ABSTRACT
The European Landscape Convention and Water Framework Directive reinforced the Member States’ responsibilities concerning riverscapes planning and management to reverse the increasing destruction of watersheds’ natural structures, whose impacts are being aggravated by extreme climatic events and severe pollution. Several (inter)national commitments and principles were adopted to improve riverscapes’ hydrological resilience, while ensuring its multifunctionality. This investigation aimed to demonstrate which set of measures promotes both in urban context, at watershed scale, and how its operationalization could be facilitated, regarding intermunicipal policy formulation and decision-making processes. Using the Tinto riverscape as a case study, a comparative analysis of its riverscape multifunctionality performance and hydrological resilience was carried out, considering three different evolution hypotheses. In both assessments, the ‘adaptation’ hypothesis had the most positive impact, however it needed the adoption of complementary measures. A strategy was then designed towards a long-term effective urban adaptation of Tinto riverscape, based on a step-by-step process, requiring a transitional governance model. Considering this, a set of governance mechanisms was proposed to better suit the present model for the strategy implementation by increasing its level of aptitude for transition and adding relevant governance factors, previously analyzed and identified, based on the literature review of actual case studies with verifiable practical results.
