Changing Scales: Greenways From Region To Place – The Case Of The Algarve, Portugal.

This article aims to reflect and debate around the operational value of the greenway concept, while paramount instrument for landscape planning and management, divided in two parts. The first one focuses on the definition and evolution of the greenway concept and its relations with other fundamental concepts, such as continuum naturale, ecological structure and green infrastructure. In this conceptual approach, the main scope is the importance of accurate criteria definition for greenway design, considering the transposition between different scales. In the latter part of the article, the case study of the Algarve, southern Portugal, is presented, where greenway design occurs at a regional scale, integrated in a system designated as Estrutura Regional de Protecção e Valorização Ambiental (ERPVA, Regional Environmental Protection and Valorization Structure), within the Plano Regional de Ordenamento do Território do Algarve (PROT-Algarve, Territorial Management Plan of the Algarve), setting guidelines for the transposition for the municipal level landscape management instruments. The goal is to assess the challenges, opportunities and constraints enclosed in the scale adaptation process, namely through the analysis of the revision processes of the Planos Directores Municipais (PDM, municipal master plans) of Lagoa and Silves