Air-/Seaport Cities: On Metropolitan Territory of Hub Cities

Pansinger, Sanela and Ažman Momirski, Lucija (2022) Air-/Seaport Cities: On Metropolitan Territory of Hub Cities. Mobility, Knowledge and Innovation Hubs in Urban and Regional Development. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2022, 27th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 51-60. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Increasing urbanization is transforming cities and regions into metropolitan areas facing current environmental, energy, economic, and social challenges. Some of these metropolitan regions include important infrastructure, transport, and spatial corridors. A new and complex type of spatial organization is emerging there, primarily based on logistical, economic, and political decisions. This phenomenon mainly affects cities and regions with seaports and airports as “brainports” (transport and mobility centers, supply structures, such as logistical centers for the transport and distribution of goods, trade centers, industry, commerce, etc.). The functionalisation of spaces in such territories leads to a recognisable spatial pattern with certain characteristics that clearly differ from other spatial structures and causes a hierarchisation of spatial organisation. These ever-growing structures, which are geared toward function and profitability, consume a lot of space and land, which is considered one of the most important resources when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint and enabling sustainable spatial development. Therefore, there is a special, forward-looking motivation to transform this spatial complexity with many potentials and resources into a sustainable, integrated spatial development for the city, the region and the neighboring communities. This is because these structures are an ideal opportunity to combine thematic principles such as building and spatial planning, climate and energy supply, quality of life, mobility, noise reduction, economic balance with spatial quality, etc. HubCities as a method and strategy show how such structures can become a transparent, networked and resilient place that also focuses on the human scale. HubCities is a relatively young topic in spatial and urban development, which only developed at the end of the twentieth century (e.g., through the low-cost airline boom since the liberalization of air transport in 1997 and globalized containerization) as a result of complex processes. There is a lack of temporal distance and the associated historical analysis to comprehensively explain, present and strategically use these processes. The aim of this paper is to use the term Hub Cities to illustrate the significance, impact, approach and potential of airport and seaport locations and their surroundings for spatial development. The questions raised are illustrated using the example of the airport area and logistics center of Graz (Austria, which is part of the NUTS 3 metropolitan region), the seaport of Koper with visionary ideas of a networked passenger airport (Slovenia), and the port city and regional passenger airport city of Trieste (Italy, which is not part of the NUTS 3 metropolitan region, presumably because the broader area is located in two different countries). HubCities is thus a long-term strategy for airport and seaport locations and their surrounding areas that identifies the problems and potentials of today's urban development and provides a historical account of the phenomenon (e.g., a shift of important urban functions to the surrounding area). HubCities is a transferable mindset that prevents further urban sprawl, protects landscapes, green and open spaces, and promotes an appropriate mix of uses in sensible locations. It is a program that develops and combines smart systems, solutions, and methods that can be transferred to other airport and seaport regions. Hub cities lead to the loss of familiar forms, but at the same time new spaces, structures and actors emerge. They all require spatial embedding in order to sustainably achieve the desired qualities of a location that is close to its citizens and typical of the region. HubCities can become the cities of the tolerant society of the future and an impetus for resilient spatial development, in which spatial quality is an added value and a resource and, above all, a prerequisite for the sustainable development of the airport (city) and seaport (city) location, the community, the city and the region.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Metropolitan Territory, HubCities, Seaport City, Airport City, Urban Development
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
Depositing User:	The CORP Team
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2022 18:44
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2022 14:08
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/910

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