Ports and Urban Transformation: A Comparative Analysis on Project Basis: The Case of Taranto and Naples

From several years, the policies of management of the coastal and, in particular, of waterfront areas - considered as an area on the border between land and sea - appear increasingly as an innovative tool for regeneration and urban transformation, pushing for a critical reflection on future of port cities. The paper, through a comparison between the processes, policies and planning in two important port cities of Southern Italy (Taranto and Naples), aims to investigate and verify: if and how is changed the nature of the relationships between the port and the city; what were the choices of port planning in the past and what the characteristics of the new model of port planning; what are the impacts and opportunities at the base of a new approach in urban-port planning.