Portuguese-Spanish Border Research Articles

Overcoming the barriers: cross-border convergence in Portugal and Spain between 2000 and 2018

ABSTRACT Cross-border cooperation is a major instrument of European policy to overcome the barriers posed by national borders and correcting regional imbalances. But the question of whether it is leading to the convergence of cross-border regions (CBRs) is still open for debate, given the significant heterogeneity of borders and the localized and spatially bound nature of many border effects. This article analyses the beta and sigma convergences in GDP per capita growth for the NUTS-3 at the Portuguese-Spanish border between 2000 and 2018, also considering their population growth. The main finding is that, even if their population growth is below the national averages, the CBR is converging in economic terms. This convergence is visible in the reduced dispersion of the GDP in the border regions and is also confirmed by spatial models, which showed that being a border region increases the probability of having above-average growth rates and that the NUTS-3 with initially low GDP in the cross-border region were also growing above average. This convergence was found to be robust, considering different model specifications and important factors for convergence, such as population growth and spatial dependence. A negative relationship between population and GDP per capita growth was found.

Territórios-museu em espaços marginais. Valorização e interpretação do património cultural do Baixo Guadiana

This paper aims at presenting some proposals for the creation of a “Territorial Museum” in the peripheral areas of the Portuguese-Spanish borderlands of the Guadiana and Chanza rivers (PortugalSpain), as well as topics for its interpretation. This European internal border is the oldest and the largest in Europe, which configured unique landscapes and heritage that can be interpreted and enhanced from the point of view of Global History. Borderlands are examined from four different perspectives: as places occupied for surveillance; as border identities generators; as territories with a rich archaeological heritage that is a consequence of contacts and interactions, and as historical landscapes that can be enhanced and interpreted holistically. This paper presents as its main result the creation of proposals for heritagization and musealization of the Portuguese-Spanish border landscape, as well as for a creative management focused on the sustainable development of the local communities in peripheral areas

The Cultural Uniqueness of Portuguese-Spanish Border Landscapes

The Cultural Uniqueness of Portuguese-Spanish Border Landscapes

The Portuguese–Spanish Border ... Back Again?!

Unexpectedly, over 30 years after the removal of border controls between Portugal and Spain as a result of their joint adhesion to the European Union, border restrictions were reinstated as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This paper discusses what has changed in the Portuguese–Spanish border as a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Eurocities of the Iberian Borderland: A Second Generation of Border Cooperation Structures. An Analysis of Their Development Strategies

The new territorial structures for the governance of the borderlands between Portugal and Spain (Eurocities) constitute a novel and exciting example of a local commitment to cross-border cooperation (CBC). The Eurocities are feasible institutions in very close cities and municipalities, and have always had intense relationships. With different speeds, formats and intensities, Eurocities have been forming along the European Union’s internal borders. Compared to other types of cooperation entities created mainly at regional or sub-regional scales (Euroregions and Eurodistricts), Eurocities are created at the municipal or local level, which are the most relevant protagonists of cross-border flows and relations. These new institutions are established based on different common objectives, such as economic dynamism, tourism, mobility, sustainability and access to funding, among many other fields of common interest. The present research deals with the geographical and institutional framework of these new Eurocities on the Portuguese–Spanish border, where they have increased in recent years. Their beginnings, evolution and characteristics are analyzed through a review work. In many cases, Eurocities become responses at the local and municipal scales. Some of these Eurocities have gone one step further by becoming a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), such as Chaves–Marín or Guadiana Eurocity. In addition, some of these second-generation CBC structures are integrating into higher regional levels, such as in the case of the Río Minho EGTC. Furthermore, the present study enables us to identify factors, such as the offer of common equipment and services offer, Eurocitizenship, enhancing access to European Funds, or the marketing and advertising of the Eurocity, as some of the critical factors for the success of the Iberian Eurocities.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Precision Agriculture Management Systems in Mediterranean Small Farms

