Urban design project focused on river sports

Abstract

Touristic activities are growing all-over the world. The number of people traveling abroad to visit places and having adventures is increasing. Even though the most popular cities and countries in touristic terms are the most visited places, the small cities in rural areas are also defining strategies in order to improve their performances in tourism. The Portuguese city of São Pedro do Sul, very well-known because of its thermal baths with roots in the Roman times, is not an exception on this domain. This is a high potential area for touristic purposes linking the consolidated urban fabric of the city with the river Vouga banks. Therefore, it has all required features to become a touristic spot focused on river sport activities. In this sense this paper aims to present an urban design project having has pivotal goal to promote the sport activities related with the river. This solution was the result of an international team background (Portugal, Slovakia, Brazil, Greece, Poland and Lithuania) with their different understandings about the sensitive areas such as the river banks in an urban context. The conclusions show that the historical buildings can have a new life and use, which was the case of the nineteen-century train station transformed into a multicultural centre. The proposal main strategy is the creation of a set of facilities and public spaces such as the camping or a nautical centre in order to promote the touristic activities related with the river.