The Sustainability of Mediterranean Port Areas: Environmental Management for Local Regeneration in Valencia

Urban renovation projects, which have led to the conversion of port areas through a new vision of waterfronts as elements of the potential development of the urban system in its entirety, have spread since the early 1950s and now some port cities are able to trigger some mechanisms which, even if they are the result of some processes that have been activated for decades and which are still evolving, are able to amplify and to extend over time their generated positive impacts. These impacts also produce a system of relations in the context of the hinterland, attracted also by policies of economic, social, and cultural development. In the case of the city of Valencia, we have seen, in the last 50 years, a progressive spread of the urbanized area to the coasts, simultaneously with a process of renovation of the port area, which has been populated by important architectures, and which has been equipped by efficient infrastructures and subjected to numerous recovery and restoration operations of its historic buildings. However, the environmental conditions near the port area are not well suited to a good quality of life because ports are pollution producers, sites of urban decay, and of social degradation. A good plan can include some instruments to decrease those negative factors, leading to a close merging between the port area and the city hinterland, and generating new economies. The proposal of this research consists in a method of integrating the port planning with an environmental accounting system.