Browsing by Author "Castanho, Rui Alexandre"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Accessibility dynamics and regional cross-border cooperation (CBC) perspectives in the portuguese—spanish borderlandPublication . Vulevic, Ana; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Naranjo Gómez, José Manuel; Loures, Luis; Cabezas, José; Fernández-Pozo, Luis; Martín Gallardo, JoséAccessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.
- Assessing health resources equipped with hemodynamic rooms in the Portuguese-Spanish borderland: cross-border cooperation strategies as a possible solutionPublication . Gómez, José Manuel Naranjo; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Cabezas Fernández, José; Loures, LuisPortugal and Spain share one of the greatest European borderland areas. This fact has direct impacts on a large territory and consequently on the communities’ living in it. Still, even if the border areas represent an essential fraction of the territory, planning policies have not resulted in specific cooperation programs that could enable sharing general leisure and recreation assets and infrastructures and collaboration in critical domains—i.e., the case of the health sector. The present study aims to assess the territorial accessibility to the hemodynamic rooms by the potential population of the Spanish-Portuguese transition areas that may suffer an acute myocardial infarction. Contextually, this study employed a spatial interaction model based on the three-step floating catchment area method (method-3SFCA). By applying these methods, it was possible to develop a map of accessibility to health infrastructures equipped with hemodynamics rooms on both sides of the border that may answer the Spanish-Portuguese border populations’ needs. Besides, while granting valuable information for decision-makers regarding the need to develop new infrastructures to guarantee that even considering cross border cooperation, everyone gets access to a hemodynamics room within the critical intervention period.
- Land-use changes in the canary archipelago using the CORINE Data: a retrospective analysisPublication . Naranjo Gómez, José Manuel; Lousada, Sérgio; Garrido Velarde, Jacinto Garrido; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Loures, LuisThe relationships between territorial governance and the pursuit of sustainable development are evidenced to be critical. Exploratory tools, like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), enable us to comprehend the patterns, dynamics, and parameters of land-use changes over the years. The results from such studies could be used in the design of a sustainable territorial governance strategy. Contextually, a study has been conducted based on the changes that occurred in land uses in the Canary Archipelago in the years 1990, 2000, 2012, and 2018 using CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) data. Even if most of the land uses have been stable over the analyzed period, the investigation shows a decrease in agricultural areas. By contrast, it is possible to verify an increase in semi-natural areas and urban agglomerations. Moreover, the authors believe that an assessment of the land-use changes on these ultra-peripheral areas will also enable us to disclose some obstacles and opportunities for sustained development.
- Political commitment and transparency as a critical factor to achieve territorial cohesion and sustainable growth. European cross-border projects and strategiesPublication . Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Vulevic, Ana; Naranjo Gomez, Jose Manuel; Cabezas, Jose; Fernandez-Pozo, Luis; Loures, Luis; Kurowska-Pysz, JoannaPolitical commitment and transparency have been previously identified as critical factors for territorial success, as well as factors which allow the achievement of stronger cohesion and sustainable growth of cross-border cooperation projects and strategies. The present study is aimed at a more thorough analysis of these factors. Throughout the analysis and assessment of the European CBC case studies, where political commitment has been defined as a critical factor, political and economic transparency plays a key role. This analysis, which incorporates public and technical opinions, provides a better comprehension on how these factors influence the European panorama. It includes the key messages for policy-makers when designing and implementing development strategies specifically tailored to the needs of these places.
- Relevance of intermittent rivers and streams in agricultural landscape and their impact on provided ecosystem services—a Mediterranean case studyPublication . Kaletová, Tatiana; Loures, Luis; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Aydin, Elena; Gama, José Telo da; Loures, Ana; Truchy, AmélieEcosystem services (ES), as an interconnection of the landscape mosaic pieces, along with temporal rivers (IRES) are an object of research for environmental planners and ecological economists, among other specialists. This study presents (i) a review on the importance of IRES and the services they can provide to agricultural landscapes; (ii) a classification tool to assess the impact of IRES to provide ES by agricultural landscapes; (iii) the application of the proposed classification to the Caia River in order to identify the importance of this intermittent river for its surrounding agricultural landscape. The classification of the ES follows the Common International Classification of Ecosystem (CICES) classification that was adapted for the purposes of this study. Firstly, the list of ES provided by agricultural landscape was elaborated. In the next step, we assessed the potential of IRES to provide ES. Next, IRES impacts to ES within the agricultural landscape were evaluated according to observations from the conducted field monitoring in the study area. This study focuses on the relevance of the intermittent Caia River-a transboundary river in Spain and Portugal-and its ephemeral tributaries in the agricultural landscape. Our study estimates that each hydrological phase of IRES increases the ES provided by the agricultural landscape. However, the dry phase can potentially have negative impacts on several services. The intensification of the agricultural sector is the main provision of the water resource within the Caia River basin, but we were able to identify several other ES that were positively impacted. The present study is in line with the conclusions of other authors who state that IRES constitute a valuable resource which should not be underestimated by society.
- Sustainable planning of cross-border cooperation: a strategy for alliances in border citiesPublication . Kurowska-Pysz, Joanna; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Loures, LuisIn recent years, cooperation among nations has become a critical issue towards sustainable development of neighbor cities in border areas. In this regard, sustainable common planning approaches and policies are an increasing reality, particularly in European territories. Considering the significant amount of cross-border cooperation (CBC) projects and strategies within Europe, it is crucial to promote research approaches that are able to identify the most positive approaches towards the establishment of alliances in border territories, serving as pivotal methodologies for achieving success. Contextually, the present study considered direct and indirect research methods and tools, literature reviews, data collection, computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and computer-assisted web interview (CAWI), all applied over two European border cities: Cieszyn (Poland) and Cesky Tesin (Czech Republic). These methods enabled the assembly of perspectives of local authorities, public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, and entrepreneurs from the cities under study. Through the analysis of the collected data, five conditions have been identified for the success of strategic alliances in CBC projects: (i) well defining the alliance goals; (ii) ensuring participation in the alliance of various groups of stakeholders; (iii) involvement of both partners with extensive experience in CBC; (iv) ensuring the coherence of the key objective; and (v) guaranteeing the alliance benefits both sides. These conditions might effectively contribute to achieve more successful outputs in CBC projects, highlighting the relevance of previously developed strategies on the definition of future approaches.
- Villagers’ perceptions of tourism activities in Iona National Park: locality as a key factor in planning for sustainabilityPublication . Morais, Jorge; Castanho, Rui Alexandre; Loures, Luis; Pinto-Gomes, Carlos; Santos, PedroLocal people's perception of nature-based tourism evolution and consequent impacts on their well-being are crucial in promoting ecotourism and achieving sustainable development. This study focused on indigenous populations' attitudes concerning tourism activities taking place in the Iona National Park, located in the Namibe Province of Angola, where ecotourism is considered an anchor product and is expected to become an economic driver of major importance. To obtain information that is useful for a changing tourism management in order to increase rural communities' well-being, we conducted a survey addressing local people's perceptions about the following main topics: perception of the presence of visitors and of their activities; present and prospective positive and negative effects of the park; and government policies that should be developed in the near future. The research shows that most respondents' perceptions strongly vary according to locality. The level of urbanization and the distance to the core areas of touristic activities appear to be the main factors driving the villagers' perception polarization. Thus, conflicting interests between nature conservation and local populations' well-being should be addressed and managed according to locality profiles, with some exceptions, such as ensuring the entire population has access to pastoral lands.