The Challenge of Climate Change for Future Port Cities: Considering the Precautionary Principle in Adaptation to Sea-Level Rise

Osbaldiston, Nick

Abstract

Port cities have been transformed. While once they might have been narrated as sleepy, slow-paced, romantic places with sailing ships nestled on limitless waterscapes, they are now centres of commerce, trade, tourism, entertainment, and residential living. To borrow from Simmel (1903[1997]), port cities are the seat of the money economy where daily, they symbolise a “gate to the world and a place for the exchange of people, ideas, and goods” (Kowalewski, 2021, p. 55). In 2020 the global pandemic dramatically changed this situation. Once hustling and bustling port cities reliant on tourism were substantially impacted, as the flow of humans/non-humans reduced to a trickle, turning port cities into cathedrals of stillness. With the arrival of vaccines and the removal of state border closures, they are now experiencing economic/social/ cultural recovery (Hein & Schubert, 2021a; 2021b). In the background, however, climate change continues to loom as a challenge to that port-city resilience.

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Publication Name

Hustle and Bustle: The Vibrant Cultures of Port Cities

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2667-0798

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Publisher

Brill

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Publisher Location

Leiden, The Netherlands

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DOI

10.1163/9789004711174_003