Port areas in densely urbanized areas are locations where the lack of development space increasingly limits growth possibilities, and competition for space between stakeholders with diverging interests and land use claims intensifies. The aim of our paper is to enrich the scientific discourse on the port-city interface by arguing for a more multi-facetted understanding of the port-city interface beyond arguments of economic efficiency, and what this implies for how land use conflicts materialize and are dissolved. Based on quantitative data we have analyzed the characteristics of the land use conflicts in two case study areas (the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands) in more detail. Furthermore, we developed a framework that could contribute to mitigating the effects of the land use conflicts, and have qualitatively explored this through an analysis of port visions and annual reports of the port authorities. The findings suggest that, even though the net claims do not yet outnumber the available land, the cumulative effects of these diverging interests do, which suggests that the battle for space is about to intensify as there are more claims than land.

In the last few years, online shopping has been increasing rapidly. Optimising the sorting processes in E-fulfilment centres, combined with direct parcel delivery from the E-fulfilment centres to the close-by customers has not been widely studied in a quantitative manner. The main objective is to show whether E-fulfilment centres can generate a reduction in costs for parcel delivery.

Two models are used to calculate the cost savings by using of an E-fulfilment centre. The volume of parcels has a crucial role in the calculation (and the competitiveness) of delivery costs. The time-driven performance reaches a break-even point for the volumes that can compete with the logistics providers. The impacts of directly delivering parcels from an e-fulfilment centre to nearby customers result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.

This contribution proposes a future research agenda for the sustainable development of the freight corridors for the next five years. This is done by discussing three themes. i.e. (1) use of capacity, (2) lower impact modalities and (3) digitalization of the supply chain. As the corridors can be seen as the connecting lifelines of our ports and our cities (respectively distribution centres), the research topics in the agenda are quite important for the development and well-being of our future generation.