Port Cities, Peoples and Cultures: Waterfront Regeneration and “Glocal” Identity Gabriella ESPOSITO DE VITA 1 , Stefania OPPIDO 1 , Stefania RAGOZINO 1 (1) IRAT-CNR, Napoli, Italia g.esposito@irat.cnr.it, s.oppido@irat.cnr.it, s.ragozino@irat.cnr.it Abstract Among the many issues that concern the regeneration and shape of public spaces within the waterfront areas, the way in which these spaces respond to the multifaceted influences resulting from globalization, multiculturalism as well as maritime traditions has been chosen for this study. The key issue is the material and immaterial way port cities traditionally combines influences from elsewhere with local identity, in order to define urban design tools oriented to deal with the social and cultural fractures of contemporary urban areas. The main purpose of this research is to develop a methodological approach that targets enhancement of multiple roles of waterfronts in order to favour social inclusion and cultural interactions. The interpretation of multifaceted social needs is aimed at defining strategies in order to improve processes for producing inclusive public spaces. To explore this scenario, case studies have been focused on waterfront regeneration projects in Belfast, Marseille and New York, in order to develop applications for other multicultural heritage. These case studies have been oriented at identifying the characters of those public places that lie on the borderline between land and water, peoples and cultures, port and city. These contexts have been chosen in order to address policies of waterfront regeneration consistent with the role of public spaces in interpreting the intensity of cultural diversity in terms of integrations and interactions. Keywords: cultural identity, port city, Belfast, Marseille, New York 1. Introduction The genesis of the city on the water is strictly connected with the idea of crossroad, melting pot as well as bridge amid diversities [1]. The ideas of dynamicity, globalization, and multiculturalism rest on the nature of the cities that were born as crossroads of flows of peoples, cultures and goods [2]. These historical water-cities have been able to enhance the added values of being multifaceted and resilient as well as to develop the antibodies to protect the organism against the negative effects of their specificity [3]. Understanding the nature of these antibodies, developing and subsequently inoculating it in other urban context could be an important contribution to dealing with the major issues of the contemporary cities. This research aims at developing a complex approach in order to understand the capacity of public spaces in waterfront areas to assimilate and metabolize the multicultural dynamics building a new inclusive local identity. The specific topic is to define a methodological approach oriented to identifying morphological and functional characters of public space in order to implementing inclusive tools for urban design [4]. This paper seeks to unveil the nexus between urban regeneration processes and multicultural issues, by investigating the added value of “glocal” identity of cities by the water [5]. At this purpose, it first discusses what values have dominated in the waterfront regeneration theory and practice throughout the last decades, advocating the recasting of local development issues within a more identitarian oriented conceptual frame. Secondly, it explores the role played by maritime tradition in governing urban transformation oriented to enhance the multicultural and resilient features of public places. The