No abstract

It is known that the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and particularly the Valencian coast, has been the subject of an intense process of urban development since the 1960s. This process has been caused by both the increase in economic activities as a basis for the growth of cities and by the development of tourism along almost the entire coastline. Some cases have been studied in detail, such as the case of La Manga del Mar Menor, where massive tourist development took place. In the case of La Devesa de L'Albufera de València, its beginnings are similar to those of La Manga. In both cases, there is a similar coastal environment with a narrow strip of land between a large lake on one side, the Mar Menor lake and the Albufera lake, and the Mediterranean Sea on the other. However, from a certain point in time, the two areas evolved differently. In the case of La Manga, urban tourist development continued until the collapse of the real estate market due to the reduced attractiveness of the landscape. In contrast, the area of La Devesa del Saler began as a tourist urban development in a similar way, but, in the 1970s, a social movement emerged against its urbanization. This social movement gained strength progressively, until tourism development initiatives were paralyzed and the area protected for its environmental value. The case is the object of a doctoral thesis entitled "The mountain of La Devesa del Saler: the paradigm shift in mass tourism", and this paper focuses on the results of a part of this research, specifically the identification of the main historical milestones that explain the evolution of the process in the case of La Devesa del Saler.

The Saler's Devesa is a case of a failed tourist project to urbanize a historical protected forest inside the metropolitan area of València in Spain. In the 1970s, the government started actions to urbanize this area. In fact, all the public works and some buildings were built. However, in the 1980s the new democratic government decided to rewild the area and "deconstruct" the urban development works that had already been built. The case allows knowing the process of rewilding and the difficulties to do it. On the other hand, currently in developed countries, metropolitan areas simultaneously present a stabilized population and a great surface extension. In this situation, the sustainability of these urban areas has focused on managing the city already consolidated by renovation or regeneration processes and rewilding open spaces, developing green infrastructures. Because of this, we focused our attention on researching one of the few cases that exists on rewilding urban areas. The green infrastructure concept has been used in the case of La Devesa to maintain and increase ecosystem services. In addition, these actions allow promotion of ecological tourism inside the area. The research question is "What should be the idea of society's progress when touristic urban development growth is no longer possible or desirable?" The article analyses the historical process of rewilding and rethinking the idea of progress in the current situation.