- Email: [email protected]
International Association of Cities and Ports, 4th international conference, Montreal, Canada, 10–13 October 1993
Conference attracting cmployces to cycling before penalties are applied to remaining car users. Of course the whole point of international conferences such as Velo City is to learn from experience elsewhere. The Dutch Bicycle Master Plan leads where many countries could follow, with the Dutch themselves stressing that the plan could be applied elsewhere provided that technical obstacles are not used as excuses for not taking the political decisions straight away. In the words of Mustafa Tolba, former Director General of the UN Environment Programme, we need ‘specific commitments to take specific actions over specified periods of time with the costs calculated, the sources of funding identified and a clear indication of who will be doing what. Nothing else will suffice.’ If this is a challenge for Western European governments, imagine the obstacles for countries of former Eastern Europe, an area with low bicycle use, severe air pollution widespread suppressed problems, demand for car ownership and active penetration by western car-makers. That no delegates from this region attended Velo City indicates the size of the educational job that remains to be done.
International Conference,
Association of Montreal, Canada,
That job will continue in September 1994 at the ‘Pro-Bike’ confercncc at Portland, Oregon, a city which, the conference was told, has the best bicycle network in the USA: it’s just that it’s still full of cars! Exemplary transport integration will be seen in Vclo City Base1 in September 1995, though in some senses it has happened too literally, with the Swiss adopting the mountain bike not for USC in the mountains but to make sure that they don’t get their wheels stuck in the tram tracks. Such is the explosive growth in interest in the bicycle as the ideal vehicle for a fragile planet that by then there will doubtless be many more cities where the integration of cycling and public transport is a key issue on the agenda. Rodney Tolley Division of Grogruphy School of Sciences Staffordshire University Staffordshire, UK
Reference CTC (I 903) Costing the Benefits: the Vulue of Cycling, Godalming. Surrey. UK: Earth Resources Rcsearch for the Cyclists Touring Club
Cities and Ports, IO-13 October I993
The International Association of Cities and Ports (IACP), known in France as the Association Villes et Ports (AIVP), is a non-profit-making organization with a varied and complementary membership comprising port authoritics, regional and local authorities, Chambers of Commerce, other organizations and companies, and individual academics, planners and researchers. Its main functions are twofold: to develop and encourage contacts and exchanges between all those interested in port/city interrelationships; and to gather, analyse and distribute information in this field. The IACP is supported in its work by a number of organizations including the French national planning organization DATAR.
4th
International
The headquarters of the IACP are located in Le Havre, France. The organization is the brainchild of its President, Antoine Rufenacht. a deputy for the Departement of SeineMaritime and a former minister in the French Government, who is also Prcsident of the Regional Council of Haute Normandie. Both M Rufenacht and members of his staff followed courses in geography at Lc Havre or Rouen; their objective is to bring cities and ports closer together in administrative and practical terms, both in a planning context and in terms of the wider understanding of the processes involved in cityport change. In this sphere, the IACP has already achieved considerable success, and its work is
rep’ports
increasingly recognized in official circles and also in the more academic spheres of urban and transport geography. The IACP started life as a link between official organizations - chambers of commerce, port authorities, urban councils - who perceived some mutual benefit in collaboration and cooperation. Although the IACP is based in France, the idea is to extend the membership of the organization as widely as possible on an international front. An inaugural international confercnce was held in Le Havre in 1988 and others followed in Barcelona, Spain (1989) and Genoa, Italy (1991) (Casclli and Lemaire, 1993). Conscious of the need to develop the academic study of port cities and to promote research, the IACP established a Scientific Committee in 1990 (chaired by Michkle Collin of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) specifically to advance the knowledge of port-city interaction and to promote seminars and international meetings (Baudouin and Collin. 1992; Cantal Dupart and Chaline, 1993). The 20 members of this Committee are drawn from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds in France and a number of other European countries including the UK. The 1993 Montreal conference was the fourth international IACP meeting and the first held outside Europe. Jointly organized by the IACP and the QuCbec Government’s St Lawrence Development Secretariat, its location in Montreal reflected the close links between France and QuCbec Province and the rccognizcd importance throughout Canada of the study of port-city interrelationships. These ideas both have deep roots, as was underlined for numerous delegates who took the opportunity to visit Montreal’s new superb MusCe d’ArchCologic dc d’Histoirc de Montr&al, dcvelopcd at the Pointe-%Call&e on the site of the earliest European settlement in the locality. The theme of the confercncc was ‘City and port: partners for the environment’. Held under the cochairmanship of Antoine Rufenacht and Hugues Morrissette (Director General of the St Lawrence Development Secretariat. and a geographer) 71
