10. Designing a Captivating Proximity to Water: Two Case Studies of the Iberian Peninsula

Although today the proximity to the hydrographic network is no longer a necessary condition to settle, riverfronts and blue-green corridors seem to be an appealing and winning urban regeneration formula and a support for landscape and urban projects that tend towards an urban habitability. When analysing how densely urbanised areas historically marked by watercourses become terrain where urban policy aspires to build a greener and liveable urban future, the goal is to understand what kind of role water is called to play with regard to the urban surroundings: from water as historical ‘sign’ and memory to water as one of the most immediate and affordable public space and connection. This paper focuses on two interventions implemented in Loures (Tagus Estuary humid system, Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal) and Girona (Ter River Basin, Catalonia, Spain). Through the case studies of the Iberian Peninsula, both part of ongoing interventions aiming to create new ‘vicinity’ to (water) landscape for the general public, the work concludes that new-found accessibility and a captivating proximity to the waters—achieved even with limited intervention (by involving careful use of money and resources)—can be the first tool to value, recognise and appropriate urban open spaces.