Diagrams as a comparative tool to understand the territorial evolution of port city regions

Theoretical models point to the occurrence of common and recurrent stages in several port city regions around the world, which have associated the evolution of port-related activities with the process of urban territory transformation. In order to understand the role of port-related activities in framing the urban territory, we conducted a spatiotemporal comparative analysis of two port city regions with contrasting settings. The first involves the European city of Dublin in Ireland, while the second concerns the South American city of Vitória on the coast of Brazil. Morphologic diagrams were used as generalizing tools in order to simplify the representation of the urban territory into structures, and also to facilitate the interpretation and comparison between the two cities. This study-based comparative analysis shows that the dissociation between city and port is dependent on the territorial scale of the analysis, as well as the context the city was formed prior to port establishment. On the other hand, the reassociation between city and port is based on the constitution of new centres beyond the traditional urban centre. Moreover, the use of diagrams proved to be capable of connecting quantitative and qualitative approaches, helping to identify common forms and structures, and historical-cultural patterns.