Port of Gijon wins first ESPO award

The Port of Gijón won the Award with the project Gijón Port and City Together. It was selected because of the its long-standing strategy in managing the societal integration of its port, because the many different initiatives involved in this strategy matched all the categories and criteria set out for the Award and because these initiatives form a true catalogue of inspiration for many other port authorities. The Ports of Ghent and Genoa received special mentions.

“We were very much impressed by the 30 applications that were received for the first edition of the ESPO Award,” said Jury Chairman John B Richardson, “They represent an enormous diversity, but above all a clear determination of the port authorities concerned in making the added value of their port visible to their local communities.”

The shortlisted ports for the Award were Algeciras, Genoa, Ghent, Gijón, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Turku. Apart from selecting Gijón as winner, the Jury also decided on two special mentions:

The Port of Genoa and its innovative project Genoa Port Centre, an interactive port information centre which will open this week and which the Jury believes to be an example for many other ports. The Port of Ghent and its successful project Ghent Canal Zone, which the Jury found to be a best practice case of stakeholder management.

A description of the winning project and the special mentions are detailed below. Details of all project applications will soon be added to the ESPO website (www.espo.be).

The ESPO Award on Societal Integration aims to promote innovative projects of European port authorities that improve societal integration of ports, especially with the city or wider community in which they are located. In this way, the Award wants to stimulate the sustainable development of European ports and their communities.

The call for proposals for the 2010 edition of the Award will open on 4 January and will run until 4 June 2010

Q. Why has your port participated in the first ESPO Award?

Port-city and port-region relationships are central in the Port of Gijón’s strategic plan 2002-2020. Due to the spatial integration (embedding) of the port inside the city of Gijón, we need to establish a permanent dialogue and cooperation with the city and the region, in order to assure a positive connection with both local authorities. It is part of our corporate social responsibility model and long-term sustainability approach that we need a proper planning of port operations and activities.

Q. Please describe your project in a few words.

“Gijón Port & City Together“ (GPC-together) is an integrated project focusing on port-city relationships and consists of 76 small, medium and large actions developed along 25 years, from 1985 until 2010, and beyond. These cover the three fields targeted by the ESPO Award:

a) improving sustainable development synergies between ports and cities

b) improving quality and accessibility of port areas

c) promoting the image of the port as a place to experience, live and work

Besides the examples given in the Terms of Reference, we are adding new ones, enlarging the scope of our work. We have included a 2nd classification criterion to the actions developed by the Port Authority of Gijón, with a spatial location. The 4th criterion is used to identify those actions different to the three previous:

a) P – Port

b) C – City

c) R – Region

d) E – Extra: 1st external actions, developed in Spain or Europe

2nd special actions: books publishing, associations, INTERREG project

Q. At which stage of the implementation is the project? What are the results achieved as of now?

The project “GPC-together” is presented as a living element in continuous evolution. It started in 1985. Through an urban and social development with the collaboration and implication of agents and institutions, it has lasted till today, with plans for 2010 and beyond.

The basis for a new planning is being defined, which will form a new boost to next years’ development. The reference period in which the project is described covers 25 years, a period of time in which changes and adaptations in the port and the city of Gijón have been and will still be materialised.

For years, the Port of Gijón lived apart from the social life, the culture and the city or regional development. City and port were evolving separately. There was a lack of knowledge on the port’s industrial activities and its importance for economy and employment as well as local and regional growth.

The main objective was the promotion of the port as a place to experience, live and work. 56 of the 76 actions of “GPC-together” were based on it, specifically on the themes of “cultural partnership” and “port heritage and other cultural values”. Cultural partners focused on how to solve the collaboration problem between the port authority and other institutions, both public and private. Heritage and cultural values have been employed to solve the problem of how to communicate port activities to society.

Q. What other initiatives do you plan to take in the near future to increase the societal integration of your port?

There are two main working lines for the near future. The first one is the LABORAL Art Center and Industrial Design, a large complex of buildings, placed in the outskirts of the city of Gijón. The port contributed with 1.5 million Euro distributed between 2006 and 2010. This complex is a centre for exhibition and development of modern digital art. The main objective is to merge art, science and technology. The second project is the support of the PERIODIC Actions that have showed a good social acceptance, especially those related to cultural partnerships and port heritage.