Conference
reports
in the attractive context of the Radisson Hotel in central Montreal, the conference attracted over 300 participants from 25 countries, over 40% of participants coming from France and a further 30% from Canada itself. Among other countries represented. Spain and the USA each provided over 10 delcgatcs; about 20 other countries (including the UK) each sent between one and five participants. The IACP remains very much a French phenomenon. Efforts are being made to widen international involvement, but within the Englishspeaking world these still have a long way to go. The programme included three plenary sessions and three more specialized workshops, together involving over 40 papers and presentations; a morning excursion to Montreal’s rapidly changing urban waterfront; a number of cnjoyablc receptions, lunches and dinners; a variety of informative cxhibitions; and a post-conference twoday study tour to Qu@bcc city. The plenary sessions dealt respectively with the port city, port economics and port politics in relation to the environment. Workshops focused on ‘urban planning and quality of lift at the port/city interface’, ‘port cities and risk managcment’, and ‘waterways and coastal shipping: a transport alternative’. All these sessions and workshops inevitably raised a variety of issues, far more than were or could have been adequately addressed in the circumstances of such a wide-ranging confercnce. The third plenary session, for example, seemed designed to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas linking port policies with cnvironmental issues - potentially a very fruitful field bccausc specific policies pursued by port authorities clearly affect and reflect wider urban, regional and maritime environments. The rclationships between what ports actually do and the cnvironmcntal contexts of their activities is obviously a matter of widespread concern. Although highly varied in approach and content ~ some too general, some too technical, some too publicity-seeking, but many highly informativcandwellprescnted-papers in this and other sessions succeeded in emphasizing some essential principles. Some of these principles arc embodied 72
in a Churter
of
Ports,
Cities
and the
Environment.
One fashionable but significant idea that many speakers used is that of sustainable development, equally valid in relation to a specific regional port (such as Santander. Spain), to the promotion of Marseilles as a kind of Mediterranean Europole, or to the environmental quality of the St Lawrcncc estuary and transport axis. Another principle that surfaced repeatedly is that of the competitive environment within which all ports operate; in their efforts to promote commercial success. conports induce environmental scqucnccs which may sometimes be unfortunate. The idea of complcmentarity within regional port systems. related to the concept of using smaller ports as tools of regional development. rcccived some attention. A third principlc. often implied rather than overtly stated, concerns the importance OJ scale and of considering port/city/ environment problems on a series of interrelated scales. Few spcakcrs did this individually, but taken togcthcr their contributions effectively demonstrated relationships at a variety of scales ~ local, regional, cstuarial, intcrnational. In all cases there is usually a primary scale of analysis, but the rclevancc of other scales needs consideration as a complcmcntary means of illuminating an argument. Many speakers demonstrated, directly or indirectly, an increasing sensitivity in the search for appropriate development policies. We heard much about public consultation and about sophistication now the scientific brought to bear on such matters as water and air quality. Relatively little was said, however, about the fact that the environment which ultimately affects port growth and port/city the physical development is not context of water, air and land; but rather the economic environment of inter-port competition, fuelled by the global maritime transport system and The evolving technology. its behaviour of decision makers in this competitive international economic cnvironmcnt is critical for the future of ports and port cities and for their impact upon the physical environment of which they are a part and which they share. In this context, it is
bchavioural geography and transport geography, rather than physical geography, that largely underpin and explain many of the phenomena discussed at this confercncc. Confercncc participants rcprcscntcd a wide variety of backgrounds and expcrtisc, and cvcryonc present was an expert in some relevant field. As an academic cxcrcisc - which it was not the confercncc was too loosely structurcd. As a commercial promotion which in a sense it was - it doubtless brought numerous benefits. Above all,
as a means
of
bringing
togcthcr
people from assorted contexts and providing opportunities for networking, the conference was a stimulating experience and an undoubted success. That is ultimately what conferences arc for, and the IACP is to bc congratulated on its initiative in taking the confercncc to North America. and on enhancing many participants’ lcvcls of awareness of port/city and cityporti environment intcrdcpcndcncc. But the full potential of meaningful intcrdisciplinary intcrchangc could have been more fully exploited. The proceedings of the Montreal conference will bc published. it is cxpectcd, during 1904. It is planned to hold the 5th International Confcrcncc of the IACP in Dakar. SCnCgal, in 10%. Further information on the IACP and its publications is available from Monsieur Olivier Lemairc, DCldguC GCnCral, Association Villes et Ports, 45 Rue Lord Kitchcncr. 76600 Ix Havre. France. Brian Hoyle University
of Southumpton,
UK
References Baudouin, T. and Collin.
