The role of ports in the economy of the city, a comparative view: Barcelona and Sydney

Abstract

The main purpose of the thesis is to analize the role that the ports develope in two cities located in continents completely different. This is the situation of the Barcelona, located in Europe, and Sydney, located in Oceania. This study is based on the figure of the port of their own cities such as a key element in their economic and urban development. The port units which form these entities are studied, as well as the kind of imported and exported goods to consider the importance that the port represents for the original countries and overseas, the major projects and the current and needed infrastructures in order to achieve the development of the port activity in a favourable way, and at the same time, the social and environmental repercussion generated. The port is analyzed as a commercial and tourist activity, giving evidence of the importance in the economy of the cities which are provided of port infrastructures. To understand the role that the port represents, it has been considered for the first time the general knowledge of the countries related to Barcelona and Sydney, Spain and Australia, respectively, and subsequently and more deeply the knowledge of the two cities going through their history, their origins, the population, the economy, the urban distribution, the desplacements, and the main projects that are currently carried. This study realizes that the development of the port activity is not an isolated fact and it is done through the needs and the perspectives of future included into the city as a whole.The consulted sources have been extracted from reports and statistical data from the same port authorities, and other municipal and state institutions. A comparison is allowed to do because of describing the same section for both cities, obtaining reflections that show which are the current activities of both cities to achieve the current economic and social model.