The management of water heritage in Portuguese cities: recent regeneration projects in Évora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimarães

RESEARCH ARTICLE The management of water heritage in Portuguese cities: Recent regeneration projects in E ´vora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimara ˜es Celia Lo ´pez-Bravo*, Jose ´Peral Lo ´pez, Eduardo Mosquera Adell Department of Architectural History, Theory and Composition, University of Seville, Seville, Spain Received 4 June 2021; received in revised form 6 September 2021; accepted 8 September 2021 KEYWORDS Heritage characterization; Infrastructures; Landscape; Obsolescence; Urban planning; Waterworks Abstract Given the cultural and environmental potential presented by historical water infrastructures in urban contexts, this article states the evidence of a not much documented urban phenomenon in Portugal, the refurbishment of water heritage protected areas motivated by European-based regeneration projects. By employing a case-study design, four good practices -placed in E ´vora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimara ˜es-are chosen to enlighten this growing and aware trend. The assets located there -the A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct, the A ´guas Livres Aqueduct, the Sete Fontes water-supply system and the Zona de Couros industrial area, respectively-are geographical, historical and culturally characterised, while the projects that concern them are documented by visiting the areas and analysing the available sources. Then, open-data platforms and heritage protection decrees are processed to graphically code the topography, hydrology, urban land use, infrastructures, landmarks and protected areas, employing QGIS free software for Geographic Information Systems. As a result, the four practices are documented, discussed and compared. A table assesses and summarises their pre-existing and currently added values and a series of diagrams illustrates the landscape changes generated. These graphics validate the practices and update the status of the assets, enhancing the rediscovery of the existing landscapes and showing the main challenges and future opportunities faced by these areas. ª2021 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Lo ´pez-Bravo). Peer review under responsibility of Southeast University. +MODEL Please cite this article as: C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell, The management of water heritage in Portuguese cities: Recent regeneration projects in E ´vora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimara ˜es, Frontiers of Architectural Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.foar.2021.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2021.09.002 2095-2635/ª2021 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/foar Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx 1. Introduction Water heritage presents universal values and is a testimony to the uses and historical management of the territories; therefore, its landscapes conservation is a reason for study and valuation at the international level (Castro Garcı ´a, 2012). It is an issue of multi-disciplinary nature, as the heterogeneity of boundaries that it lies at demonstrate (Hein, 2020;Hunter, 2021). Some of these studies also reinforce the need to innovate in the management of these heritage resources, valuing their historical, cultural, urban and environmental potentialities (Deng et al., 2020;Duarte Rodrigues and Toribio Marı ´n, 2020;Giusto, 2020;Havlı ´ cek et al., 2020;Jover Biboum et al., 2020;muleac et al., 2020). Others specifically remark the importance of the conservation and valuation of their landscapes (Mata Olmo and Ferrer Jime ´nez, 2013;De la Cal Nicola ´s, 2021;Lo ´pez- Bravo et al., 2021). Due to the urban spread, their interferences with the city fabric result in a particular contemporary problem, and the lack of reflection about this predicament would evolve towards the waste of great urban heritage resources and opportunities. This water heritage typology is extensively spread through the Portuguese urban and rural landscapes, as Fig. 1 illustrates with examples. An inherited richness that has been intensely studied and informed by researchers, attending to the different chronological periods. From the Roman aqueducts (Cardoso et al., 1998;Quintela et al., 1986), or the Cistercian Monasteries (Puga, 2020;Jorge, 2012,2018;Maduro et