Fluid City traces the transformation of the urban waterfront of Melbourne, the re-vitalization of the Yarra River waterfront, Melbourne Docklands and Port Philip Bay. As the financial and industrial centre of Australia, in the late nineteenth century, Melbourne developed a new world exuberance. Yet the twentieth century saw Melbourne suffering from a declining industrial and economic base. The city in the 1980s was de-industrialising, and the re-facing of the city to the water was a key urban strategy of the 1980s and 90s and a catalyst for economic transformation. This book bridges significant gaps between different discourses about the city and to challenge singular ways of viewing the city.

This book presents a new paradigm of knowledge and action with respect to urban waterfronts and the “fluid city paradigm,” explaining its methodological framework and describing an integrated and creative planning approach in which waterfront regeneration is pursued as a key urban-renewal strategy. It focuses especially on the WATERFRONT project (“Water And Territorial policiEs for integRation oF multisectoRial develOpmeNT”), which was funded jointly by Italy and Malta with the goal of developing common guidelines, strategies, and operational tools for the planning of coastal areas, based on cross-border exchange of experiences. In the described approach, the waterfront is recognized as having a broad identity, acknowledging the complexity of the relationship between seaport and town and taking into account the physical and environmental components of human settlement, infrastructure, and productive and recreational activities. It highlights details of the process of renewal in the port city of Trapani, with discussion of the implemented actions, plans, and programs. The book also examines the practices adopted to transform city–port relationships across Europe in pursuit of innovative and sustainable development.

Includes the City Manual along with the annual reports of the City's various departments and offices.