The maritimization and its territorial footprint: a sociotechnical path.

The case of the Pasaia Bay (Basque Country, Spain)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to describe the process of maritimization using the concept of the sociotechnical trajectory of the Bay of Pasaia since the XVI century, date from which cartography is available, up to the present time thanks to the development of geographic information systems (GIS), which allow locating places with precision, by means of maps prepared from existing historical cartographic and documentary sources on the matter. In this exercise, it is proposed to distinguish the events of the ruptures in order to produce a geohistorical synthesis through the elaboration of maps whose purpose is to study the port footprint in a territory over time. The methodology used observation, through the old maps, of the different stages of change and mutation of the city-port relationship and measurement of this process in its spatial dimension. This approach questions the role of a port in the process of territorial construction and, ultimately, allows us to question the legitimacy of decreasing ports to retain a form of authority in terms of territorial development.