al., 2017;Martins and Carlos, 2016; Martins, 2011) to the splendorous stone monuments which brought water to Portuguese Cities during the Modern Age (Tchikine, 2020;Marat-Mendes, 2013). Unsurprisingly, based on this wealth, the French historian and traveller Ferdinand Denis named it “the country of the aqueducts” in the late 19th century (Caetano, 1991). Most of these heritage assets have been progressively classified, starting March 1910 (Dia ´rio do Governo, 1910) under different protection categories at both national and international level, as Table 1 displays. In spite of being protected, their conservation and accessibility status becomes a real challenge for Portuguese governments, as complaints in several press publications evidence (O Mirante, 2020;Alema ˜o, 2019;Faria, 2015). Unfortunately, at the worst-case scenarios, these infrastructures and their General or Special Protection Zones 1 (ZGP or ZEP) have turned into forgotten, fragmented and deteriorated inaccessible spaces due to the scarcity of resources. However, Portugal’s commitment to urban regeneration has been clear over the recent years (Medeiros, 2020). Sustainable development plans at international, national, regional and municipal levels, involving architectural, cultural and environmental issues have grown. These efforts have leaded many Portuguese cities to become candidates or even designated at numerous European initiatives in pursuit of development and acknowledgment, such as the World Heritage enrolment or the European’s Capital of Culture, Youth Capital or Green Capital candidacies. As the European Union outlines, these awards carry important incentives for urban restoration, export the international profile of the city and promote ambitious challenges to improve its urban environment (European Union, 2020). In evidence of this, Lisbon, Oporto and Guimara ˜es were European Capitals of Culture (1994, 2001 and 2012 respectively); Cascais was European Youth Capital (2018) and, recently, Lisbon was also European Green Fig. 1 Amoreiras Aqueduct in Elvas (above) and Sa ˜o Sebastia ˜o Aqueduct in Coimbra (below). Source: the authors, 2020. Abbreviations CME Ca ˆmara Municipal de E ´vora CML Ca ˆmara Municipal de Lisboa CMB Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga CMG Ca ˆmara Municipal de Guimara ˜es GTLCMG Gabinete Te ´cnico Local da Ca ˆmara Municipal de Guimara ˜es DGPC Direc¸a ˜o Geral do Patrimo ´nio Cultural DG Dia ´rio do Governo DR Dia ´rio da Repu ´blica MC Ministe ´rio da Cultura ZGP Zona General de Protec¸a ˜o ZEP Zona Especial de Protec¸a ˜o 1 These legal instruments increase the asset’s protected area beyond its perimeter in two different ways, regularly (ZGP) or specifically shaped (ZEP), due to their landscape and territorial influence and value. C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell +MODEL 2 Capital (2020). Besides, the historic cities of E ´vora, Oporto, Guimara ˜es and Elvas 2 were recognised as World Heritage Sites (1986, 1996, 2001 and 2012) as well as Sintra Cultural Landscape (1995). These achievements have contributed to the planification and practice of many urban, urban land use or environmental regeneration projects submitted as sustainable indicators of these cities. 3 Despite there are cases that evolves towards tourist oversaturation, these plans principally preserve, improve, connect and reactivate the areas they interact with, including cultural heritage ones. Motivated by the habitual interaction of these regeneration projects with water heritage settings, this research obtains evidence to accurately describe a not much documented urban phenomenon in Portugal, the refurbishment of water heritage protected areas encouraged by Europeanbased regeneration projects. As it has been said, little research has been formally published in this regard despite the increase in projects. So that, intending to learn from experiences of water heritage regeneration in urban contexts, the article examines and maps four contemporary situations to provide a series of management arguments that validate the practice and update the status of the assets by employing four-case studies design. 