^{Waterfront developments have come to European attention not only through excessively eccentric marinas and holiday resorts, but painfully through recent flooding disasters in the UK, Germany and Eastern Europe, as well as the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. Both contemporary climate change issues and the pressing need for affordable and sustainable housing challenge destructive development patterns from the post-war period. Waterfront locations are among the most fragile and sensitive, as well as the most complex, vital and spectacular opportunities for a sustainable contemporary urbanism and require new approaches to planning and governance.}