strengthen this development. On taking up his post in January 2011, Mario Girard, Chairman and Managing Director of the Port, did not besides hide the necessity, but also the diffi-culty, to engage heavy financing on the three main sectors of the port to bring up to stan-dard and modernise the ageing infrastructures and to manage the lack of available spaces. For 2012, investments of Can$53 million have been announced. A satisfaction for Mario Girard since this will be “the largest wave of investments […] since the construction of the Beauport sector in the Sixties”.
Beauport, its 90 hectares of structured land and its 12 to 15 metre draft, is in fact one of the major sectors of the port whether for dry or liquid bulk cargo. The installation of new tanks and of a berth with pipelines for liquid bulk cargo is programmed within ten years. The redevelopment of the area dedicated to dry bulk is also planned. The other big sector for liquid bulk will remain the South-Bank sector where one of the largest refineries of Canada, the property of Ultramar Ltée, is installed.
In the Anse au Foulon sector, the Champlain passenger terminal is currently in the process of being “deconstructed” to leave place for other activities coming to reinforce or com-plete those already present (general cargo, dry bulk).
However in the Estuary / Pointe à Carcy sector, another project is currently raising its share of debates and questionings. This is the possible development of the Bassin Louise.
Bassin louise, a city-port challengeA port and urban space, at the foot of Cha-teau Frontenac, the Pointe à Carcy and the Bassin Louise are in close proximity to the historic district of Old Quebec, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. This urban attractiveness had been one of the decisive elements in the choice of installing there a cruise terminal, the opening of which in 2002 really marked a new step for passenger acti-vity in the port of Quebec.
Now, it is around the Bassin Louise that the questions relative to the access to the water for the citizens have always been crystallised, notably at the time of the construction of the passenger terminal a few hundred metres away. The announcement, last year, of a large real estate programme on Bassin Louise revived the debates. The project is at the moment still under reflection and only the big orientations were announced in 2011:
a four and a half star hotel, offices, shops, and car parks.
The project may not include housing accom-modation because of the presence of the port and the railway. But nothing has been decided on this point yet either. Certain groups of citizens, such as the “Société des gens de baignade” chaired by Leonce Naud, are notably concerned about a possible privatisa-tion of the public spaces which would cut off the population, and the historic district, from its river.
The questions regarding the development of this sector being especially sensitive, Mario Girard has confirmed that he wishes to take time for reflection in order to make this project “a model for good city – port relations”. An ambition, a project and discussions which will be enthralling and which AIVP will follow with attention.