2. Structure, sources and methods The research has been organised in two phases which shape the results and discussion sections. The first one, the results, provides an updated state of the art for each case study by employing bibliographic research, visiting the areas and analysing the available sources. For this identification of each case, a territorial characterization is provided, then the asset and its protection status are presented and mapped and finally, the Table 1 Heritage protection status of the main Modern-Age waterworks in Portugal. Source: the authors, 2020. Waterworks Location Protection typology ZGP ZEP World Heritage Estrada dos Arcos Aqueduct 15 th Setu ´bal Public Interest Building 1971 Yes No e Sa ˜o Sebastia ˜o Aqueduct 15 th Coimbra National Monument 1910 No Yes UNESCO List (2013) University of Coimbra Alta and Sofia Amoreira Aqueduct 15 th Elvas National Monument 1910 No Yes UNESCO List (2013) Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct 16 th E ´vora National Monument 1910 Yes No UNESCO List (1986) Historic Centre of E ´vora Watermills on Guadiana river 16 th Beja In classification process 2008 No No e Usseira Aqueduct 16 th O ´bidos Public Interest Building 1962 Yes No e Torres Vedras Aqueduct 16 th Torres Vedras National Monument 1910 Yes No e Serpa Aqueduct 17 th Serpa National Monument 1954 Yes Yes e Zona de Couros 17 th Guimara ˜es ZEP Historical Centre 2010 No Yes UNESCO Tentative List (2017) Historic Centre of Guimara ˜es Extension Pego ˜es Aqueduct 17 th Tomar National Monument 1910 No Yes UNESCO List (1982) Convent of Christ in Tomar Sete Fontes System 18 th Braga National Monument 2011 No Yes e Santa Clara Aqueduct 18 th Vila do Conde National Monument 1910 No No e Santo Anta ˜o do Tojal Aqueduct 18 th Santo Anta ˜odo Tojal Public Interest Property 2012 No Yes e A ´guas Livres Aqueduct 18 th Lisbon National Monument 1910 Yes Yes UNESCO Tentative List (2017) A ´guas Livres Aqueduct Gargantada Aqueduct 18 th Queluz Public Interest Building 1978 Yes No e Cabo Espichel Aqueduct 18 th Setu ´bal Public Interest Building 1950 Yes No e Nove Janelas Aqueduct 19 th Ilha de Sa ˜o Miguel Unclassified eNo No e Alviela Aqueduct 19 th Lisbon Unclassified eNo No e 2 The city of Elvas and its fortifications are inscribed as a Garrison Border Town. 3 These candidacies are proposed six years before the celebration date and appointed four years in advance. This period is necessary to allow the development of urban projects and new cultural infrastructures. Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx +MODEL 3 objectives, planning and development status of the regeneration project is documented. 4 The second part, the discussion, assesses the values of the assets before and after the project’s arrival to learn from them and illustrate the landscape changes they have experienced. Using the literature and previously researched, they are classified using a table layout and a series of maps to illustrate the arguments. As a connecting link between both parts, Geographic Information Systems and particularly QGIS free software has been employed to create nine diagrams, which code graphically the topography, hydrology, land use, infrastructures, accessibility, landmarks and protected areas of each case. With this purpose, two working scales were designed for each case study: one territorial and the other intermediate. The first one complemented the case documentation, it illustrates the relationship of the element and its protected area (ZGP or ZEP) with the hydrography, topography, the other heritage protected areas and the city itself. The second one resulted from overlapping all the data analysed and shows the asset’s items and spatial distribution and its connection and involvement with the regeneration project, the architecture and the public space. As Table 2 arranges and hyperlinks, national, university and municipal Portuguese open data platforms were employed with this purpose, as well as the heritage protection decrees of the assets. 2.1. Criteria for selecting the cases As seen at Table 1, there are eighteen main Modern-Age waterworks located in Portugal. Out of that classification, fourteen are protected as National Monuments, Public Interest Buildings or Properties, while three of them remain unclassified yet. Moreover, four of them are registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List, whereas two are part of the Tentative one since 2017. The four cases selected, located in Fig. 2, are the A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct (16th century), the A ´guas Livres Aqueduct (18th century), the Sete Fontes water-supply system (18th century) and the Zona de Couros industrial area (17th century), placed in E ´vora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimara ˜es. These paradigmatic waterworks were all previously faded urban areas, which are now good practices’ examples, concerned by European or municipal urban regeneration projects. The first three are systems of conveyance and distribution of drinking water while the fourth and last is a water-based industrial infrastructure. Their selection was based on the asset’s differences in origin, settlement and scale, detailed further on. Due to Table 2 Hyperlinked sources directory employed for the heritage cartography methodology. Source: the authors, 2020. Direc¸a ˜o-Geral do Patrimo ´nio Cultural Pesquisa de Patrimo ´nio Imo ´vel Atlas do patrimo ´nio classificado e em vias de classificac¸a ˜o Sete Fontes Decreto no16/2011 de 25 de Maio Zona de Couros Aviso no15 170/2010 de 30 de Julho A ´gua de Prata Decreto no136/1910 de 23 de Junho Aviso no12 657/2007 de 6 de Junho A ´guas Livres Decreto no136/1910 de 23 de Junho Portaria no1092/1995 de 6 de Setembro Decreto no5/2002 de 19 de Fevereiro Archives Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo Search portal Arquivo Distrital de E ´vora Search portal Arquivo Distrital de Braga Archeevo Arquivo Municipal Alfredo Pimenta Archeevo Refurbishment projects Ca ˆmara Municipal de Lisboa Corredor Verde Vale de Alca ˆntara Ca ˆmara Municipal de E ´vora UNESCO Policy Monitoring Platform Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga Estudos Arqueolo ´gicos e Hidrogeolo ´gicos de Sete Fontes Ca ˆmara Municipal de Guimara ˜es Proposta de inscric¸a ˜o da Zona de Couros na lista indicativa da UNESCO Open GIS data Instituto Hidrogra ´fico Portugal Dados Sistema Nacional de Informac¸a ˜o Geogra ´fica Registo Nacional de Dados Geogra ´ficos Direcc¸a ˜o-Geral do Territo ´rio Fototeca, Pesquisa de Secc¸o ˜es Cadastrais Ca ˆmara Municipal de Lisboa Dados Abertos Lisboa, Geodados Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga GeoPortal WebSIG Pu ´blico do Municı ´pio de Braga Comunidade Intermunicipal do Alentejo Central Portal de Informac¸a ˜o Geogra ´fica CIMAC Universidade Nova de Lisboa Faculdade de Cie ˆncias Sociais e Humanas Atlas Cartografia Histo ´rica Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior de Agronomia EPIC Webgis Portugal, Green and blue infrastructure research line 4 Technical reports, maps, news and even conference videos were employed to collect details of the projects, because some of them are current and have been slightly published yet. C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell +MODEL 4 their disparity, they have developed dissimilar sociohistorical and urban relationships throughout their lifecycles. They have also supplied different areas of influence, a national capital, a district capital or a small town, of which regeneration works of different magnitude have resulted. These dissimilarities allow to represent this urban phenomenon by showing its development at different scales, functions and settlements and perhaps it could motivate the recovery of the rest. 3. Results 3.1. E ´vora: the presence of the A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct across the new Sphera Castris project E ´vora is a medium-sized inland Portuguese city, shown at Fig. 3. It is located on the large plain of Alentejo, between the basins of the rivers Tajo, Guadiana and Sado, 130 km East of Lisbon. It has a relatively elevated water table and is surrounded by several seasonal river basins of irregular water regime. With Roman, Visigoth and Islamic origins, it was conquered in 1165 (Simplı ´cio, 2006). The construction of the A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct began in 1531 and its final design was completed only six years later, in 1537. As shown by Pereira, Tereno and Monteiro, who have studiedthe historyofthis waterchannelextensively(Monteiro et al., 2015), previous research maintains that King Joa ˜oIII ordered it to be rebuilt on the ruins of a Roman duct (Espanca, 1944). It extends 18 km from the springs of Prata and Divor to the North, traverses the Alto de Sa ˜o Bento and the Forte de Santo Anto ´nio, crosses the city wall and endsat the Convent of Sa ˜o Francisco in the South-East, as Fig. 4 cartography illustrates. This water supplied the city of E ´vora for four centuries, from 1537 until 1919 (Monteiro et al., 2019). It was classified as a National Monument in 1910 while still in use. This protection includes arches, primitive channels, ancient