Circular City Ports - Workbook

02 Investigating city ports Public debates
14
Delta Working Conference, 4-7 July 2018
‘Circular Ports in the Delta’
The hypothesis that ports will play a crucial role in the
transition towards more circularity, positions itself
in a longer discourse on ports. Both in the publication
of ‘Lage Landen 2020-2100’ (Low Lands 2020-
2100) as well in the context of the IABR-2018+2020-
THE MISSING LINK and its Brussels’ counterpart
‘You Are Here 2018’, the topic of ports in transition
was picked up. At the Delta Working Conference of
4 to 7 July 2018, a session was dedicated to this topic.
During this conference, four trajectories for further
research were set out according to four scales:
A
B
C
D
the company: the smallest link in making global
chains circular. Many circular initiatives are initiated
on this micro-level. They could act alone
inside the industrial port, city port, city or hinterland,
or they could interact inside an existing
network. Sometimes they position themselves
to fill the missing link inside a chain of flows.
the city port: the interface of city-port as a new
area development model. This port-city interface
is of great importance for both urban and
maritime economy and their circular transition.
Nowadays, it is a place under pressure of waterfront
housing development, taking over old
economical sites and/or pushing out productive
activities outside the city. However, this
trend should reverse, since the city port location
is of strategic importance.
the port region: the industrial port and its connection
to the inland waterways. The use of the
inland waterways and their connection to the
industrial port is an asset that has not yet been
fully exploited. Focusing on the regional distribution
chains
the delta: the whole region of the delta of
the North Sea and the Low Lands of the
Netherlands and Flanders. The interaction and
interchange between the different ports and
the economic production sites in the hinterland
could be investigated on a larger scale.
A Circular Mainframe could be set up, where
different flows could be exchanged at a larger
scale and to a wider network.