Hinterlands are the lands or regions behind a coast line served by a port as the terminal for commercial activities. These lands are where the port as a terminal draws its commercial activities from.
The forelands are the lands beyond the sea serving as a destination of goods and services obtained from the hinterland and passed through the port as a terminal (Slack, Rodrigue & Notteboom, 2010, para. 3).
Hinterlands are a very important component in the transport industry especially the freight industry where ports are involved. Hinterlands determine the location of ports all over the world. This is due to the fact that for a port to be located somewhere, the place must be of commercial value or potential commercial activities that will attract business to that place, and this business value is brought about by what the hinterland holds in terms of market for incoming goods or in terms of resources to be exported out of the area.
Hinterlands determine how important a port is to be. The economic importance of a hinterland in terms of the market it offers for goods and services as well as the goods it offers for the market will determine how important the port is compared to other ports offering the same services (Elliot N.R, 1968, p. 153). For example, the port of New York is seen to be among the most important in the world because it is a gateway to the opportunities offered by the city of New York. This cannot be compared to the Somalia port of Kismayu whose hinterland is the war ravaged country of Somalia.
Therefore hinterlands are not just important by what kind of business they offer; they are also key determinants to growth of port trade and development of port industry.
Forelands on the other hand, are key to the development of ports of origin as well as ports of destination. Forelands are important in such a way that they create an attraction towards a certain port and onwards to the hinterlands. Forelands provide the need for goods and services that a specific hinterland holds and thus create a need for the development of the port and other infrastructure bordering the hinterland for the main purpose of extracting the goods.
The importance of forelands to a given port is crucial to the relevance of the sea port as it will determine the survival of the sea port. An example is when a hinterland provides natural resources such as oil and the given resource becomes the main commodity that uses the port for onward transport to the foreland, the port will remain relevant only if the said commodity still attracts export value to a given foreland. If the main commodity that makes the port relevant looses its importance, the port may die a natural death if it will not be able to attract any more viable trade.
The technological advancements of the foreland dictate how goods and services are to be packaged from their original ports. This will force the ports of origin as well as the hinterland to also adopt new and advanced ways of doing things so as to be compatible with the systems used by the forelands. Such pre-conditions being set out by the forelands make them an important player in that any player not conforming with the forelands new conditions will be locked out of the business.
Therefore forelands and hinterlands are important players to the port businesses in terms of terminals and locations as they determine how different ports of interest will do business.
Reference list
Elliot N. R. (1968). Hinterlands and forelands as illustrated by the port of Tyne. Institute of British geographers. Web.
Slack, B., Rodrigue, J. P. & Notteboom, T. (2010). Terminals and locations: hinterlands and fore lands. Hofstra University, the geography of transport systems. Web.