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Contemporary development of each city - including the harbour city - has to be based on the specific strategy, developed in various planning documents. Within these two major levels may be presented:
master planning (structure planning, strategic planning) - being prepared for the areas of entire cities, and including most of the aspects of city physical and economic development. Some of them so-called structure plans - have typically spatial character, and mostly deal with urban development issues of the city.
local planning (urban development plans, local strategies for development) which serve as the regulatory and policy documents for the development and redevelopment of urbanized structures.
Within different types and levels of planning various issues are involved, which include
- among others -physical features of the space. This element seems to play a key role in the entire process of urban planning, which is oriented on shaping the spatial structure of the city. But also other elements have to be taken under consideration: economic development (without which any physical development can not take place), social issues (such as population, employment, social infrastructure, services etc.) and last but not least -preservation of the environment and its elements both natural and cultural heritage.
Of course, different principles may be involved while planning for the development of the city. Currently the paradigm of the
sustainability is commonly used, which mean employing the specific approach to urban development. Among many elements, it is necessary to point out at least four of them:
- consolidating the new development within the current borders of the urban structures, which include reuse of derelict land and quitting the greenfield development;
- introducing the mixed uses within central districts of the cities, which help avoiding domination of the space by purely commercial activities;
- preservation and restoration of the heritage, which helps in regaining the specific cultural and environmental identity of the city;
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- reshaping the transportation patterns, which also involves limitations in usage of the private cars;
In the case of harbour cities these principles have to be confronted by the specific issues, present in the context of maritime - oriented urban structures. The major problem is related with economic transformations of the harbour cities that took place over last decades. These changes were associated with developing the modern tertiary ports and successive decline of smaller shipping centres. In result many of the formerly vibrant harbour cities nearly completely lost their importance as the nodes of maritime transportation and industries.
As a result of the above the need for redeveloping the post-industrial and post-harbour areas (usually located in the waterfront zones) arose, which in some cases could not be properly satisfied by the cities themselves. On the other hand, waterfront locations appear to be of the primary interest for developers and other parties involved in the process of urban development.
Also, harbour cities are often associated with interesting cultural landscapes and heritage, which include picturesque old ports, museum ships or other maritime themes. In case of the Baltic cities, many elements of the common tradition of former strong economic cooperation are also represented in their heritage and tradition.
So how to plan for the successive development of the harbour cities? How urban planning can contribute to this process? The first thing is not to forget about the basic element of the harbour city
- its port and related industries. In many cases they still constitute one of the major elements of their economy. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their needs, and
- confronted by the economic trends design for providing necessary land and infrastructure for this sector.
When remembering about the maritime economy, it seems also necessary to plan for development of other sectors
- which should include tourism based on the maritime and cultural heritage and activities. This type of activity may bring the new economic impulses
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for the cities that lost their previous economic importance.
At the same time it is necessary to keep the city in touch with its water body which means proper development of its waterfront, which include the derelict lands. That means planning for reuse of the post - harbour and post - industrial areas in order to transform them into other functions. That may include such the elements as:
- commercial (city centre) activities;
- recreational infrastructure for the citizens and tourists;
- tourist infrastructure -which include hotels, cafes, marinas and others.
Development of the tourism as the new economic basis for many harbour cities demands giving the priority in planning processes for such the elements as:
- preservation of the heritage, which include the cultural landscape of the city;
- developing the tourist - oriented spaces;
- preservation and - in many cases creation of the specific architectural character of the city, which helps in recreating the unique cultural identity of the space.
Urban planning has a key role in shaping landscape and economy of the cities, which - in case of the harbour towns - means also providing regulations for developing specific uses and preserving their unique maritime character. This last point relates not only to the waterfront or city centre areas -the maritime character of the city should be detectable in each of its parts. That means the necessity for providing specific architectural guidelines, rethinking the entire urban structure and preserving the specific, maritime -oriented uses.
By Piotr Lorens
Technical University of Gdansk
e-mail: plorens@pg.gda.pl
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