Interconnected responses for interconnected problems: synergistic pathways for sustainable wealth in port cities

Port cities as hubs for trade and exchange show the extremes of rapid growth and catastrophic decline: they show the complex and interconnected problems of change in urban systems, and the challenge of maintaining local 'sustainable wealth' and prosperity. This suggests a transition from a material-focused (mono-valent) local economic development to a prosperity-focused (multi-valent) local integrated development. This paper sets out a method and framework for working with such problems and responses: the 'synergistic' approach to mapping and design of complex systems. This helps to identify alternative development pathways, looking beyond a linear model, to a more synergistic model based on creative collaboration and shared intelligence. This mapping method for local integrated development is demonstrated with two contrasting examples from the UK: an urban regeneration case from Liverpool: and an urban public health programme from Glasgow.