For the 2026 Edition, the AIVP Working Group on River Port Cities met in London (United Kingdom) to discover the many projects happening in the busy capital city.
 
This meeting was particularly interesting because we talked about not only one main river but the other waterways of the Greater London area.  With such a broad territory to discover came a variety of challenges, but also ideas and projects.
 
Our member the Port of London Authority, warmly welcomed us in a beautiful venue next to the Thames, a prime location to observe the bustling waterway and its many uses. The port presented its initiatives to develop river transport, to become more sustainable, more welcoming and inclusive of all. We discovered its particular structure and governance model, as well as its commitment to the river and the populations around. Thanks to a walking tour in the city center we had the opportunity to get a sense of the diverse uses of the tidal Thames, and to visit the first electric cruise boat of the area.


Day 1 · Wednesday, 4 March

The first day was also the opportunity to compare with the situation in the Port of Paris (HAROPA PORT), the innovative aspects of the project Les Amarres, a multifunctional Logistics Hub in the heart of the French capital. We also learnt about other projects in the area, such as the governance shift of the Parisian region’s canals.

A roundtable was focusing on the Port of London Authority’s Active Thames activities and how the Port works on the monitoring and evaluation of its policies.
A workshop was then conducted by members of the Connected River Project, introducing some methodology tools to foster low-tech and user-centric experimentations. Feedback from the experimentations implemented in real-life in the different pilot areas was highly appreciated by the group members.


Day 2 · Thursday, March 5
On the second day, the participants enjoyed an informative boat tour from the city center to the outskirts of the metropolitan area and back to London Royal Docks using a privatised Thames Clipper, the public transport boats on the river. The visit didn’t stop when the boat docked, as the Royal Docks Team and Royal Docks Waterways then led a walking tour through this inspiring neighborhood. The group discovered the area which will be transformed by water activities in the near future due to the strategy that was unveiled a couple of days before by Royal Docks Waterways, the non-profit in charge of the management of the waterways in the area.
 
In the afternoon, we were hosted at London City Hall for two more roundtables.
One centered around how to repurpose former industrial site to create mixed use neighborhood with examples from the city of Bilbao who just started the transformation of a whole new area of the city and by examples from Australia, the UK and the USA presented by HATCH.

The last roundtable focused on the environmental initiatives in London that care about the waterways with a presentation by the Greater London Authority about an upcoming policy by the Mayor of London’s Clean and Healthy Waterways, followed by the different actions organized by the Port of London Authority. The final presentation was conducted by BioMatrix Water to showcase their solution to rewild waterways and conduct depollution actions.

We would like to thank our partners and members who joined us in this event and made for a very successful 3rd edition:

  • Port of London Authority (United Kingdom)
  • Greater London Authority (United Kingdom)
  • Royal Docks Waterways (United Kingdom)
  • HAROPA PORT (France)
  • Paris 1 Sorbonne University (France)
  • Bordeaux Métropole (France)
  • Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (France)
  • Métropole de Lyon (France)
  • City of Douala (Cameroon)
  • City of Bilbao (Spain)
  • Port of Bilbao (Spain)
  • HATCH (United Kingdom)
  • BioMatrix Water (United Kingdom)
  • iCON Infrastructure (United Kingdom)
  • GFE (Belgium)
  • Port Autonome du Centre et de l’Ouest (Belgium)
  • Antwerp Management School (Belgium)
  • Innovalor Advice (Netherlands)
  • Rijkswaterstaat (Netherlands)

Two online meetings will follow to continue in this great dynamic for 2026!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to Noémi Mené (nmene@aivp.org) for more information on the working group on River Port Cities.