PCF Talk #62 – Agenda Monthly Meeting – Hybrid
This is a hybrid event, please join in person, or via the zoom link below!
Small Ports as Potential Stewards of Sustainable Development
This event explores future scenarios for deltas and river basins through two keynote lectures, and highlights the crucial role of small and medium-sized ports — not as marginal actors, but as engines of change driving sustainability, adaptability, and regional connectivity.
09:00 - 09:15
Introduction - Yvonne van Mil
Cities on Silt. A Sedimental Journey through the history of the Dutch delta
09:15 - 09:50
Presenter: Han Meyer
Han Meyer is Emeritus Professor of Urban Design at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He was an urban planner at the Rotterdam City Planning Department from 1980 to 1990, involved in the renewal of former docklands. Based on these experiences he wrote his PhD thesis ‘City and Port’ (1996). From 1990 he was employed at TU Delft, first as Associate Professor Urban Design, from 2001 full Professor Urban Design until 2019. His main focus concerns the fundamentals of urbanism and ‘Delta Urbanism’, which pays special attention to the search for a new balance between urbanization processes and climate change in vulnerable deltaic territories. He published several books, among others ‘The State of the Delta’ (2017) and ‘Cities on Silt’ (2025).
More information can be found on www.deltastad.nl
Sediments, transported by seas and rivers and deposited in areas where seas and rivers meet each other, are the main building material of our coastal lowlands and deltas.
The lecture (and the book Cities on Silt) is a call to draw attention in the public debate on coastal lowlands and deltas on the importance of this role of sediment-transport. The formation of the Dutch landscape and of the patterns and lay-out of urban settlements should be understood in relation with the dynamics of rivers and sea, especially with the transport and ‘behavior’ of sediment and the way people tried to deal with these dynamics. Also for the future, considering sea level rise and more extreme weather conditions, sediment-management will play a decisive role in enhancing the sustainability of our urbanized delta. Such an approach will mean special challenges for the future of ports and navigation channels in the delta of Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt.
Way Beyond Bigness. The Need for a Watershed Architecture
09:50 - 10:30
Presenter: Derek Hoeferlin
Derek Hoeferlin, AIA, Affiliate ASLA, is a registered architect, principal of [dhd] derek hoeferlin design and the Raymond E. Maritz Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is currently Chair of the Landscape Architecture program. His teaching, research and professional work have been awarded, presented and published internationally. Derek directs "Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture," conducting comparative research among global deltas and watersheds—primarily the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine, the focus and eponymous title of his recently published book (Applied Research + Design Publishing, 2023). The book has been reviewed in The Journal of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Magazine. Derek was a co-organizer of "MISI-ZIIBI: Living with the Great Rivers, Climate Adaptation in the Midwest River Basins" in St. Louis and "Gutter to Gulf: Legible Water Infrastructure for New Orleans.” He held core team member roles for award-winning projects in the Greater New Orleans Region including "Unified New Orleans Plan", "Dutch Dialogues", "Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan" and "Changing Course Competition”. Derek holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from Tulane University and a post-professional Master of Architecture degree from Yale University.
Way Beyond Bigness is a design-research project that studies the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine river basins, with particular focus on multi-scaled, water-based infrastructural transformation. The book proposes a simple, adaptive framework that utilizes a three-part, integrative design-research methodology, structured as: Appreciate + Analyze, Speculate + Synthesize, and Collaborate + Catalyze. To do such, Way Beyond Bigness realigns watersheds and architecture across multiple scales (sites to river basins), disciplines (ecologists to economists), narratives (hyperboles to pragmatics), and venues (academics to professionals), defined as Watershed Architecture. The book highlights the author’s comprehensive work of over more than a decade, including in depth field research across the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine, along with a diverse body of academic and multi-disciplinary professional collaborations and contributions, ranging from the speculative to the community-based.
10:30 - 10:45
Break
Shared Q&A and Interactive Session
10:45 - 11:45
Led by Alankrita Sankar
Join us for an open exchange with Han Meyer and Derek Hoeferlin, where we will discuss the potentials and challenges of small ports as stewards of sustainable port ecosystems.
This interactive session invites all participants to contribute ideas, questions, and perspectives. Together, we will collect and map diverse definitions, urgencies, challenges, and potentials of small ports using a Miro board. The activity aims to bring in voices from different disciplines and to explore how small ports might become catalysts for more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable development.
During the discussion, we will reflect on how small ports can be defined and classified—whether through spatial, operational, governance, or visibility criteria—while also considering their interdependencies with larger ports and municipalities. We will explore their spatial and urban impacts, from land use and public space to the lived experiences of citizens. Questions of governance and institutional structures will also be raised, addressing the differences between local, regional, and supranational frameworks.
Finally, we will open the floor to think about the roles of small ports in transition, from energy and climate resilience to digitalization and automation, as well as comparative, historical, and design perspectives that can shed light on their evolving role within coastal, riverine, and inland systems.
PCF lighthouse projects and new opportunities
11:45 - 12:00
Creating a Vision for Port Cities: Workshop and Field Trips (Morocco edition)