Q. Why has your port participated to the first ESPO Award?
The ESPO Award is a further opportunity to communicate one of our initiatives to establish a win-win relationship between the port and the city of Genoa and between the port cluster and the local urban community. Moreover, the participation to this first ESPO Award can be a profitable experience of exchange and comparison with other European ports about the theme of the societal integration of ports.

Q. Please describe your project in a few words.

The Genoa Port Center is a service-oriented initiative meant for a large audience to make them know and visit the port (permanent exhibit, visits (land and sea) to the port, publications, website, network with other European Port Centers). The Port Center will also play the role of an educational service addressed to students, teachers and parents (projects, guided tours, didactic technologies, data and in depth studies, labs and educational material). It finally offers a service for businesses and companies (stands, meetings, visits, company profile, merchandise) and is, at the same time, a place to promote the Genoa port image and to present future developments of port structures and activities to clients and partners.

The overall goal of the Genoa Port Center is the improvement of the physical and psychological accessibility of the port, breaking down the “social distancing” between the port and the city. It aims at creating a widespread consensus in the local community. It also aims to promote the image of the port as a place to experience, live and work. This should among others reach the present and potential stakeholders of the port, through this innovative instrument. Finally it also aims at orientating young people to professions within the port maritime cluster.

Q. At which stage of the implementation is the project? What are the results achieved as of now?

The centre will be operational from 1 November 2009, and entirely furnished thanks to a co-financing of the Province of Genoa and the Liguria Region with the support of partners. The intervention has been conceived and planned in July 2008, with the creation of a coordinating group, constituted by delegates of the promoters: Genoa Port Authority, Province of Genoa, University of Genoa, Military Maritime Authority, Porto Antico S.p.A. In February 2009, the goals and concept of the project (main goals, localisation, targets, timing, reference experiences, etc.) have been presented and discussed in a plenary meeting with the working group.

A consultation process with the members of the working group has been activated at the beginning of February 2009 (almost 50 meetings took place) to check in detail the expository contents, to verify the already existing material, and the material and immaterial resources of each single subject. In April a detailed version of the project’s contents, of the expository modes and of the collateral activities (visits of the port, labs, conferences, school trips) have been presented.

The future of the initiative will be based on an integration of returns and financial support from the Genoa Port Center promoters.

The conceiving and planning phase, involving approximately 40 organisations linked to the port-maritime world, has allowed to:

– activate an operational network based on a shared project with clear, well-established goals, where all the subjects share the driving principles and have a defined operational role, contributing at least partially to the construction of the Genoese port community’s identity ;

– mobilise the port related know-how that has been characterised by its extreme fragmentation and weak visibility;

– attribute sense and visibility to the idea of “port of knowledge” intended as the communion of institutions, companies, universities and associations that represent the reproductive, evolutionary and innovative factors of the port.

In the beginning of May 2009, the photographic campaign “Shared Spaces” has been realised with the intention to represent the coexistence between the commercial (and industrial) port and the city, meaning both the citizens and physical space. It is therefore a multi dimensional interpretation that puts under discussion the deep-rooted belief of the opposition or mutual exclusion of these two realities.

The first dimension, called “Citizens in the port”, refers to the continuous (in time) and widespread (in place) presence of recreational activities in the port. The other significant dimension, called Port in the City”, refers to the unavoidable presence of the port in our perception of the city. The book collecting the photographs linked to the “Shared Spaces” campaign has been presented and discussed in May 2009 during an international meeting organised in the general framework of the IAPH World Port Conference held in Genoa.

Q. What other initiatives do you plan to take in the near future to increase the societal integration of your port?

At international level, the idea of a European Port Centers Network has been proposed to our referents in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Le Havre. The proposal, discussed during three different meetings and strongly agreed by the partners, will be managed through a first meeting in October/November 2009, involving the partners and aiming at defining an operational plan.

