ESPACETUR - Planeamento dos Espaços Turísticos em Áreas Costeiras
AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The project’s aim is the analysis and assessment of tourism spaces as part of urban conurbations in coastal areas contributing for an integrated approach to spatial planning policies and urban regulation.
The first goal of this project is to study how the different kinds of tourism destinations have developed, their similarities and differences in terms of urban form and landscape. A comprehensive typology and selection of tourism spaces in coastal areas is the starting point of the research. It includes the analysis of the following dimensions: urban form and morphology; land uses; equipments and infrastructures; articulation with biophysical systems; local and regional spatial and functional integration of tourism spaces. The results will be crossed with information about actors involved, the role they played and the governance conditions under which the tourism spaces have been produced. The objective is to understand how different processes produce different tourism spaces.
The second main goal of the project is to assess how successful the different types of tourism spaces have been in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The objective is to produce policy guidelines for rationalising decision-making and providing a more objective base for planning and for assessing new private projects in the coastal areas, particularly in terms of its integration in urban and metropolitan regions.
KEY RESULTS: To create a methodology and appropriate tools for decision-making processes regarding planning and urban form of coastal tourism spaces. Project outcomes aim at identifying solutions and best practices for more effective conflict management between resource users in coastal tourism areas and solutions for the sustainable use of land.
Results include:
i) To identify the evolution patterns of touristic occupations concerning the historical and the environmental backgrounds, as well as the urbanization processes, dynamics and trends.
ii) To categorize the territorial patterns and the urban fabrics of tourism spaces in terms of accessibilities and social infrastructures, building typology, public spaces, densities, land uses and plot division.
iii) To construct a reading and an interpretative morphological matrix to be used as a tool in the evaluation and planning of tourism spaces.
iv) To highlight best practices in what concern the design and the networking of the tourism spaces integrated in urban conurbations.
v) To systematize best practices based on the selected case studies




Date: March 2012 - June 2015
Coordination: CIAUD – João Cabral; Principal Investigator: Carlos Ferreira (CEG/IGOT)
Team:
CIAUD/FAUL: Cristina Cavaco; João Cabral; João Carvalho; Pedro George
CEG/IGOT: Carlos Ferreira; Eduarda Marques; José Simões
Consultants: Gareth Shaw (Univerty of Exeter, United Kingdom); Alexandre Cancela d’Abreu (Universidade de Évora); Jorge Manuel Umbelino (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); António Porfírio Maia (Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Algarve); Daniel Pinson (Université Paul-Cézanne Aix-Marseille); Maria Fernanda Vara Teixeira (Turismo de Portugal)
Research assistants (Grant holders): Célia Martins; André Oliveira; Diogo Fonseca
Funding: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/AUR-URB/118612/2010)
Partners: Centro de Estudos Geográficos (IGOT-UL); Direção-Geral do Território (DGT); Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Algarve (CCDR Algarve); Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Turísticas / Universidad de Alicante (IUIT)