The Evolution of a Port (The Anyport Model)

Anyport is a model developed by Bird (1963) describing how port infrastructures evolve in time and space. Based on his research into the evolution of British ports, Bird proposed a five stage model to demonstrate how facilities in a typical port develop. Starting from the initial port site with small lateral quays adjacent to the town center, the elaboration of wharfs is the product of evolving maritime technologies and improvements in cargo handling. This is also marked by changing spatial relationships between the port and the urban core, as docks are built further away from the central business district. In the final stages, increased specialization of cargo handling, growing sizes of ships, and ever increasing demands for space for cargo-handling and storage results in port activity being concentrated at sites far removed from the oldest facilities. Port infrastructures are thus constructed over several decades and in some case over several centuries. Three major steps can be identified in the port development process identified by Anyport:

• Setting. The initial setting of a port is strongly dependent on geographical considerations. On the above example, the setting is related to the furthest point of inland navigation by sailships. A standard evolution of a port starts from the original port, most of the time a fishing port with trading and shipbuilding activities, which includes several quays (1). For many centuries until the industrial revolution, ports remained rather rudimentary in terms of their terminal facilities. Port-related activities were mainly focused on warehousing and wholesaling, located on sites directly adjacent to the port.
• Expansion. The industrial revolution triggered several changes that impacted on port activities. Quays were expanded and jetties were constructed to handle the growing amounts of freight and passengers as well as larger ships (2). As the size of ships expanded, shipbuilding became an activity that required the construction of docks (3). Further, the integration of rail lines with port terminals enabled access to vast hinterlands with a proportional growth in maritime traffic. Port-related activities also expanded to include industrial activities. This expansion mainly occurred downstream.
• Specialization. The next phase involved the construction of specialized piers to handle freight such as containers, ores, grain, petroleum and coal (4), which expanded warehousing needs significantly. Larger high-capacity ships often required dredging or the construction of long jetties granting access to greater depths. This evolution implied for several ports a migration of their activities away from their original setting and an increase of their handling capacities. In turn, original port sites, commonly located adjacent to downtown areas, became obsolete and were abandoned. Numerous reconversion opportunities of port facilities to other uses (waterfront parks, housing and commercial developments) were created (5).

Bird (1971) suggested that Anyport was intended not to display a pattern into which all ports must be forced, but to provide a base with which to compare the development of actual ports. The model has been tested in a variety of different conditions (Hoyle, 1967). While local conditions do produce differences in detail, there are sufficient similarities to make the Anyport concept a useful description of port morphological development. The emergence of new container terminals continues the trend towards specialization and the search for sites adjacent to deeper water. A number of authors have amended the original Anyport model to include more recent developments.

One of the features that Anyport brings out is the changing relation between ports and their host cities. The model describes the growing repulsion by the rest of the urban milieu. This aspect has been worked upon over the last two decades by a number of geographers investigating the redevelopment of harbor land. Hoyle (1989) proposed an anyport-type model, which instead of stressing the port infrastructure development, emphasizes the changing linkages between the port and the city. One of these urban linkages is the redevelopment of old port sites for other urban uses, such as Docklands in London and Harborfront in Baltimore. A more recent amendment to the Anyport model, but one that is focused on container terminal development. Five alternatives are presented:

• Closure, where the facility is abandoned because of poor site /and or operating conditions;
• Expansion, where operating conditions require the existing sites to be extended or modified;
• Addition, where because of demands of deeper water or operating facilities, new berths are established;
• Consolidation, where several existing berths are combined to provide new expanded facilities;
• Redevelopment, seen as the outcome of functional assessment of existing facilities and the establishment of a super terminal.