Implantation and layout principles for seaports

Designing and building a seaport is a difficult but exciting task, as it necessarily involves multidisciplinary teamwork.

In particular, we need to address issues relating to :

• knowledge of the natural environment of potential siting areas (swells, currents, biology, fauna/flora inventories, etc.);

• potential traffic and its medium- and long-term evolution, in terms of cargo tonnage as well as ship size;

• financial and legal arrangements (public-private partnerships, concessions, etc.) to build the future port;

• technical data for designing the exterior and interior structures of the future port;

• consultation with local populations, NGOs and various national or supra-national administrations.

The aim of these studies is to propose appropriate solutions with a view to :

• select the site offering the best compromise between the various imperatives and constraints;

• select a general development plan, resulting in an initial layout plan, supplemented by possible variants and subsequent phases;

• This development plan will have to integrate the project's environmental integration as far upstream as possible, with measures to eliminate or reduce impact, as well as environmental support measures;

• choose the best legal framework for building the future port;

• build not only port infrastructures, but also other transport infrastructures (roads, freeways, railroads, waterways, pipelines, etc.) required for the port's smooth operation;

• provide the port with the most appropriate means of handling the various types of traffic and information required for national and international trade as efficiently as possible.

This article cannot, of course, be dissociated from the Commercial and Fishing Harbors article. Interior fittings and equipment [C 4 640] . Indeed, how can it be imagined that the provisions adopted for the interior layout have no impact on the layout of the exterior structures, and vice versa?

All stages of the design process need to be carried out in parallel, to ensure that planning policy decisions are fully integrated...