M. (eds) (lYY2) Le parrimoine portuaire: le port fl Iu ville. La Havre: Association Intcmationalc Villes et Ports Cantal Dupart, M. and Chalinc. C. (eds) f lYY3) Le port cadre de ville, SCminairc & I’Assodiation Villes ct Ports, Paris, Editions Harmattan Caselli, M. and Lemairc, 0. (cds) 3rd International (Iimference. (‘ities und Ports, Genocc 19-22 November IYYI, Proceedings. Association Internationale Villes ct Ports, and Consorzio Autonomo dcl Porto di Genow
Journal of Trtrnsporr (;rogruphy
I994 Volume 2 Number I
International Conference,
Association of Montreal, Canada,
That job will continue in September 1994 at the ‘Pro-Bike’ confercncc at Portland, Oregon, a city which, the conference was told, has the best bicycle network in the USA: it’s just that it’s still full of cars! Exemplary transport integration will be seen in Vclo City Base1 in September 1995, though in some senses it has happened too literally, with the Swiss adopting the mountain bike not for USC in the mountains but to make sure that they don’t get their wheels stuck in the tram tracks. Such is the explosive growth in interest in the bicycle as the ideal vehicle for a fragile planet that by then there will doubtless be many more cities where the integration of cycling and public transport is a key issue on the agenda. Rodney Tolley Division of Grogruphy School of Sciences Staffordshire University Staffordshire, UK
Reference CTC (I 903) Costing the Benefits: the Vulue of Cycling, Godalming. Surrey. UK: Earth Resources Rcsearch for the Cyclists Touring Club
Cities and Ports, IO-13 October I993
The International Association of Cities and Ports (IACP), known in France as the Association Villes et Ports (AIVP), is a non-profit-making organization with a varied and complementary membership comprising port authoritics, regional and local authorities, Chambers of Commerce, other organizations and companies, and individual academics, planners and researchers. Its main functions are twofold: to develop and encourage contacts and exchanges between all those interested in port/city interrelationships; and to gather, analyse and distribute information in this field. The IACP is supported in its work by a number of organizations including the French national planning organization DATAR.
4th
International
The headquarters of the IACP are located in Le Havre, France. The organization is the brainchild of its President, Antoine Rufenacht. a deputy for the Departement of SeineMaritime and a former minister in the French Government, who is also Prcsident of the Regional Council of Haute Normandie. Both M Rufenacht and members of his staff followed courses in geography at Lc Havre or Rouen; their objective is to bring cities and ports closer together in administrative and practical terms, both in a planning context and in terms of the wider understanding of the processes involved in cityport change. In this sphere, the IACP has already achieved considerable success, and its work is
rep’ports
increasingly recognized in official circles and also in the more academic spheres of urban and transport geography. The IACP started life as a link between official organizations - chambers of commerce, port authorities, urban councils - who perceived some mutual benefit in collaboration and cooperation. Although the IACP is based in France, the idea is to extend the membership of the organization as widely as possible on an international front. An inaugural international confercnce was held in Le Havre in 1988 and others followed in Barcelona, Spain (1989) and Genoa, Italy (1991) (Casclli and Lemaire, 1993). Conscious of the need to develop the academic study of port cities and to promote research, the IACP established a Scientific Committee in 1990 (chaired by Michkle Collin of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) specifically to advance the knowledge of port-city interaction and to promote seminars and international meetings (Baudouin and Collin. 1992; Cantal Dupart and Chaline, 1993). The 20 members of this Committee are drawn from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds in France and a number of other European countries including the UK. The 1993 Montreal conference was the fourth international IACP meeting and the first held outside Europe. Jointly organized by the IACP and the QuCbec Government’s St Lawrence Development Secretariat, its location in Montreal reflected the close links between France and QuCbec Province and the rccognizcd importance throughout Canada of the study of port-city interrelationships. These ideas both have deep roots, as was underlined for numerous delegates who took the opportunity to visit Montreal’s new superb MusCe d’ArchCologic dc d’Histoirc de Montr&al, dcvelopcd at the Pointe-%Call&e on the site of the earliest European settlement in the locality. The theme of the confercncc was ‘City and port: partners for the environment’. Held under the cochairmanship of Antoine Rufenacht and Hugues Morrissette (Director General of the St Lawrence Development Secretariat. and a geographer) 71
Conference
reports
in the attractive context of the Radisson Hotel in central Montreal, the conference attracted over 300 participants from 25 countries, over 40% of participants coming from France and a further 30% from Canada itself. Among other countries represented. Spain and the USA each provided over 10 delcgatcs; about 20 other countries (including the UK) each sent between one and five participants. The IACP remains very much a French phenomenon. Efforts are being made to widen international involvement, but within the Englishspeaking world these still have a long way to go. The programme included three plenary sessions and three more specialized workshops, together involving over 40 papers and presentations; a morning excursion to Montreal’s rapidly changing urban waterfront; a number of cnjoyablc receptions, lunches and dinners; a variety of informative cxhibitions; and a post-conference twoday study tour to Qu@bcc city. The plenary sessions dealt respectively with the port city, port economics and port politics in relation to the environment. Workshops focused on ‘urban planning and quality of lift at the port/city interface’, ‘port cities and risk managcment’, and ‘waterways and coastal shipping: a transport alternative’. All these sessions and workshops inevitably raised a variety of issues, far more than were or could have been adequately addressed in the circumstances of such a wide-ranging confercnce. The third plenary session, for example, seemed designed to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas linking port policies with cnvironmental issues - potentially a very fruitful field bccausc specific policies pursued by port authorities clearly affect and reflect wider urban, regional and maritime environments. The rclationships between what ports actually do and the cnvironmcntal contexts of their activities is obviously a matter of widespread concern. Although highly varied in approach and content ~ some too general, some too technical, some too publicity-seeking, but many highly informativcandwellprescnted-papers in this and other sessions succeeded in emphasizing some essential principles. Some of these principles arc embodied 72
in a Churter
of
Ports,
Cities
and the
Environment.
