Wenjun Feng
TU Delft
Eliane Schmid
C2DH, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Counter-cartography aims to shake up the normative way of mapping and representing our world. In August 2025, Wenjun Feng and Eliane Schmid wanted to invite people who live, work, or simply spend time in port areas to think about how they use and/or see this space. How do they experience the port city territory? Is it a space they want to explore or one they avoid because they feel unwelcome or insecure? How would they represent it, and which perspective would they choose?
Guided by these questions, the two PhD researchers in history launched an open call for contributions, inviting anyone with an interest in port city territories to create counter-maps. The goal was to rethink, loosen up, and push against the standardized spatial representations on maps that are oftentimes produced by government entities and economic stakeholders. The call garnered contributions centering on seven port city territories across three continents, offering perspectives ranging from cultural to environmental to personal.
The contributions were published (after revision by the coordinators) on the official PACT COST Action website — an EU-funded networking project addressing the challenges of energy transition in port city territories in an inclusive and collaborative way (cf. COST Action Kick-off Event). Publishing the counter-maps via the PACT website gave the contributors’ works substantial reach within the port city territory research and interested community. The initiative also aimed to create a platform that would inform discussions and outreach with the diverse groups of people involved in rethinking of port city territories.
The following article reflects on the process of this counter-mapping challenge. Through a theme-by-theme study of the counter-maps, it showcases the multifaceted perspectives of the contributors, placing their ideas and thought processes center stage. Together with the PACT COST Action mapping website, this article provides a report on the event and its outcomes.
Environmental Challenges in Port-City Territories
The port city territory, as a land-water interface, is one of the most eminent features for port city observers. Three submitted counter-maps address the environmental impact of two increasingly urbanized port-city regions in Asia. Sedat Baştuğ, for example, adopts a landscape approach to visualize the environmental conflict between natural and artificial land. Yuanpeng Hou traces the conflict through mapping marine life habitats and movement, while Annisa Ariyanti highlights the impact of flooding and climate change over the port city territory.
In his map focusing on Bandırma, Sedat Baştuğ “challenges the dominant cartographic logic that treats port cities as neutral logistical nodes” and “tells a spatial story of tension between nature and infrastructure, between bird song and diesel engines, between conservation and capital.” He invites viewers to “rethink Bandırma as a contested terrain where ecological time and logistical time clash” by visualizing “the nesting grounds, the silence of the marshes, the seasonal rhythms of migration.” His counter-map “visually articulates how the territory is being pulled in opposing directions,” showing the logistic infrastructure dividing the landscape and invading the wetland bird sanctuary, which eventually influences their migration patterns.
Yuanpeng Hou’s counter-map on the Tama River, flowing into Tokyo Bay, prompts viewers to “think through movement, disruption, and urban flow through the lens of fish” to emphasize the conflict between urban development, infrastructures, and marine life migration in the port city territory. With the help of side notes added to the map, Yuanpeng expands the discussion beyond a simple human-versus-nature mindset and acknowledges both the erosion of cultural significance in the affected area and the decline of wildlife presence.
The tidal flooding map of Semarang by Annisa Ariyanti takes an opposite angle and looks at the city impacted by environmental changes. As sea levels rise, the port city, especially its port area, becomes increasingly vulnerable to tidal flooding, and the community in the flooded areas adopt different strategies to meet these challenges. Annisa discusses these responses in her upcoming blog post: The Sinking North of Semarang: Environmental Challenges and Historical Significance.
Observing Port City Territories
The counter-maps of Chongqing and Hong Kong focus on the urban landscape of port city territories. The counter-map of Chongqing discusses how memories of the port city are represented in film, while its docks and river traffic are invisible and its main transportation system has been replaced by roads, bridges, and railways. The counter-map of Hong Kong shows the port city from a more intimate and human dimension, seeking to explore how the sky is experienced in the densely built central Hong Kong and the power struggle underlying the city’s urban organization.
