Why ports matter to cities

Ports facilitate vital global trade, operating as foundational linkages in the economic circulation through which nearly all consumer products pass. However, there is a need to conceptualize the local implications of these globalized networks.

As international trade has intensified over the last few decades, the current international order has seen significant uncertainty due to both geopolitical turbulence and the lingering supply chain disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.

By focusing on the relationship between cities, ports, and their surrounding regions, this review situates the interlinked geographies through which global trade has continuously transformed various places. Earlier scholarship discussed ports as primarily commercial nodes responsible for economic prosperity.

This paper highlights the importance of studying logistics-led urbanism through ports’ role as central nodes in urban redevelopments, global supply chain disruptions, climate change impacts, and geopolitical tensions.

We argue that logistics-led urbanism reconfigures the 21st-century city through transformations of infrastructure, labor, capital, and territory. We draw on frameworks that treat ports as contested, strategic, and deeply political spaces, and conclude with suggestions for a future port-city research agenda in an emergent era of economic and climatic uncertainty.

Nikolovski, T., & Wiig, A. (2026). Why ports matter to cities: Understanding the importance of logistics‐led urbanism. Geography Compass, gec3.70065.

Photo by Yeh Che Wei on Unsplash.