At first glance, those aspirations sounded crazy. The presence of a 14,000 teu vessel bearing down on your butterfly stroke gives me shivers but this is where ports have an image problem. The public, like some regulators and officials, don\u2019t discern between the incoming ships, the pilots shepherding them, the container terminal or the port authority landlord. The sector needs a marketing makeover.<\/p>\n
Access to waterfronts via viewing platforms, safe cycleways and parks provides a quick win for healthier and greener port environments. Such infrastructure is relatively cheap to build and instantly immerses people in the culture of a port. We heard from the Port of Vancouver who integrated recreational space into the New Brighton Park Shoreline Habitat Restoration Project. The busy waterfront at the Port of Qu\u00e9bec is a sizzling pot of walkers, families, caf\u00e9s and markets. San Antonio Port in Chile is planning boardwalks and connectivity as part of its growth, while Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina has been doing this for years, reuniting city and port by regenerating a derelict corridor. These flagship schemes from the Americas rely on strong leadership, clear vision, drive and ambition.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s encouraging to see port chief executives and city mayors collaborating, the interests and opinions of ocean carriers, the retailers shipping goods, operators and logistics companies are rarely represented at such gatherings. They\u2019re busy handling passengers and shifting boxes, but supply chain players have to come together to break silo-thinking.<\/p>\n
The gauntlet thrown down to all major UK ports to prepare an Air Quality Strategy could force ports to be a broker for collaboration. After all, these plans must propose a reduction in emissions across the estate, including ship and shore activities. However, there\u2019s a fine line between reporting the baseline pollution of logistics companies whose trucks are the lifeblood of the terminals against the strategic advantage of coastal shipping, which can take thousands of heavy goods vehicles off the roads.<\/p>\n
Few ports are prepared for the higher expectations of the next generation. Some are already communicating with schools, colleges and academic institutions. Informative Port Centres, vocational courses for future maritime careers, and innovative investment by the likes of Oslo and Halifax (Canada) in business space for start-ups in ocean research are great examples of engagement.<\/p>\n
By providing opportunities for the public and new businesses to access port areas and witness maritime activities at first-hand, people can feel engaged and connected to this often-misunderstood industry. Access is not only beneficial for the economy, mobility, amenity and even mental health of residents, workers and tourists, but can evoke a unique feelgood factor. That\u2019s something we all want to experience in port-cities.<\/p>\n
Charles Haine is technical director for maritime at WSP.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COMMENT: At the AIVP Global Port-City Conference in Qu\u00e9bec in June, video interviews with locals and schoolchildren about their perceptions of ports revealed that they knew little of what goes on in them. Many sought better access, some wanted to go swimming in the port, while forward-thinkers spoke of future employment and clean vessels, writes Charles Haine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-environmentalist"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}