[Re]Activating the abandoned land and vegetation on the banks of the Tâmega and Lagoas rivers in Chaves

Stefany Rodrigues

The present work proposes the (re)activation of abandoned areas and vegetation, located on Tâmega river banks and some lakes nearby, in Chaves city, north of Portugal. This proposal seeks to formulate a continuous intervention. The aim is to understand the relation between the river and the city through an approach to the banks and how their components become dependent and linked to the river. This approach tries to build a strategic line that works as a common factor, finding solutions and ways that will allow to revitalize their features, maintaining focus on the river banks and on the developments that follows it. As a methodology, we analyzed the evolution of the territory and of the coastal fronts, that subsequently understood in a study on a regional scale and comprehensive relationship between the river, the lowland and the banks, becoming this the focus and support of an analysis of their limits and natural constituents, the vegetation, the paths and the land. From these, it is formulated a strategy that exploits the vegetation in their temporal cycles and ways to interact with the other associated structures, being this the motto for the reuse of abandoned areas and boost the use of public space, preceded by the resolution of problems and balance the environment and waterways. The process developed in the course of the work, allowed to structure a new way of acting, being able to intervene at various levels, directly or indirectly, by providing a natural (re)active connector and mutation of the banks and the elements that constitute them. The exploitation of environments, the cultivation of atmospheres, the use of public space and vegetation on the banks, originated a dynamic result, involved in the current socio-economic context and natural balance, with stimulus in the landscape.