Strategies for the sustainable urban waterfront

Abstract

In recent years, cities have realized the representative and spatial contextualizing importance of water: Water creates spaces with great conditions to decelerate and stroll. It enlivens and structures urban spaces, without creating spatial borders. It enhances the value of urban spaces and can define a certain image in people's mind maps. A particular focus is set by the revitalization of urban waterfronts or former ports and qualitative enhancement of their spatial condition values: especially, if massive urban conversions take place and new (housing) districts transform the urban heritage. Hereby, the development of the areas at the waterfront has major importance enabling an appropriate insertion of human activities and agglomerations in an increasingly threatened and deteriorating environment. At the same time, the sustainable development of the waterfront can improve the chances of the respective cities and regions in the international competition. First, this paper is dedicated to the relationship of waterfront, city and sustainability. Then criteria are developed, which are crucial for a sustainable urban development at the waterfront. These criteria are clarified by examples of planning practice.

Exploring the Importance of Destination Attributes of Sustainable Urban Waterfronts: Text and Data Mining of Tourists’ Online Reviews

“…The sustainable recreational space-type attributes are similar to those found by Xie and Gu [3], Aiesha and Evans [12], and Griffin and Hayllar [13]. These attributes suggest that waterfront areas are finite, non-renewable, and valuable natural assets that attract and provide recreation for both urban residents and tourists [8,40]. Thus, this study makes a valuable contribution to the SDGs, specifically targeting SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), with a focus on urban waterfront destinations.…”

“…Urban waterfronts are parts of towns and cities that are adjacent to bodies of water, such as rivers or seas [5,6]. They are functional and interactive spaces that link two different systems: land and water [7,8]. Scholars have noted the benefits of successful urban waterfront redevelopment (e.g., forging connections between local residents and visitors and providing spaces for education, healthy living, and wellbeing) [9].…”

“…As part of efforts to enhance the quality of urban ecological and social environments, public agencies are looking to make waterfronts attractive tourist destinations in order to stimulate local economic development [13]. Sustainable urban waterfront districts are places where people of all ages and backgrounds can live, work, play, visit, and learn in ways that enhance and celebrate the natural environment and the beauty, diversity, economic vitality, and creativity of a city [8].…”

Waterfront Development through a Lens of Sustainable Smart Agenda: Breathing Life into El-Anfoushy Touristic Promenade

“…Especially locations that were utilized for industry could improve this position today. Environmental protection can also be helped by reducing future energy usage and recycling materials [10].…”

Sustainability of urban recreational waterfront development in Colombo urban area, Sri Lanka

“…Development of part of the town near waterbodies river or the sea is an urban waterfront development. Consequently, the urban waterfront is more than a stretch of land, with a network of places and functions linking water and the ground (Riham, 2017;Pramesti, 2017;Niemann & Werner, 2016;Roux, 2015). It plays a significant role in refreshing leisure in an urban area Industrialization forced a drastic increment of working population towards inner cities and elite groups moving out from the core areas to suburban in the 19 th century.…”