household branches, water sources, reservoirs and fountains in public and private domain (Dia ´rio do Governo, 1910). Its urban sections integrated into the historic city centre boundaries, seen in Fig. 5, classified as World Heritage in 1986. Furthermore, part of it is included in the protected surroundings of the Convent of Sa ˜o Bento de Ca ´stris, the Igreja da Cartuxa and the Fort of Santo Anto ´nio. Its Northern route is inside the Monumental Green Zone of E ´vora, which is a land use restriction factor in the Regulamento do Plano de Urbanizac¸a ˜o of 2000. It is a predominantly rural area covering over 1000 ha, which includes eight historical recreational estates, in addition to Fig. 2 Case studies location. Scale 1:2.750.000. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 3 E ´vora, A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct and Monumental Green Area cartography. Scale 1:75.000 m. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 4 Unknown author. Planta da Cidade de Evora, 1750e1790. Source: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx +MODEL 5 the Aqueduct and the aforementioned assets. For this reason, any intervention in this area must safeguard its prevailing rural character and emphasise the aqueduct’s role as a linking element between all the heritage assets in the Zone (Dia ´rio da Repu ´blica, 2000). This area also hosts historical traces, such as meadows and Roman cadastral networks, which define a cultural landscape around the city (Batista et al., 2010). Perhaps, the generous boundary of the Monumental Green Zone compensates the lack of a larger protected environment for A ´gua de Prata. Additionally, in 2007, the Percurso Ambiental no motorizado de A `gua de Prata, showed in Fig. 6, was established. It was part of a district initiative to create routes employing existing infrastructure traces, for leisure time or outdoor sports practice (Ca ˆmara Municipal de E ´vora, 2007). Currently, the Project LIFE A ´gua de Prata (2019) aims to promote works which allow reuse of the Aqueduct for irrigation water distribution. 5 Anchored in this territory of varied elements, historical origins and strong cultural influence, the Sphera Ca ´stris Southwest Park for Heritage and Arts arose in 2016. This initiative, included in the UNESCO Policy Monitoring Platform, 6 seeks to create an infrastructure for culture and heritage, as well as production and artistic creation. This centre for arts, science, technology, research, innovation and sustainability plans to cover 5000 square metres. This will include the Convent of Sa ˜o Bento de Ca ´stris and over 40 ha of rural land, subject to the restoration of this 18th- century building and its surroundings. This enhancement of obsolete heritage aims to increase the growth and competitiveness of the region, creating skilled jobs in the cultural sector (UNESCO, 2016). The construction of this integrated structure, constituted of various areas of activity, will see the creation of a solar park to supply energy to the entire project. It will also contain diverse pilot zones for the study of Mediterranean agriculture and biodiversity and an area for public community gardens (Amendoeira, 2015). Nonetheless, the limited Sphera Ca ´stris Project material published appears to omit its connection to the Aqueduct. This raises questions about the asset’s adaptation and involvement in this new project. 3.2. Lisbon: the Alca ˆntara Valley Green Corridor, a new perspective for the A ´guas Livres Aqueduct The city of Lisbon is located on the right bank of the Tajo estuary. It is surrounded by numerous small towns which constitute its metropolitan area. To the North, the Sintra and Loures mountain ranges outline this territory, marked by water channels running from North to South. There, the necessary topographic and atmospheric conditions for groundwater concentration are found. The A ´guas Livres Aqueduct, started in 1731 and inaugurated in 1748, sources its water from that area. It begins in the Ma ˜ed’A ´gua 7 Velha in Olival do Santı ´ssimo in Canec¸as. Then, it follows a stretch of the former Roman Aqueduct of Olissipo (Mascarenhas et al., 2012), towards the Ma ˜ed’A ´gua das Amoreiras reservoir in the parish of Santo Antonio in Lisbon. This main section is 15 km in length. Together with the subsidiary aqueducts, the full network exceeds 60 km, as Fig. 7 maps. Today, its architectural features can be seen throughout the city shaping tanks, reservoirs and the so-called ‘chafarices’. 