One fashionable but significant idea that many speakers used is that of sustainable development, equally valid in relation to a specific regional port (such as Santander. Spain), to the promotion of Marseilles as a kind of Mediterranean Europole, or to the environmental quality of the St Lawrcncc estuary and transport axis. Another principle that surfaced repeatedly is that of the competitive environment within which all ports operate; in their efforts to promote commercial success. conports induce environmental scqucnccs which may sometimes be unfortunate. The idea of complcmentarity within regional port systems. related to the concept of using smaller ports as tools of regional development. rcccived some attention. A third principlc. often implied rather than overtly stated, concerns the importance OJ scale and of considering port/city/ environment problems on a series of interrelated scales. Few spcakcrs did this individually, but taken togcthcr their contributions effectively demonstrated relationships at a variety of scales ~ local, regional, cstuarial, intcrnational. In all cases there is usually a primary scale of analysis, but the rclevancc of other scales needs consideration as a complcmcntary means of illuminating an argument. Many speakers demonstrated, directly or indirectly, an increasing sensitivity in the search for appropriate development policies. We heard much about public consultation and about sophistication now the scientific brought to bear on such matters as water and air quality. Relatively little was said, however, about the fact that the environment which ultimately affects port growth and port/city the physical development is not context of water, air and land; but rather the economic environment of inter-port competition, fuelled by the global maritime transport system and The evolving technology. its behaviour of decision makers in this competitive international economic cnvironmcnt is critical for the future of ports and port cities and for their impact upon the physical environment of which they are a part and which they share. In this context, it is
bchavioural geography and transport geography, rather than physical geography, that largely underpin and explain many of the phenomena discussed at this confercncc. Confercncc participants rcprcscntcd a wide variety of backgrounds and expcrtisc, and cvcryonc present was an expert in some relevant field. As an academic cxcrcisc - which it was not the confercncc was too loosely structurcd. As a commercial promotion which in a sense it was - it doubtless brought numerous benefits. Above all,
as a means
of
bringing
togcthcr
people from assorted contexts and providing opportunities for networking, the conference was a stimulating experience and an undoubted success. That is ultimately what conferences arc for, and the IACP is to bc congratulated on its initiative in taking the confercncc to North America. and on enhancing many participants’ lcvcls of awareness of port/city and cityporti environment intcrdcpcndcncc. But the full potential of meaningful intcrdisciplinary intcrchangc could have been more fully exploited. The proceedings of the Montreal conference will bc published. it is cxpectcd, during 1904. It is planned to hold the 5th International Confcrcncc of the IACP in Dakar. SCnCgal, in 10%. Further information on the IACP and its publications is available from Monsieur Olivier Lemairc, DCldguC GCnCral, Association Villes et Ports, 45 Rue Lord Kitchcncr. 76600 Ix Havre. France. Brian Hoyle University
of Southumpton,
UK
References Baudouin, T. and Collin.
M. (eds) (lYY2) Le parrimoine portuaire: le port fl Iu ville. La Havre: Association Intcmationalc Villes et Ports Cantal Dupart, M. and Chalinc. C. (eds) f lYY3) Le port cadre de ville, SCminairc & I’Assodiation Villes ct Ports, Paris, Editions Harmattan Caselli, M. and Lemairc, 0. (cds) 3rd International (Iimference. (‘ities und Ports, Genocc 19-22 November IYYI, Proceedings. Association Internationale Villes ct Ports, and Consorzio Autonomo dcl Porto di Genow
Journal of Trtrnsporr (;rogruphy
I994 Volume 2 Number I