While the world population continues to grow, increasing the need to produce more and better-quality food, climate change, urban growth and unsustainable agricultural practices accelerate the loss of available arable land, compromising the sustainability of agricultural lands both in terms of productivity and environmental resilience, and causing serious problems for the production-consumption balance. This scenario highlights the urgent need for agricultural modernization as a crucial step to face forthcoming difficulties. Precision agriculture techniques appear as a feasible option to help solve these problems. However, their use needs to be reinvented and tested according to different parameters, in order to define both the environmental and the economic impact of these new technologies not only on agricultural production, but also on agricultural sustainability. This paper intends, therefore, to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of precision agriculture through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)/remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) techniques in small Mediterranean farms. We present specific data obtained through the application of the aforementioned techniques in three farms located along the Portuguese-Spanish border, considering three parameters (seeding failure, differentiated irrigation and differentiated fertilization) in order to determine not only the ecological benefits of these methods, but also their economic and productivity aspects. The obtained results, based on these methods, highlight the fact that an efficient combination of UAV/RPAS and NDVI techniques allows for important economic savings in productivity factors, thus promoting a sustainable agriculture both in ecological and economic terms. Additionally, contrary to what is generally defended, even in small farms, as the ones assessed in this study (less than 50 ha), the costs associated with the application of the aforementioned precision agriculture processes are largely surpassed by the economic gains achieved with their application, regardless of the notorious environmental benefits introduced by the reduction of crucial production inputs as water and fertilizers.

Accessibility Dynamics and Regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Perspectives in the Portuguese—Spanish Borderland

Accessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.

GRAPHICAL DATA FLOW BASED IN TLS AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY FOR CONSOLIDATION STUDIES OF HISTORICAL SITES. THE CASE STUDY OF JUROMENHA FORTRESS IN PORTUGAL

Abstract. This paper discusses the graphical data flow, based on terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and photogrammetry, for the conservation and rehabilitation project of the Fortress of Juromenha, located nearby the Portuguese-Spanish border in the Alentejo Province. First, we describe the strategy of data acquisition including GPS positioning, drone imagery, ground based imagery, and TLS survey. For the data input, this study considers two types of natures: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative means anything that can be quantified such as a measurement, an orthoimage, a point cloud or a 3D model. Qualitative means more intangible information such as a perspective on the state of conservation of a surface, a texture, or an ambience. Second, we illustrate the processing step highlighting the challenges and defining the outcomes. Next, it is detailed what kind of data was extracted to prepare the basis for the documents to be used on the conservation project. This section is complemented with the analysis on how data was shared among the project team and how it was used. Finally, it is discussed how the nature of the data and information generated influenced the consolidation design.

Institutional Aspects of Portugal-Spain Cross-Border Cooperation

ABSTRACTThe Portuguese–Spanish border perfectly embodies the common characteristics of European cross-borders territories with the present time characterized by abundant initiatives of cross-border cooperation. In this paper we will analyze the institutional aspects of the cross-border cooperation on the Spanish–Portuguese border from its configurative elements: starting from the normative tools which have promoted it, up to the new institutions which have developed it; its results relating to the deactivation of the cross-border discontinuity and the minimization of inherent transaction costs due to the cross-border factor. The final conclusions of research reveal an important impact of the cross-border cooperation, of its institutions and tools in the political and administrative landscape of Portuguese–Spanish cross-border areas even though they are impregnated by excessive Community bureaucracy and with important administrative, fiscal and juridical-legal limitation.

Accessibility and Local Development: Interaction between Cross-border Accessibility and Local Development in Portugal and Spain

One of de EU major concerns is cohesion and cross-border regional development. Usually cross-border regions are less dynamic, acting as bottlenecks mainly in peripheral territories. This paper is focused on the Portuguese-Spanish border using socio-economic and accessibility data. It considers Spatial Econometrics to produce statistical evidence on the relationship between accessibility and development at a local scale. A pilot study is conducted on North and Center region using variables such as population age, graduation characteristics, migrations, unemployment and daily accessibility to main towns. In future this evaluation will be applied to the entire cross-border area between Portugal and Spain.