8 All of them create a network of “urban voids” linked to water (Marat-Mendes, 2007, 2013) and connect an enormous web of assets which extends far beyond the Lisbon Metropolitan area (Marat-Mendes et al., 2015,2016). Among these Fig. 5 E ´vora, A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct’s urban stretch. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 6 E ´vora, A ´gua de Prata Aqueduct’s rural stretch. Source: the authors, 2020. 5 It is part of the Estrate ´gia Municipal da Adaptac¸a ˜oa `s Alterac¸o ˜es Clima ´ticas of E ´vora of 2017 and is planned to supply almost 50% of the green areas of the city. 6 It is a project of the Direc¸a ˜o Regional de Cultura do Alentejo, the Comissa ˜o de Coordenac¸a ˜o e Desenvolvimento Regional do Alentejo, the Ca ˆmara Municipal de E ´vora and the Universities of E ´vora, Lisbon, Coimbra, the Algarve, Seville, Granada and Extremadura (Direc¸a ˜o Regional de Cultura do Alentejo, 2015). 7 Natural spring. 8 Public fountains with spouts. C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell +MODEL 6 are the aforementioned Ma ˜ed’A ´gua das Amoreiras and the Reservato ´rio 9 do Patriarcal in the Prac¸a do Prı ´ncipe Real. However, the arches over the Alca ˆntara Valley represent its most formidable challenge. The heritage protection of this Aqueduct was implemented in 1910 (Dia ´rio do Governo, 1910). The perimeter of its ZEP, defined as “el troc¸o entre Campolide e a Avenida do Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco” and the “troc¸o das Amoreiras”, was added in 1995 (Dia ´rio da Repu ´blica, 1995). This initial protection was altered in 2002, by adding its afferent branches and subsidiary aqueducts in over 30 adjacent districts and towns (Ministe ´rio da Cultura, 2002). Due to its size, the asset is also included in the classification of other 12 assets and 22 adjacent ZGPs and ZEPs. Finally, since 2017, it has been featured on the UNESCO Tentative List, based on its archaeological, documentary, technical, social, ethnographic, historical, cultural-educational 10 and environmental values. As can be confirmed in the 1871 map at Fig. 8, the Alca ˆntara was an agricultural valley until the 19th century. It was barely urbanized and marked the edge of the city’s growth to the West. It is the largest valley in the city of Lisbon, a river basin with slopes exceeding 30% incline which was settled from the 19th century, when it housed textile factories and residential districts for local workers. At the end of that century, the construction of the Lisbon- Sintra train line further accentuated its inaccessibility. Subsequently, with the construction of the Avenida de Ceuta in 1932, the river was completely buried. Since 1962, the construction of the Ponte 25 de Abril has characterised this artery as one of the main access routes to the city (Anastasia, 2019). Today, the Alca ˆntara Valley Green Corridor is one of the main objectives of the Plano Director Municipal de Lisboa (CML, 2012). The pursuit of environmental improvements, such as the regulation of the water system, the use of recycled water, the recovery and increase of vegetation coverage and ecological continuity is regenerating this traditionally industrial area. Furthermore, a network of pedestrian and cycling paths are connecting the Monsanto Forest Park, the neighbourhoods of Campolide and Alca ˆntara and the Tajo estuary (CML, n.d.). The initiative is over 3 km in length. It is divided into five zones or segments; from North to South: the Parque Urbano da Quinta do Ze ´ Pinto, the area of Bairro da Liberdade - Estac¸a ˜o de Campolide, the A ´guas Livres Aqueduct, the Parque Urbano da Quinta da Bela Flor and the Avenida de Ceuta. Both, the area of Estac¸a ˜o de Campolide and the segment relative to the Aqueduct, coincide with the most imposing aboveground section of the infrastructure as it passes through the Fig. 7 Lisbon, A ´guas Livres and Alviela Aqueducts cartography. Scale 1:100.000. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 8 Pais, Miguel Carlos Correia. Extract from Planta Topographica da Cidade de Lisboa, 1871. Scale: 1:10.000. Source: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Fig. 9 Lisbon, Vale de Alca ˆntara pedestrian bridge. Source: the authors, 2020. 9 Reservoir. 10 The group created by the Ma ˜e d’A ´gua das Amoreiras, the Reservato ´rio do Patriarcal, the arches over the Alca ˆntara Valley and the Estac¸a ˜o Elevato ´ria a Vapor dos Barbadinhos conform the Museu da A ´gua de EPAL, established in 1987. Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx +MODEL 7 Ribeira de Alca ˆntara. The large row of pointed stone arches, showed in Fig. 9, crosses the now piped riverbed which is hidden under road traffic and train tracks. Since 2018, the regeneration project has allowed pedestrians to pass under the arches, Fig. 10, despite its acoustic harshness and visual contrast to the environment. With it, Lisbon promotes accessibility and pedestrian connection in an area previously dominated by motor vehicles and trains. This increases the interaction with the asset, reinforces the Aqueduct’s unique value and recovers a historical piece of the territory. 3.3. Braga: the future Parque da Cidade, the resurgence of the Sete Fontes hydraulic system Braga is the capital of Northern Portugal and the country’s third most populous city. It was strategically located during Roman times, seen at Fig. 11, being equidistant from the rivers Minho and Douro and 60 km to the North-East of Porto. The 15th and 16th centuries brought great splendour to this city of Archbishops, 11 as Fig. 12 shows. At that time, the population increase caused the new building of numerous public and private fountains (Vieira et al., 2018). Due to this, it was necessary to employ new groundwater abstraction areas. Different hypotheses maintain that in these centuries, the existing aquifers located in the highest areas of the city were reactivated, following the route of the ancient Roman waterways (Ribeiro and Martins, 2012). One of these was the Sete Fontes one, at the foot of the Monte de Pedroso (322 m) in the North-East of the historic centre of Braga. During the 16th century, the Sete Fontes construction began on a system of subterranean tunnels to collect the water from those springs. First, 3,5 km of stone pipes were built to transport it to the city, as well as storage tanks and fountains for its distribution. In 1704, an early pipeline connected the Sete Fontes aquifer with the Caixa Geral das A ´guas. Later, between 1744 and 1752, the pipeline was improved and monumentalised by the Archbishop D. Jose ´ de Braganc¸a. This was achieved through the construction of new tunnels and the characteristically baroque “chapels”, 12 photographed in Fig. 13. As a result of these improvements, Sete Fontes achieved to be the city’s primary water supply until 1913. That year, the new water extraction system of the River Ca ´vado was built 13 (Martins et al., 2012). Despite being proposed for classification in 1995, it was only declared a National Monument in 2011 (Ministe ´rio da Cultura, 2011a) and its ZEP was issued in June of the same year, extending over 66 ha (Ministe ´rio da Cultura, 2011b). This classification includes the 3,5 km long system of pipes, 11 galleries, 7 fountains, 3 vents and 5 mines. Out of these, 2,5 km are subterranean galleries and the remainder connecting pipes. Its value lies in the improvements generated in the quality of life, as well as its Fig. 10 Lisbon, Vale de Alca ˆntara pedestrian path. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 11 Braga, Sete Fontes Water System cartography. Scale: 1:55.000. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 12 Noua Bracarae Avgvste description, 1594. Source: Georg Braun; Frans Hogenberg. “Civitates Orbis Terrarum”, vol. 5 (Latin ed, Colo ´nia, 1598.). 11 The diocese of Braga dates from the 3 rd century AD. 12 Rooms with dome ceilings, decorated with a coat of arms. There, the galleries converge and water sedimentation takes place. 13 It is now called Ponte do Bico treatment area, placed 6,5 km North of Braga. C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell +MODEL 8 contribution to the development of baroque architecture and urbanism. Technically, it also took part in the evolution of new hydraulic engineering concepts, later reflected in the quality of Modern-Age urban infrastructures. Today, this sustainable hydraulic resource is still in use 14 and can be found surrounded by a natural environment, as Fig. 14 shows, in the current district of Sa ˜o Victor. However, the area is not easily accessible. There, the Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga 15 has planned the Project called Parque da Cidade. A Park that focuses on the protection of the area and the infrastructure, including the physical and functional components of