Building resilient urban ports and harbours through globally integrated research and management world harbour project Background Initiated by the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS), the goal of the World Harbour Project (WHP) is to develop resilient urban ports and harbours through a global network of collaborating scientists. The Project brings together international research institutions and agencies concerned with the health of these heavily urbanised waterways and the increasing challenges they face. Like Sydney, many of the world’s great cities such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai are located on the coast, with working harbours that are part of the fundamental fabric of those communities. The relationship between the city’s residents and the marine environment is an ongoing challenge. The WHP aims to tackle issues surrounding the multiple uses of harbours and ports through targeted workshops, exchange programs of students and researchers and specific collaborative projects on a global scale. The vision is to facilitate and link programs across major international harbours, with a focus on investigating and restoring ecosystem functioning and the consequent development of management best-practices that can be applied by all partner cities. World Harbour Project Supporters Partner Cities Abu Dhabi Auckland Bremerhaven Chesapeake Bay Crete Galway Hong Kong Jakarta New York Plymouth Qingdao Ravenna Rio de Janeiro San Francisco Shanghai Singapore St George’s Sydney Tel Aviv Vigo Investigations of the socio-economic aspects of harbour development, environmental degradation and ecosystem restoration will form an important component of the WHP. As will educational outreach and dialogue and collaboration with industry and governments. No previous program has linked research and management across urban marine environments on a global scale. To date the project has received commitments from 20 partner cities, with more in discussion to join.
Transcript
Building resilient urban ports and harbours through globally integrated research and management
world harbour project
Background
Initiated by the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS), the goal of the World Harbour Project (WHP) is to develop resilient urban ports and harbours through a global network of collaborating scientists. The Project brings together international research institutions and agencies concerned with the health of these heavily urbanised waterways and the increasing challenges they face.
Like Sydney, many of the world’s great cities such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai are located on the coast, with working harbours that are part of the fundamental fabric of those communities. The relationship between the city’s residents and the marine environment is an ongoing challenge.
The WHP aims to tackle issues surrounding the multiple uses of harbours and ports through targeted workshops, exchange programs of students and researchers and specific collaborative projects on a global scale. The vision is to facilitate and link programs across major international harbours, with a focus on investigating and restoring ecosystem functioning and the consequent development of management best-practices that can be applied by all partner cities.
World Harbour Project Supporters
Partner Cities
Abu Dhabi Auckland Bremerhaven Chesapeake Bay Crete Galway Hong Kong Jakarta New York Plymouth Qingdao Ravenna Rio de Janeiro
San Francisco Shanghai Singapore St George’s Sydney Tel Aviv Vigo
Investigations of the socio-economic aspects of harbour development, environmental degradation and ecosystem restoration will form an important component of the WHP. As will educational outreach and dialogue and collaboration with industry and governments.
No previous program has linked research and management across urban marine environments on a global scale. To date the project has received commitments from 20 partner cities, with more in discussion to join.
Workshop
At the inaugural partner workshop (Sydney, November 2014) partner cities each presented the status, challenges, and research underway in their harbours. Partners discussed the vision, aims and expected outcomes of the WHP. Project leader, Peter Steinberg, led a discussion about the governance structure and funding of the WHP and appointments to governance posts were made. The group also discussed the potential for future partners.
Project Working Groups
To achieve the core aim of the WHP – to build resilient urban ports and harbours through globally integrated research and management – four project working groups were created based on the following criteria:
• be of global importance and communal interest
• affect change
• be multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary
• be achievable in the short term
• have commitment and capacity from partners
• attract sufficient funding
WG1 – Water and Sediment Quality
1. WG1 will begin by reviewing water and sediment quality management strategies within partner harbours to gauge which strategies have been most successful.
2. Experimental research will begin with cross-city microbial community assessments followed by the interpretation of environmental drivers.
3. The long-term aim of WG1 is to work with the other WGs to restore water and sediment quality, and to identify and quantify environmental tipping points in individual harbours, for the provision of data and future scenarios to managers and industry.
World Harbours – a Review
An additional project will use the knowledge and experience of WHP partners to review the values, threats and socio-economic characteristics of their harbours and ports. These short reviews will be published in a special issue of Elsevier’s open access journal Regional Studies in Marine Science in early to mid 2016. The publication will enable the global community to understand the global synergies in threats and opportunities encountered by a representative sample of world harbours and ports.
3. One of the longer-term goals of the group is to build durable links between human and biophysical sciences and provide actionable knowledge for harbour researchers, managers and communities.
WG4 – Education
1. As a starting point, WG4 will elect an Education Representative from each partner country to gather information on all the courses offered in English that would be relevant to the topics involved in the WHP and then identify gaps that might be filled by the WHP team.
2. The aim is to draft an Education Plan by mid to late 2015 to be implemented in 2016. The primary goal will be to institute broadly taught undergraduate and graduate courses and build on the New York Harbor School’s successful secondary education initiatives.
3. WG4 will also develop an outreach programme to include public education and dissemination of local information about harbours.
WG2 – Green Engineering
1. The production of habitat maps including artificial and natural structures.
2. Experiments to ascertain suitable and successful substrates and species for green engineering restoration of harbours and ports. Partners will forge links with engineers and engineering projects to test materials and designs.
3. The long-term vision of WG2 is to work towards integrating harbours within ecologically sustainable marine spatial planning processes.
WG3 – Multiple Uses and Users
1. Initially WG3 will conduct a short review of how conflicts are managed in the World’s Harbours; sharing what has been learnt.
2. The group aims to build a series of case studies for managers of conflict resolution strategies. They will use the information gathered in the initial exercise and the skills of social scientists to map conflicts and resolutions in the world’s harbours.
Building resilient urban ports and harbours through globally integrated research and management
world harbour project
Further informationTo learn more please visit http://sims.org.au/research/long-term-projects/world-harbour-project/
or contact: Dr Joanne Banks, Project Coordinator, WHP, SIMS Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Building 19, Chowder Bay Road Mosman NSW 2088 Australia T: +61 2 9435 4600 E: [email protected]
Project Launch
A highly successful launch was held at the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, in Sydney in November. Professor Peter Steinberg, WHP Director, gave the main address followed by short talks by two representatives from our international partners – Professor He of Shanghai and Dr Coutinho of Brazil. The WHP was officially launched by The Hon. Robert Stokes, MP, Minister for the Environment, NSW. A number of VIPs were in attendance, including the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer and the CEOs of the Australian Museum and the Office of Environment & Heritage, NSW Government.
Above right: Professor He of Shanghai.
Right: Professor Peter Steinberg and The Hon. Robert Stokes MP, Minister for the Environment, NSW.
WHP Governance Structure
The initial governance structure of the WHP was established at the workshop. Professor Peter Steinberg was elected Director and the WHP Council includes all of the partner city representatives. Dr Joanne Banks is the Project Coordinator.
