PORTA

Title: PORTs as a gateway for Access inner regions

Summary: PORTA aims to define and implement common strategies and integrated transport/land use planning procedures for increasing the role of ports as strategic key actors of the maritime and logistics development and as a gateway to access the inner regions. The partnership will apply a new system of guidelines for integrating regional planning and port management in order to overcome the dichotomy between maritime and transport policies (based on a global scale approach) and urban/local sustainable development of the areas surrounding the ports. The first phase of project envisages the comparison of the operativeness of each port, analyzing the state of art in each local system through a computer program on line with partners, to manage and monitor traffic and environmental data of all port systems.

At the same time, each partner will organize workshops in their port system with their economic and social partnership and with local actors of urban transformation and governance processes. This phase is needed to register specific issues in coastal regions and to identify the local stakeholders to be involved in the future capitalization activities. The partners also effect the recognition of European and national port legislation, and analyze the coherence of ongoing and planned interventions by the Port Authority with the plans of other local bodies affecting the port and metropolitan areas. The comparison of different issues in each port system allows to check the effective integration of maritime policies with land use and environmental planning in surrounding areas. So the partners develop a common set of statistical indicators and guidelines for the integrated and coordinated planning of the port network.

Each port implements the guideline through an Action Plan which identifies the local stakeholders to be involved and the interventions to improve the management of port areas and accessibility to the surrounding land. Anyway, each port must concert its Action Plans with local governance actors and must ensure maximum participation of economic, social and environmental stakeholders, so that the principles of equal opportunities will be respected in the decision processes. After having verified with local actors and shared with the project partnership the feasibility of the integrated model of transport planning and port management, a draft regulation (“bill”) will be submitted to the European Commission to implement the guidelines in all EU ports encourage the transfer of units of traffic from road to Short Sea Shipping.

All the project partners will participate in all project components and they’ll involve local stakeholders and publicize the cooperation activities in their respective territories, in order to ensure a real impact of the results.

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