Port cities symbiosis. Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea and of Sardinia Sea (Italy)

Port cities have always been key hubs for the transport of goods and people. Portsmeet global transportation needs,while being integrated into geographies subject to local policies. Maritime and logistical flows pass through ports and densely built-up areas, creating new environmental challenges. Political interests and strategies, technological development, migrations, trafficking of goods and flows of people are factors that influence spatial organization as well as land use to respond to the new challenges of the global market. This also involves changes in the morphology of port cities, which are by their nature dynamic, cosmopolitan and more open to change and the reorganization of the coastal space, from port cities to port regions. Ports are becoming increasingly hybrid, progressively changing shape and inserting new functions even beyond their administrative borders, renewing the relationships of Port Cities Symbiosis. In this paper we focus on the hybridization process of ports, to address new international challenges in particular. By analyzing some theoretical and real cases of Italian port system authorities - of the Sardinian Sea of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, Ports of Trieste and Monfalcone -, it is proposed to evaluate a synthetic hybridization matrix of ports, within the framework of the broader Port cities symbiosis phenomenon.