Desenvolvimento Territorial
Valuing the territory's strategic resources, energy sustainability and the efficiency and rationalization of inter-municipal collective services are some of the new territorial challenges facing AML.Projects and initiatives
Development objectives and strategies
The Lisbon metropolitan area has the highest population and economic concentration in Portugal. Its eighteen municipalities are home to 2.87 million inhabitants, more than a quarter of the Portuguese population (10.3 million).
With an Atlantic coastline of around 150km, a 200km riverfront, two large estuaries (Tagus and Sado) and five protected areas, the Lisbon metropolitan area has a great morphological variety and an abundance of natural riches, which give it an environmental, landscape, economic and leisure potential that must be preserved and enhanced.
The valorization of the territory's strategic resources, energy sustainability and the efficiency and rationalization of inter-municipal collective services are, in this context, some of the new territorial challenges facing the regional and sub-regional levels.
The Regional Spatial Planning Plan for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, as a guiding instrument for strategies with a territorial impact, defines strategic development objectives and options for the entire region.
Operationally, it establishes the broad guidelines for the planning and urban occupation of the metropolitan territory, defines the regional infrastructure and transport networks, the fundamental ecological structure and the urban system, and is the reference framework for drawing up municipal land use plans.
Its main development strategies are to increase economic competitiveness, local and regional development, environmental sustainability and socio-territorial cohesion.
Within the framework of the protocol it has established with the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon since 2019, AML has also joined the MetroPublicNet research project, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, which seeks to build the foundations of a metropolitan network of public space, as a support for a more resilient, decarbonized and cohesive region.
Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Forest Management Program
The Regional Forest Management Program for Lisbon and the Tagus Valley is a sectorial territorial management instrument that establishes specific rules for the use and exploitation of forests, with the aim of guaranteeing the sustained production of all the goods and services associated with them.
The programme organizes forest areas at regional level from a multiple-use perspective, assessing the potential of forest areas from the point of view of their dominant uses, defining the species to be preferred in forest conversion or expansion actions, defining the most appropriate general forestry and resource management models and defining critical areas from the point of view of fire risk, sensitivity to erosion and ecological, social and cultural importance, as well as the specific forestry and sustainable use standards to be used in these areas.
The program is also responsible for defining forestry standards that reflect the principles of multiple use, social use, biodiversity and sustainable development of the forest, as well as establishing the areas of forest holdings and public, community or private woodlands from which they must be subject to a Forest Management Plan, in order to regulate management interventions on forest holdings.
Regional spatial planning plan
The Regional Spatial Planning Plan for the Lisbon metropolitan area aims to develop, at regional level, the options set out in the national spatial planning policy program and the sectoral plans.
The guidelines resulting from this policy instrument include: the progressive reduction of environmental liabilities with the continued and coherent implementation of the sustainable development paradigm; the greater cohesion of the urban system, with better articulation between the metropolitan area and the other urban centers, with a view to reducing regional asymmetries; the reorganization of the metropolitan area with the reduction of suburbanization phenomena, the promotion of urban containment and the consolidation of multipolar territorial structures; the improvement of territorial mobility, through the strengthening of accessibility and the organization and management of sustainable, reliable and competitive transport systems.
The plan defines the strategic options for the development of the Lisbon metropolitan area, establishes a territorial model with the main systems, networks and links at regional level, systematizes the rules that constitute the reference framework for the preparation of territorial management instruments, and establishes the program for its implementation, by identifying actions and investments in multiple areas.
Environmental sustainability, metropolitan qualification, socio-territorial cohesion and the organization of a metropolitan transport system are the four essential priorities of the Regional Spatial Plan for the Lisbon metropolitan area.
Lisbon 2020 Regional Planning Plan
The Lisbon metropolitan area intends to continue the development path it has been following since 1986, overcoming social and economic bottlenecks and making more intelligent, inclusive and sustainable use of the potential generated by the territory and its human, cultural and environmental capital.
In the context of the preparation of the Lisbon Regional Action Plan 2014-2020, the supporting document for the POR Lisboa 2020, and the Regional Strategy for Intelligent Specialization, the region's strategic positioning was rethought.
The region has chosen to focus its efforts on projects that promote research, technological development, innovation and increased competitiveness of SMEs, energy efficiency and the protection of the environment and biodiversity, inclusion, education and lifelong learning.
In short, POR Lisboa 2020 supports investments in the 18 municipalities of the Lisbon metropolitan area that aim to make the region more competitive in the global economy, more inclusive in terms of access to the job market for young people, and more sustainable in terms of the use of resources.
The program's nine priorities are as follows: strengthening research, technological development and innovation; strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs; preserving and protecting the environment and promoting the efficient use of resources; promoting the sustainability and quality of employment and supporting worker mobility; promoting social inclusion and combating poverty and discrimination; investing in education, training and vocational training for skills acquisition and lifelong learning; sustainable urban development; and technical assistance.