Port and hinterland: the impact of containerisation

The traditional notion of hinterland refers to the inland economic area influenced by the ports. In other words, hinterland represents the set of points of origin/destination of cargo flows, which pass through the port and generates the majority of its business. Following logistics and market transformations, the concept of hinterland has become rather dynamic and the traditional static approach may be misleading. In particular, it appears rather complex to identify hinterland’s boundaries due to the influence of drivers that are constantly evolving. Notably, shipping lines, terminal operators and other logistics players hold a pivotal role in shaping port hinterland development. The ability of Port Authorities (PAs) to cooperate with the actors of the maritime cluster as well as  inland terminals seems to be fundamental to extend the network and enhance port competitiveness. In this perspective, Notteboom and Rodrigue (2005) coined a new concept, defined as “port regionalisation”, capable to explain the new phase of growth of port systems, based on the emergence of broader logistics pole

PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta along with Francesco Vitellaro (University of Genoa) co-authored a book chapter on the port and hinterland and its impact of containerisation which included in the International Encyclopedia of Transportation- now available via academic publisher Elsevier.

Encyclopedia of Transportation, a massive academic work edited by Roger Vickerman, consists of seven volumes with contributions by hundreds of scholars with various specializations in transport studies and brings a cross-cutting and integrated approach to all aspects of transportation from a variety of interdisciplinary fields including engineering, operations research, economics, geography and sociology in order to understand the changes taking place.

The authors’ version of the book chapter can be found here.