Euro–Meso–Macro: The New Regions in Iberian and European Space

Medeiros E. Euro–Meso–Macro: the new regions in Iberian and European space, Regional Studies. The European integration process, which has been supported by European Cohesion Policy since the end of the 1980s, is witnessing the establishment of an increasingly large number of the so-called Euroregions and similar structures, mainly as a result of experiments and projects carried out under the INTERREG community initiative, in all its strands (cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation), in a quest to search for better adequate socioeconomic development and multilevel governance solutions. This article explores the emergence of these new governance spaces in Europe and, in particular, in the Portuguese–Spanish border area, and it aims to assess their contribution of injecting new tailor-made regional/local development strategies and also to provide a conceptual clarification of these spaces, which became more relevant with the advent of the Macro-Regions that have come into being since 2007. Medeiros E. 欧洲-中观-宏观：利比里亚与欧洲空间的新区域，区域研究。80年代末期以来欧洲融合政策所促进的欧洲整合过程见证了逐渐扩大的欧洲区域以及相似结构的建立，这主要是INTERREG社区创意实验及项目的社会经济发展及多层面管制措施的结果。本文考察了欧洲新管治空间尤其是葡萄牙与西班牙临界地区的出现，而且文章试图评估为区域以及地方政府量身打造的区域/地方发展策略的新贡献，并提供对上述自2007年来逐渐成型的宏观区域背景下空间的概念性区分。 欧洲区域 宏观区域 领域合作 领域管治 领域合作的欧洲组团 INTERREG Medeiros E. Les régions européennes-mésoéconomiques-macroéconomiques: les nouvelles régions de l'espace ibérique et européen, Regional Studies. Le processus d'intégration europeéenne, soutenu par la politique européenne en faveur de la cohésion depuis la fin des années 1980, témoigne de l'établissement d'un nombre de plus en plus important de prétendues eurorégions et de telles structures, principalement suite à une série d'expériences et de projets menés sous l'égide de l'initiative communautaire INTERREG, dans tous ses domaines (coopération transfrontalière, transnationale et interrégionale), à la recherche de meilleures solutions suffisantes quant au développement socioéconomique et à la gouvernance à plusieurs niveaux. Cet article examine la naissance de ces nouveaux espaces de gouvernance en Europe et, notamment, dans la zone frontalière espagnolo-portugaise, et cherche à évaluer ce qu'ils ont apporté en matière de stratégies d'aménagement du territoire faites sur mesure, et à éclaircir d'un point de vue conceptuel ces espaces, qui sont devenus plus importants au fur et à mesure de l'apparition des régions macroéconomiques depuis 2007. Eurorégion Région macroéconomique Coopération territoriale Gouvernance territoriale Groupement européen de coopération territoriale INTERREG Medeiros E. Euro–Meso–Makro: die neuen Regionen im iberischen und europäischen Raum, Regional Studies. Der Prozess der europäischen Integration, der seit Ende der achtziger Jahre durch die europäische Kohäsionspolitik unterstützt wird, ist von der Gründung einer immer höheren Zahl von sogenannten Euroregionen und ähnlichen Strukturen geprägt, die vor allem auf Experimente und Projekte zurückgehen, welche im Rahmen der Gemeinschaftsinitiative INTERREG auf sämtlichen Ebenen (grenzübergreifende, transnationale und interregionale Zusammenarbeit) durchgeführt wurden, um bessere und angemessenere Lösungen für sozioökonomische Entwicklung und Regierungsführung auf mehreren Ebenen zu finden. In diesem Beitrag wird das Entstehen dieser neuen Regierungsräume in Europa und insbesondere im portugiesisch-spanischen Grenzgebiet untersucht, wobei versucht wird, ihren Beitrag bei der Injektion von neuen, maßgeschneiderten regionalen bzw. lokalen Entwicklungsstrategien zu bewerten und eine konzeptuelle Klärung dieser Räume vorzunehmen, die mit dem Entstehen der Makroregionen seit 2007 relevanter geworden sind. Euroregion Makroregion Territoriale Zusammenarbeit Territoriale Regierungsführung Europäischer Verbund für territoriale Zusammenarbeit (EVTZ) INTERREG Medeiros E. Euro, meso y macro: las nuevas regiones en el espacio ibérico y europeo, Regional Studies. El proceso de la integración europea, que ha sido respaldado por la política europea de cohesión desde finales de los ochenta, es testigo del establecimiento de un número cada vez mayor de las llamadas eurorregiones y estructuras similares, principalmente como resultado de los experimentos y proyectos llevados a cabo en el marco de la iniciativa comunitaria INTERREG, en todos sus ámbitos (cooperación transfronteriza, transnacional e interregional), en un intento de buscar un desarrollo socioeconómico más adecuado y mejores soluciones de gobierno de varios niveles. En este artículo analizamos el surgimiento de estos nuevos espacios gubernamentales en Europa y, en particular, en la zona fronteriza luso-española, con la finalidad de evaluar qué contribución hacen estos espacios mediante la inyección de nuevas estrategias de desarrollo regional/local a medida, y ofrecer también una clarificación conceptual de estos espacios, que se han hecho más relevantes con la aparición de las macrorregiones desde 2007. Eurorregión Macrorregión Cooperación territorial Gobernanza territorial Agrupación europea de cooperación territorial (AECT) INTERREG

