National audienceThis research proposes to highlight the complex mutations faced by port cities or “cityports” at a global scale. In a context of permanent reorganization of maritime containerized transportation and continental service, the increasing mobility of flows seems evermore contradictory with urban dynamics at simultaneous geographical levels. The building of a global database about more than three hundred nodes allows us to analyze changes that occurred in the recent period (1990-2000). Thus, the spatio-functional model of growing incompatibility is questioned thanks to a multivariate analysis of time variations, leading to a strong differentiation of the world in terms of port-city trendsCette recherche propose de mettre en vale...