Research database

African port cities are vital gateways between the rapidly urbanising hinterlands and global trade networks. They are also sites of tension, where global logistics and urban dynamics collide, producing conflicts across capital, governance, and territorial claims. TIDAL addresses this disconnection between port functions and urban dynamics by using the Port-Urban Interface (PUI) as both a spatial framework and an analytical tool to reframe the understanding of port cities. Scholarship on PUI remains heavily Eurocentric, while African PUIs—where such frictions destabilise both cities and maritime flows—are understudied. TIDAL extends the PUI to a Global South perspective. The project's objectives are: (1) identify territorial configurations and spatial layouts of PUI; (2) analyse governance structures and soft infrastructures shaping port–city development; and (3) develop a platform for knowledge co-production among port authorities, municipal actors, communities, and researchers.