Strategies, functional taxonomy, and typologies for planning city-port interaction areas. The complex relationship between city and port: towards integrated planning.

One of the open questions in the scientific and disciplinary debate concerns the difficult relationship between city and port in terms of governance and the regulatory framework governing the planning of city-port interaction areas (1) (2) (3). The relationship between city and port has always been complex and articulated, but at the same time full of challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, the port represents an important commercial and logistical hub, a source of economic development and a driving force of the local economy. On the other, it can generate conflicts over the allocation of competences of the city-port interaction areas, which become a complex area of confrontation where balancing the different needs requires an innovative and integrated vision.In this context, the contribution returns some of the results of the PhD research "New challenges for port cities. Experimentation and innovation of port and local planning tools" within the framework of the PhD in Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture of the PDTA Department Sapienza University of Rome (tutor Prof. Carmen Mariano). The general objective of the research is the elaboration, through an inductive analysis, of new theoretical-methodological and operational references for the innovation of the Local Urban Plan in order to recompose the conflict in the so-called city-port interaction areas.The specific objective of the contribution is to elaborate a methodology for the integrated planning of city-port interaction areas through a survey of the state of the art of port town planning instrumentation in the national sphere, going through the regulatory framework that regulates the planning of areas of overlapping local and port town planning instrumentation. These are areas located between two urban systems, the port and the city, and which can generate conflicts of environmental, settlement and infrastructural derivation, as well as conflicts arising from a difficult attribution of competences. The laws of 1994, 2016 and the Ports Correttivo of 2017 established the Port System Authorities (AdSP) with the task of guiding, planning and coordinating the ports in their area. Urban planning instrumentation is divided into two levels: a strategic one, represented by the Strategic Planning Document (DPSS), a detailed document that provides long-term guidelines for individual port plans, and an operational-regulatory one, represented by the Port Master Plan (PRP), which concerns the specific plans for each port, including the definition of the areas of interaction between city and port. However, the law does not provide precise indications on how to define these areas, leaving many open questions. The methodology developed involves three macro-phases: 1. Survey and Evaluation: Knowing to Understand and Classifying to Manage;2. Integration and elaboration of strategies and operational references for the innovation of the local urban plan: Innovating for planning; 3. Application of the methodology. Specifically, the contribution contextualises the first macro-phase by arriving at an explication of the categories of city-port interaction. The first macro-phase consists of three steps: 1.1 The first provides for a reconnaissance of the current port planning instruments of the Italian Port System Authorities (AdSP); 2.1 The second provides a functional taxonomy of port city planning instruments that analyses the functions involved within the sub-environments of city-port interaction; 3.1 The third involves the experimental definition and categorisation of three types of city-port interaction as a result of the previous ones. Through a reconnaissance of the port urban planning instrumentation (updated to December 2023), the Port System Authorities (AdSP) were identified and the ports that are equipped with Port Planning post 2004 and that include within them the subdivision into City-Port Interaction Areas. This study helps map the d' areas through an analysis that considers physical connections, functional compatibility, current uses, and specific interactions related to port functions. The survey made it possible to classify the areas of interaction into three main categories: 1. Typology of interaction with a predominantly port function; 2. Predominantly urban interaction typology ;3. Mixed interaction typology or “urban port”. The areas of mixed interaction are the next areas of in-depth study. These are areas that balance urban and port needs and require joint planning between the Port System Authorities and the local administration, hence between port and local urban planning. The innovativeness of the contribution lies in the attempt to promote 'a unified and shared action of territorial government in the areas of interaction between the city and the port', to overcome the difficult dialogue between the two administrations and authorities involved, due to the presence of two distinct regulatory plans, the port and the local plan. The contribution offers a first step towards the recomposition of conflict in areas of city-port interaction. The proposed methodology, based on area categorisation and integrated planning, can support the public administration in co-managing and co-planning these strategic areas for port cities. The research will continue with the testing of the methodology in an applied case study in order to verify its effectiveness and applicability in different contexts.