Smart Port City

Description: In the pursuit of a sustainable, economic, and spatial co-existence with cities, an increasing number of ports are adjusting, rearranging, and optimizing their operations and infrastructure as a response to urbanization, expanding residential areas and other alternative land use needs by their seafronts. Such changes are upcoming at the Port of Turku. Construction and completion of a new (joint) cruise-ferry terminal will free the land area around Turku Castle and Aura River estuary (Linnanniemi area) for urban development.

Along with these spatial changes that support the physical integration of the city and the port, the aim of the Smart Port City project is to enhance the digital integration of smart city and smart port. The integration of various digital solutions including, for example, end-to-end journey planning tools, parking or park’n’ride solutions, shared mobility, tourist information on city sights, ongoing happenings, services, intermodal mobility options and optimisation of cargo flows enable, in turn, optimal practical use and exploitation of the physical infrastructure of the city and the port.

The project contributes to the studies of smart cities and smart ports by researching the agency of various actors in a smart city-port ecosystem for implementation and integration of various technologies in digital infrastructure of city and port and identifying the impact of institutionalised practices on setting the path for this integration.

Schedule: January 2023 - December 2024

Research partners: Åbo Akademi University

Funding: Turku Urban Research Programme, City of Turku

Homepage: Smart Port City project

Email: smartportcity@utu.fi