Resume: Estuaries and deltas are areas of great sensitivity in post-industrial cities, justifying the implementation of actions and coordinated policies. They are characterized by complex systems, due to the concentration of population in large cities or metropolitan areas, to a history of consecutive changes in the use of water and its coast line, to a sensitive ecological system, and the conflicts arising from the contemporary combination of functions. They are also systems subject to great pressure.
Resulting of a sectorally oriented management, estuaries and deltas reflect a strong separation in their policies and planning, in each and between the different sectors. Alternatively, new forms of integrated approach must be found, responding to environmental issues, the economic processes in development and (re) urbanization, having also in mind the problem of the recent densification. Climate change, resulting in the water level rise, in larger and more intense discharges of rivers and their tributaries, and changing weather patterns are on the European agenda and need to be studied locally. For the climate change, urbanized estuaries and deltas are, again, at the top of the most vulnerable areas. Transforming problems into opportunities and considering the expected impact in estuaries and deltas, we can move towards the implementation of a new perspective in an integrated approach to their planning and management.
The project aimed to the study of estuaries and urbanized deltas, setting as a case study the Tagus Estuary. This objective was achieved through the development of theoretical knowledge, the development of a synthetic model and the proposal for a new integrated approach to their planning and management.
The research was associated with an international project: the application «Urbanized Coasts and Deltas. In search for a new balance of environment, urbanization, economy and safety», submited to the European Union through the progam FP-7 Theme 6 - Coastal Cities, coordinated by Prof. Han Meyer (TU Delft) and envolving the KU Leuven, UPC Barcelona and IUAV Veneza Universitys.
