The process of modernization, especially during the twentieth century, has brought about dramatic changes in most cities situated on a body of water. The search for efficiency and functionality has profoundly affected coastal and urban landscapes: gigantism in the port industry has contributed to the degradation of environmental resources and habitats, and modernization processes have marginalized local cultures and historical, community-based values, thus causing original features and local specificity to disappear from most of our historical waterfronts.
During the last few decades, the restructuring of port and industrial activities, the greater importance of leisure and tourism, and increasing concern for environmental matters have led to the “rediscovery of water” and to the design and implementation of new urban policies aimed at redeveloping urban waterfronts.
Against this background, Venice and Tokyo represent paradigmatic cases of the many challenges which confront urban governance in cities on water. In fact, the urban history of these cities is intimately linked to their relationship with water, which has changed over the centuries, creating articulated and complex structures that have characterized their physical aspect, and even the image of the two cities offered to the rest of the world.
From this perspective, this volume highlights the most important socio-economic, historical, identitarian, environmental, and cultural dimensions of the process of the “rediscovery of water” in Venice and Tokyo, as well as offering a re-evaluation of their heritage and identity as cities of water. It pays particular attention to the various implications of living in such a fragile and liminal space between land and water, where natural risks and social and economic vulnerability are particularly high.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Rosa Caroli and Stefano Soriani
Chapter 1:Proposing Suitogaku- Towards a Comparative Study of Cities on Water
Hidenobu Jinnai
Chapter 2: Sustainable Tourism in Venice: What Lessons for other Fragile Cities on Water?
Jan van der Borg
Chapter 3: Resilience amidst Fragility along Tokyo’s Waterways
Paul Waley
Chapter 4: The Sumida River Renaissance: A New Policy for the Development of the River
Yusaku Imamura
Chapter 5: Conflict and Synergy in the Port-City Relationship: Critical Issues and Perspectives in the case of Venice
Stefano Soriani
Chapter 6: Considering the Redevelopment of the Tokyo Bay Area from the Basics
Hidenobu Jinnai
Chapter 7: Loss and Recovery of Lowland Rivers in Tokyo
Nobuyuki Tsuchiya
Chapter 8: Tsukudajima: A Man-made Island in Edo (Tokyo) Bay
Rosa Caroli
Chapter 9: The Development of Tokyo Bay and Waterborne Traffic
Iwao Takamatsu
Chapter 10: Venice: Living with Water, Learning with Nature – A Regenerating Arena for Global Cities
Giovanni Cecconi
Contributors
Author Biography
Rosa Caroli
Is Professor of Japanese History at the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and a specialist of modern and contemporary history of Japan. Her main field of research is the evolution of Japan’s modern state with particular regard to identitarian discourses on both the nation and its peripheries. She has also written extensively about the history of Okinawa and, more recently, about Edo-Tokyo history.
Stefano Soriani
Is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. His research focuses on ports and maritime transportation, and the societal and economical implication of integrated coastal zone management plans and initiatives. He has also published extensively about waterfront redevelopment and the evolution of cityports in the Mediterranean area.