London is not alone in having to adjust to the loss of city centre industry and the shift to containerisation and road based distribution. Capitals and ports all over the world are redeveloping the vast hearts of their cities where once were accommodated the docks and wharves that fed their economies. To gauge the scale of the decline in water transport you only have to visit MIPIM, the annual international property conference in Cannes. Here are showcased massive redevelopment schemes from Ireland to Greece, all located on sites that once relied on water transport.

In London, and no doubt other former ports in the western economies, the socio-economic impact of the collapse of inland water transport can be seen in the remarkably strong correlation between the waterways and deprivation. This relationship reflects the former employment of communities, particularly in East London, in the Docks, in water carriage generally and in water accessed industries.

Not surprisingly, there is an equally strong relationship between the waterways and development opportunity. Analysis shows that 76 per cent of the land in the areas of ‘opportunity and intensification’ identified by the London Plan, the spatial development strategy for the capital, is accessible from the waterway network. This reflects the former use of these now brownfield sites. This land is set to accommodate 80 per cent of all the new workspace and 71 per cent of all the new homes that are targeted for the development areas.

This presents a tremendous opportunity for the waterways to carry construction materials and waste to and from these sites during their development phase and later waste and recyclates away. This would help make the developments more sustainable by reducing their road use with all its consequences of congestion, accidents and pollution.

Shifting heavy lorry movements to waterways can reduce accidents, cut carbon emissions by 75 per cent, and improve the quality of life. Compared to lorries, barges use less than a third of the fuel per tonne of cargo and can carry more than five times as much payload (depending on the dimensions of the particular waterway). Increased barge traffic brings natural surveillance to routes perceived as unsafe for people walking or cycling along the waterways.

But until fairly recently, little was done to take advantage of the opportunities presented by London’s waterway network. Then, in 2000, London elected its first city-wide mayor. Ken Livingstone was sympathetic to the cause of waterways. They featured prominently in his London Plan and he promoted their use for transport, recreation and natural habitat. As road congestion increased and concern about the impact of carbon emissions on the environment mounted, water transport became attractive once more.

In 2004, freight traffic on the tidal Thames through the Port of London was 53.3 million tonnes, 11 per cent higher than four years previously. There are now 50 wharves on the Thames and its tributaries that are safeguarded by the mayor for water freight cargo-handling. With large tonnage capacities, the Thames is more economically viable for water freight than the canal network. But soaring fuel prices, increased road vehicle costs and unreliable lorry journey times have reached a point where freight traffic on the canal is now viable.

The capacity of the London canal network is in excess of 10 million tonnes, equivalent to around two million heavy lorry trips a year. Although this represents a small percentage of total London road freight, the canal routes access inner London where the damage, congestion and pollution caused by heavy vehicles is at its greatest. Were the canal network to be used to capacity it could rival the quantities of freight currently carried on the rail network.

The results of the 2004 mayoral elections left Livingstone dependent on support from Green Party assembly members to get his budget through. Jenny Jones, one of the Greens and a canal enthusiast, struck a deal to get money spent on canal infrastructure. The mayor funded some dredging of London’s canals and helped pay for the construction of a new wharf on the Grand Union canal in west London. There has also been investment in the development of a multi-modal refuse vehicle that can be used to collect municipal waste in containers which can be transferred to barges or rail wagons, along with a new type of skip carrying barge.

Over the last few years barges out to the west of London have been moving 50,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year. Now, some major developments such as the Olympics, Crossrail - the new underground railway through London, and the King’s Cross railway lands redevelopment are seriously investigating the movements of large quantities of materials by water. Two other big infrastructure tunnelling projects for sewerage and electricity challenge London’s capacity to shift and recycle enormous tonnages of materials. These too will need to use water transport if they are to avoid causing major congestion in the capital.