Local planning attitudes: Comparative content analysis of municipal director plans of shrinking Portuguese cities

Authors

  • Sílvia Sousa CITTA – Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2019-0017

Keywords

Urban shrinkage, shrinking cities, urban planning, Portugal

Abstract

Traditional planning practice, in its essence, usually pursues urban growth, and is more comfortable dealing with population increase and other growth dynamics than with population decline and what ensues. The main goal of this article is to assess local planning attitudes in Portugal towards demographic change, and in particular towards population decrease, in terms of housing development. In order to do so, a comparative content analysis of municipal director plans (PDM) – Planos Diretores Municipais – of the fourteen Portuguese cities that shrank prevalently and persistently across the conjoining periods 1991–2001–2011 was completed using a simple matrix of analysis. The qualitative analysis of the regulations of these PDMs showed that aspects of population decrease and shrinkage in relation to housing development are gradually entering local planning practice, though there is not yet an overall intelligible strategy. In Portugal, demographic change and housing development are only just starting to come together in local spatial planning.

Author Biography

Sílvia Sousa, CITTA – Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto

Sílvia Sousa is a Post-Doctoral Researcher from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and an integrated member of the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment (CITTA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP). Graduate in Urban and Regional Planning (University of Aveiro), specialized in European Spatial Planning (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), an MSc in Environment, Planning and Urban Project and PhD in Civil Engineering – Planning and Environment (University of Porto). She has professional experience as a team member, project manager, and co-author of several urban development plans, detailed local plans, urban regeneration projects, sector studies, urban design projects and urban architecture projects. She has been involved in national and international research projects and her scientific activity has included research in fields such as historic centers management, low carbon urban environments, shrinking cities, urban resilience, and more recently evidence-based planning, urban form, and accessibility. She is a member of the Spatial Planners Portuguese Association (APPLA), Shrinking Cities International Research Network (SCiRN™), COST Action TU0803 Cities Regrowing Smaller (CIRES) – Fostering Knowledge on Regeneration Strategies in Shrinking Cities across Europe, and Portuguese Network of Urban Morphology (PNUM).

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Published

2019-06-04

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1.
SOUSA, Sílvia. Local planning attitudes: Comparative content analysis of municipal director plans of shrinking Portuguese cities. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. Online. 4 June 2019. No. 44, pp. 81-91. [Accessed 9 May 2025]. DOI 10.2478/bog-2019-0017.

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No. 44 (2019): June

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