Genoa Port Authority has planned other important actions in the near future in the field of social integration. Among others, the Port Authority will continue its collaboration with the city government (municipality) of Genoa concerning the new layout and the requalification of the Genoese waterfront. Secondly, Genoa Port Authority is widening the number of days and initiatives of the “Port Day”, offering our citizens new and wider opportunities and ways to know better our port cluster and the social and economic benefits of port activities. Moreover, the Genoa Port Authority will, for the first time, inform all the port stakeholders also through a system of social and environmental accounting. Terminal operators not having this type of accounting, will be encouraged by the Port Authority to produce annual corporate social responsibility reports.

Q. Why has your port participated to the first ESPO Award?

The Project Ghent Canal Zone has its origins in the ROM project “Ghent Canal Zone” (ROM: town and country planning and the environment) that was started already in 1993. The area-oriented and integrated approach of the town and country planning and environmental fields of policy was quite innovating in those days. The project evolved in a way allowing other policies such as mobility and economic policies to be integrated. Along with the development of a strategic plan for the area –which was the initial aim of the ROM project– the project expanded to a real network in which a wide range of actions are taken that really contribute to the sustainable development of the area in a very broad way and that hence enlarges the social basis for port activities. As this project has for many years been a very good example of working towards a stronger integration of the port with its surrounding communes, the ESPO Award is a good opportunity to bring the Project Ghent Canal Zone to European attention.

Q. Please describe your project in a few words.

The Ghent Canal Zone is an area of great economic importance, both for the region and for Flanders as a whole. As a result of historical developments, industrial activities, port activities and habitations are located at very short distances from one another. It is necessary to pursue a policy in which the town and country planning and the environmental, mobility, social and economic policies in this area are geared to one another. This policy enables indeed to respect different aspects, such as economics, living, landscape and nature (in and around the port function) and the equal strengthening of them in the future, This policy is realised within the framework of the Project Ghent Canal Zone. Public and private parties concerned on a voluntary basis cooperate on the one hand on strategy building and on the other on concrete projects that have to contribute to the further sustainable development of the area.

This strong integration of the port with its surrounding communes aims at enlarging the social basis for the port activities. The ultimate goal is to continue realising the intended economic development of the Port of Ghent in an easy way, which has been going rather smoothly until now.

Q. At which stage of the implementation is the project? What are the results achieved as of now?

The project is in the execution phase. Every year, the actions to be carried out are listed in the annual programme and afterwards in the annual report. An overview of the state of affairs concerning the execution of actions from the annual programme is made.

Thanks to the strategic plan, a clear vision is supported by all partners on the desired future situation.

Furthermore, the area-oriented and informal approach contributed to the organic growth of the project structure. Within the Network Ghent Canal Zone, a rapport as to contents and procedures takes place in an informal way. Thanks to the informal character and short communication lines, bottlenecks and conflicts are quickly detected and handled. Within the project, adequate cooperation and consultation structures are worked out.

Within the framework of the Project Ghent Canal Zone, concrete initiatives are taken and implementing projects are realised that improve the ties between port and residents and consequently enlarge the social basis for the port activities. The large involvement of the residents via the Network Ghent Canal Zone in the policy and implementation of concrete projects in the area means the organic growth of the project structure –administrative network of public and private actors- and also led to the professionalization of one of the residents’ groups

The result of the policy that is realised from within the Network Ghent Canal Zone is undoubtedly better than what the individual partners in the area could achieve. The Network Ghent Canal Zone has a large impact on the policy and activities in the target area.

Q. What other initiatives do you plan to take in the near future to increase the societal integration of your port?

Ghent Port Company also keeps on giving its full cooperation to the Project Ghent Canal Zone. This means that in our capacity of area manager of the seaport area, we continue to take up our prominent place in the execution of the Project Ghent Canal Zone.

The port further wishes to pay special attention to a good cooperation with higher and local authorities, other port authorities and all other stakeholders on the port scene in order to further design port development in harmony with them.

Our ultimate goal is that we can continue to give answers to the complex social challenges the port is confronted with, so that the intended economic development of Ghent port can further be realized in an easy