Recovering the Paradox of the Border: Identity and (Un)familiarity Across the Portuguese–Spanish Border

European internal borders have been involved in a process of reconfiguration. Political discourses have emphatically commented upon the dismantling of borders, the Single Market and free movement of products and people. This paper addresses these changes in relation to a specific European internal border—the Portuguese–Spanish border. To reflect on the changes referred to above, three different axes are explored: the relationship between borders and mobility, between borders and identity and between borders and memory. It is by stressing these relationships that concepts of familiarity and unfamiliarity will be equated and discussed. Drawing on my fieldwork experience and on documented studies on different sections of the border, I will explore how territorial and social dissimilarities affect the relationship with the border and in what ways (un)familiarity acts as a motivation for border crossing. I will argue that although there is a feeling of familiarity (constructed by past experience) and that despite the fact that Iberian states are imposing a new paradigm of relations across the border (that of cross-border cooperation) people living on the border are using concepts of differentiation to sustain their identity in a discursive manner.

Old vs recent cross‐border cooperation: Portugal–Spain and Norway–Sweden

The two largest European Peninsulas (Iberian and Scandinavian) are both divided by a long and ancient frontier, which separates four old European nations: Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway. In the first case, the unusual stability of the border, which remains almost unchanged for more than 800 years, has contributed to strengthen a long ‘back‐to‐back’ existence, during most of this time. In the latter, however, successive changes in the border location, and historical alliances between the Nordic countries, created a more ‘face‐to‐face’ type of border and a more solid background for the cross‐border cooperation (CBC). Therefore, while the INTERREG‐A Community Initiative represented an important starting point for the CBC process in most parts of the Portuguese–Spanish border region (PSBR), it was just another important added value for the CBC in the Swedish–Norwegian border region (SNBR), since this process had already started in 1948, when Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark established the joint Nordic Committee for Economic Cooperation, followed by the formation of the Nordic Council in 1951. With this in mind, this article analyses how such distinct CBC backgrounds contributed to the two different approaches and results obtained from the implementation of the INTERREG‐A in both studied border regions.

Local discursive strategies for the cultural construction of the border: The case of the Portuguese–Spanish border

The border will be addressed as a discursive object as the purpose of this paper is to explore discursive strategies involved in the cultural construction of the border and of local identity. The paper will focus on a section of the Portuguese‐Spanish border between Portuguese Beira Interior Norte and Spanish Castilla Y Léon. Taking as a case the rhetoric of borders’ population, I intend to show that political borders are mainly mental, symbolic and cultural constructions. I will also argue that in the process of construction and reproduction of the border, social and economic practices that have long ceased to characterise the area and its population are, in this matter, stronger elements than those of the present. Discursive local strategies constructing the border and local identity reproduce a certain asymmetry depending on the producer and the context of production. I will address the issue by focusing on two different kinds of discursive strategies. On the one hand, I will be referring to those strategies that, because they work on an individual level, are not planned as real strategies, i.e., they are not designed with a specific goal, operating instead mainly on an unconscious level. On the other hand, I will deal with some discursive strategies that are specifically planned and intended to produce an effect that relates to the construction and reaffirmation of local identity. In approaching this issue I will consider museological discursive practices from smuggling museums in Melgaço (North of Portugal) and Santana de Cambas (South of Portugal) and smuggling routes in Montalegre County in the North of Portugal.

