Port Cities and UNESCO World Heritage

For centuries port cities have embraced cultures, peoples, diverse goods, often inspiring historical iconography. Today, also because of the feverish development which has taken place in many regions of the world over the last fifty years, they no longer express harmony but confusion and lack of balance. Despite this many port cities posses within them an undeniable potential for regeneration, namely, their bond with the water, to be rediscovered through a careful redesign of the waterfront, an essential resource for a creative and sustainable local development. Programs and initiatives for port cities must address the distributive rationalization of functions and modernization of equipment, becoming part of a Global Plan for restoration and urban renovation which can be a powerful drive for the economic development of port cities and the enhancement of their landscape and architectural peculiarities. For an integration of the port city’s urban fabric with the extraordinary cultural resources of its ancient nucleus it shall be necessary to proceed, in actions pertaining to cultural tourism, to restoration, to conservation, to the reutilization of the architectural heritage, the enhancement of large archaeological sites, but also to the betterment of squares and historic itineraries, traffic regulations, incentives for underground parking lots, and a program for the integrated conservation and enjoyment of historic urban landscape. Knowledge about port cities and historic ports inscribed in the UNESCO WHL, favors the comprehension of the issues they pose in various realities around the world and contributes to the improving of methods, means and policies adopted and to be adopted. Therefore sites inscribed in the aforementioned List have been analyzed ( the ports and historic port cities of Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Corsica-France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Venezuela – Bolivar Republic ) also through the examination of the selection Criteria identifying their outstanding universal value. SESSION D - Cultural Heritage Regeneration