Revaluing Saltscapes in Portugal

Abstract

Solar salinas in Portugal are progressively changing from places of work to places of tourism. The research question is the extent to which these special landscapes have been understood, marketed, and enhanced to the benefit of mostly tourists and visitors or also local constituencies. This research question arises from a sense of stigmatization, perceived lack of potential, and outmoded technological development associated with traditional cultural heritage and sun and sea tourism paradigms. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze how two Portuguese municipalities (i.e., Aveiro and Figueira da Foz) have engaged in the rehabilitation of their solar salinas. The argument is that given the considerable natural areas of wetlands in the case studies, solar salinas, and their potentialities from ecotourism and environmental education ought to perform a more central role in the municipalities' territorial development strategies. The key finding is the identification of a set of lessons learned useful to the partial rehabilitation of solar salinas.

Enthralling Prefigurative Urban and Regional Planning Forward

“…Published research, mostly about southern European saltscapes [134,139,140], has contextualized the evolution of Portuguese solar salinas in the Mediterranean region and, based mostly on the cases of Figueira da Foz, Castro Marim, and Aveiro, has argued that saltscapes' socio-economic, cultural, and ecological value requires additional attention on multiple fronts, including the regulatory, business, and cooperative fronts. More recently, it has also been documented how saltscapes in Figueira da Foz and Aveiro have benefited from institutional support from municipal and educational entities to promote the rehabilitation of their respective solar salinas [141]. Said rehabilitation appears to be happening mostly through eco-tourism programs, the construction and operation of eco-museums, and the development of environmental education opportunities for students and scholars in high schools and institutions of higher education [142,143].…”