The differing representations of Chongqing’s port cityscape — through the eyes of tourists and in the memory of the locals — caught the attention of Xindi Ma, Wanyi Xie, and Mengyang Xu. As they explain: “Since the decline of river transport, the demand of visitors for scenic encounters with Chongqing’s waters has proven more persistent than that of cargo. It has emerged as a popular filming location for Chinese cinema and as a trending tourist destination.” The aesthetic representation of Chongqing through the lens of media and tourists, however, does not capture the daily scenery of its urban dwellers. Through their counter-map of Chongqing, the three architects want to visualize how “the points of pause, whether tourist viewpoints or metro platforms, form parallel but disconnected layers of urban existence, silently inscribed in the city’s memory like its rivers and films.”
The mood of urban dwellers is also captured in the work of Xinrui Zhang. She offers views of the sky observed from different locations and elevations across the city. As Xinrui explains, her counter-map “shifts the gaze away from the ground and turns it upward — toward the sky as perceived in Hong Kong’s Central district…Rather than focusing on streets, transport flows, or economic zones, this map explores how the sky is seen, segmented, and often compressed by the vertical dominance of skyscrapers. It traces a sensory and emotional landscape, shaped by the fragmented portions of sky visible from below. In this way, the map becomes a record of human perception and lived experience, revealing how natural elements like the sky become entangled with power, space, and rhythm in the daily life of a hyper-developed port city.”
Personal Experiences in Port City Territories
In addition to the cultural and environmental topics, personal memories in port city territories and its expression are also mapped. The two counter-maps from Mikaela Rands and Nathan Döding approach the challenge through personal feelings, stories, and memories, with an effort to visualize how they navigate, experience, and memorize their personal time in a port city territory. Mikaela’s map reflects one year living in Seattle, while Nathan draws on a lifetime in Rotterdam.
The counter-map of Seattle by Mikaela shows a newcomer’s effort to navigate, visualize, and make sense of the city for herself. It is thus a very personal map with emotions attached to specific features that represent certain places in a larger territory and also a collected memory of her personal life in this first year of encounter.
Nathan’s counter-map of Rotterdam sketches the different routes through which he would introduce Rotterdam to his friends. As Nathan depicts, “being a guide forces you to evaluate your favorite places, but even more so: lifestyle.” The route that he chooses depends on “who I’m with, and how we’ll hang out, whether we will check out restaurants, shops, and clubs, or we will talk more, share a bottle of wine near the river, go to parks and have dinner at my place.” The yellow route is a “lazy path,” while the red route “takes on a more adventurous flow.”
Reflections on Counter-Mapping Port City Territories
Studying the counter-maps closely and being in touch with the authors has proven a very valuable experience for the two organizers. We learned about different port city territories from very unique angles. We have never been in some of the places depicted and certainly did not know the places as intimately as the map creators. Through their views on the port city territories, we were introduced to the places from their vantage points. In a way we were given the opportunity to discover new places and see them through someone else’s eyes. We learned about the threats fish and birds are facing, about the value of looking at the sky once in a while, about the nostalgia movies can trigger in spaces undergoing rapid change, and about what it means to call a port city territory home. The counter-mapping approach helped us reflect on the port city territories we ourselves study and how we engage with their many facets and layers. We are pleased to have created a platform for the exchange of perspectives on port city territories and invite readers to think spatially about the spaces they move through.
Acknowledgments
This blog post has been written in the context of discussions in the LDE PortCityFutures research community. It reflects the evolving thoughts of the authors and expresses the discussions between researchers on the socio-economic, spatial and cultural questions surrounding port city relationships. This blog was edited by the PortCityFutures editorial team: Yi Kwan Chan. We thank the participants of the COST Action PACT August Counter-Mapping Challenge Event: Annisa Ariyanti, Sedat Baştuğ, Mengyang Xu, Mikaela Rands, Nathan Döding, Wanyi Xie, Xinrui Zhang, Xindi Ma, and Yuanpeng Hou for their wonderful contributions and for sharing their personal perspectives.
About COST Action
www.cost.eu
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.
This blog is based upon work from COST Action CA23138 – Port City Territories in Action: A Collaborative Laboratory for Inclusive Energy Transition (PACT), supported by COST.
