The location can be divided into the coastal port, the estuary port and the inland port, the coastal port and the estuary harbour.
(1) estuary port
Located in the estuary of the estuary or the tidal impact of the river, can serve as a sea boat and river boat service. Usually have a big cities as the backing, the amphibious transportation is convenient, inland waterways into mainland broad economic hinterland, often assume a variety of goods flow, so many port in the world is built near the river, such as the port of Rotterdam, port of London, New York harbor, Leningrad port, Shanghai port, etc. The characteristic of estuary harbor is that the dock facilities are arranged along the riverbank, not far from the sea and not need to be built, such as the length of the shoreline, which can be added to the port pool.
(2) harbour
Located on the coast, in the gulf or in lagoons, there are also those who have left the coast to be built on deep water. On the shore of the open sea or insufficient natural cover bay port, usually must build sizeable breakwater, such as dalian, Qingdao, lianyungang port of Geneva, keelung port, Italy, etc. Single-point or multi-point mooring wharves and island quays for large oil tankers or ore ships are uncovering sea harbours, such as the port of blagga in Libya and sidon port in Lebanon. The lagoon is completely or partially isolated from the natural sand mouth, and can be built on the Banks of lagoons, such as the north sea port of guangxi, after digging canals or widening and dredging deep waterways. There are also large seaports with natural cover, such as Tokyo port, Hong Kong port, Sydney harbour, Australia.
(3) river port
Ports located on natural rivers or artificial canals, including lakes and reservoirs. Lakes and reservoirs are wide and sometimes rough, so there are many similarities with the harbour, such as the need to build breakwater. Such are the ports on large reservoirs such as gubishev, the Soviet union, and the small ports on the lake in hongze, China.