this hydraulic system. The plan is to preserve it as a natural landscape and include areas of groundwater abstraction and infiltration, in addition to its architectural elements. Among the tools arranged to preserve its natural component, the prior study of the area defines three zones: a dry ecosystem, a humid one and a third transitional one. 16 As a connection to the city, four access points to the area are being considered. They will generate a higher-intensity perimeter of use and two paths parallel to the Monument, which will house lateral rainwater-retention barriers. In the humid area, there will be a natural lake, which will collect seasonal rainfall. It is anticipated that existing vegetation will be entrenched and patches of tree and shrub vegetation will be added. This will create a protective filter for the central core of the park, which is thespaceboundedbythepathsinthemainframeworkof the Monument (Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga, 2019). The project, which was in a period of public discussion from July to November 2020, has been approved and is set to begin within 2021. According to the park preliminary studies, over 15 different landowners can be identified within its area (Ca ˆmara Municipal de Braga, 2016). This appears to have generated great debate and has been one of the most significant obstacles to the launch of the project. This is evidenced in the numerous press releases concerning owners’ unease about the purchase of the land by the CMB (Cerqueira, 2020;Cunha, 2018). But, despite these difficulties, this Town Hall’s initiative aims to protect and domesticate a landscape in danger of being urbanized. The main values of the Parque da Sete Fontes are to encourage the interaction, accessibility, preservation and sense of belonging of this magnificent environment. It tries to protect and update this green part of the city at the same time that it prevents this hydraulic system from natural and physical deterioration. Fig. 13 Braga, Sete Fontes “chapels”. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 14 Braga, Sete Fontes stone channel. Source: the authors, 2020. Fig. 15 Guimara ˜es, Zona de Couros location cartography. Scale 1:22.500 Source: the authors, 2020. 14 It is managed by Agere, Empresa de A ´guas, Efluentes e Resı ´duos de Braga. According to recent hydrogeological studies it produces 500 m 3 per day (Antunes and Gonc¸alves 2019). 15 Braga Town Hall. 16 The dry zone corresponds to the terrains of highest elevation, with less water retention and a prevalence of dryland species, such as the cork oak. The humid zone is located on the grounds of lowest elevation, where run-off water from the basin accumulates and species such as willows and blackberries are prevalent. On the intermediate ground, the transitional ecosystem presents mixed characteristics, with a predominance of oaks. Frontiers of Architectural Research xxx (xxxx) xxx +MODEL 9 images/pdfs/2017/Ofic_ICOMOS_Couros.pdf (accessed 10.12. 2020). Ramı ´sio, P.J., 2012. An urban watershed regeneration project: the Costa/Couros river case study. In: Rauch, S., Morrison, G.M. (Eds.), Urban Environment, Proceedings of the 10th Urban Environment Symposium. Springer, London. Ribeiro, M. do C.F., Martins, M., 2012. Contributo para o estudo do abastecimento de a ´gua a `cidade de Braga na Idade Moderna: o livro da Cidade de Braga (1737). In: Caminhos da A ´guapaisa- gens e usos na longa durac¸a ˜o, pp. 179e222. Simplı ´cio, M.D., 2006. E ´vora: Algumas etapas fundamentais na evoluc¸a ˜o da cidade ate ´ao se ´culo XVI 1e19 [WWW Document]. URL. https://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/bitstream/10174/2644/ 1/E ´vora%20Etapas%20Evoluc¸a ˜o%20Histo ´rica%20SecXVI.pdf (accessed 11.14.2020). Tchikine, A., 2020. Technology of grandeur: early modern aqueducts in Portugal. In: Duarte Rodrigues, A., Toribio, C. (Eds.), The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 139e158. Vieira, J.M., Ramı ´sio, P.J., Duarte, A.A.L.S., Pinho, J.L.S., Fernandes, V.M., Salgado, R., Alves, R., 2008. Reabilitac¸a ˜odeMeiosHı ´dricos em Ambiente Urbano. O caso da Ribeira de Costa/Couros, em Guimara ˜es. Eng. Civ., pp. 187e196 Vieira, J., Duarte, A., Ramı ´sio, P., 2018. Sete Fontes: a challenge to promote the heritage legacy and facing water sources scarcity in the city of Braga-Portugal. Trends Civ. Eng. its Archit. 2, 150e157. C. Lo ´pez-Bravo, J. Peral Lo ´pez and E. Mosquera Adell +MODEL 16