Witold Barczuk

Abstract

Modern sea transport is recently, more than previously, concerned with the geography of the land adjacent to the port which forms the hinterland and the foreland. This is indispensable from the point of view of the proper organ-ization of transport and also the acquisition of cargoes for sea transport. This is, above all, connected with the modern technology of reloading and transport-ing for the reasons given below:

• Acquisition of cargoes for container-ships or LASH-system often takes place outside the ports, at their hinterland or foreland and not in the port as was previously practiced in the traditional system. Consequently, cargoes are often transferred for sea transportation far away from the port.1
• Proper organization of modern sea transport makes the sea carrier con-cerned in land transport and its conditions in the hinterland and the foreland.
• At the hiterland and the foreland special conditions are created to collect cargoes designed for sea transport and there is also the demand for cargoes. All the problems involved, are of interest to those who organize sea transport mainly because of the necessity of planning and forecasting cargo turnover for the future.

Theoretical works on the hinterland and the foreland are so far insufficient for this purpose and they do not clearly explain their role in relation to the needs of transport and the terminology used in those works is not precise enough or clearly understood.The author of the present work suggests the acceptance of certain formula-tions relating to the meaning and function of the hinterland and foreland of ports in sea transport.

Witold Barczuk, Gdańsk University