A Water Quality Index Applied to an International Shared River Basin: The Case of the Douro River

A Water Quality Index (WQI) is a numeric expression used to evaluate the quality of a given water body and to be easily understood by managers. In this study, a modified nine-parameter Scottish WQI was used to assess the monthly water quality of the Douro River during a 10-year period (1992-2001), scaled from zero (lowest) to 100% (highest). The 98,000 km(2) of the Douro River international watershed is the largest in the Iberian Peninsula, split between upstream Spain (80%) and downstream Portugal (20%). Three locations were surveyed: at the Portuguese-Spanish border, 350 km from the river mouth; 180 km from the mouth, where the river becomes exclusively Portuguese; and 21 km from the mouth. The water received by Portugal from Spain showed the poorest quality (WQI 47.3 +/- 0.7%); quality increased steadily downstream, up to 61.7 +/- 0.7%. In general, the water quality at all three sites was medium to poor. Seasonally, water quality decreased from winter to summer, but no statistical relationship between quality and discharge rate could be established. Depending on the location, different parameters were responsible for the episodic decline of quality: high conductivity and low oxygen content in the uppermost reservoir, and fecal coliform contamination downstream. This study shows the need to enforce the existing international bilateral agreements and to implement the European Water Quality Directive in order to improve the water quantity and quality received by the downstream country of a shared watershed, especially because two million inhabitants use the water from the last river location as their only source of drinking water.

Signifying Boundaries: Detours around the Portuguese-Spanish (Algarve/Alentejo-Andalucía) Borderlands

This paper draws upon the Portuguese-Spanish border to consider the semiotics of boundaries. It argues that what is proper to such an inter-state border is that it is simultaneously a highly structured (demarcated, ratified, mapped and sometimes patrolled) space and a liminal (marginal, threshold, peripheral and sometimes transgressed) place. The 'detours' of the paper explore official documentation, maps, literature, treaties, local journalism, planning texts and discussions with inhabitants of border communities along the southern section of what is both the longest and most materially underdeveloped border between two European Union (EU) member states. The paper may also be read as an examination of the poetics of a border and therefore as an alternative 'method' for critical studies of borders. Such explorations lead to critical reflection on some contradictions of EU-directed integration and on the wider project of overcoming (internal) European Union frontiers.

Weichselian palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment in Europe: background for palaeogroundwater formation

Abstract A review is given of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental evidence across Europe for the Weichselian period relevant to interpreting the emplacement and circulation of groundwaters. In addition, this provides the background against which the evidence of past climates and environments contained in groundwaters in coastal areas of Europe, from the Baltic to the Atlantic Ocean may be compared. For much of the Weichselian, although significantly colder than at present, conditions were favourable for the recharge of groundwater, as shown, for example, by periods of speleothem growth. During the last glacial maximum (LGM) recharge is likely to have ceased over much of permafrost-covered Europe, although shallow groundwater recharge from meltwater (generated by the geothermal gradients) could have taken place beneath the ice where pressure relief through tunnel valleys may have occurred. Modern recharge could have started as early as 13 14 C ka BP , but probably interrupted by the Younger Dryas between 11 and 10 14 C ka BP . In the Baltic areas, ice-dammed lakes inhibited the start of the modern hydrogeological regimes until c. 10.3 14 C ka BP . Tundra conditions prevailed over most of ice-free southern Europe at the time of the LGM. At this time the area south of the Portuguese-Spanish border retained a generally warm and relatively humid climate due to the maintenance of warmer sea-surface temperatures derived from Atlantic Ocean circulation. For most of coastal Europe, however, the most significant impact on groundwater circulation is likely to have been the lowering of sea levels that drained large areas of the shelf, such as the North Sea and the English Channel, and also had a significant impact on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula where the maximum lowering of up to 130 m would have been experienced. This, together with the general changes in climate, would also have reorganized the atmospheric chemistry over sites in Europe that is likely to be recorded in the groundwater’s chemical and isotopic signatures.

The Past on the Line The Use of Oral History in the Construction of Present-day Changing Identities on the Portuguese-Spanish Border

While it has long been recognised that borders are prime sites for the defining and redefining of nations and states, it is only comparatively recently that it has been thought worthwhile to examine closely the social reality of those actually living on international borders. This paper looks at some of the oral history –‘the stories they tell about themselves’ – of the inhabitants of a part of the Portuguese-Spanish border; specifically an area of the frontier between the Portuguese region of Trasos-Montes and the Spanish region of Galicia. Tales of bandits, of smugglers, of the Spanish Republican maquis and of the police of both sides reveal the often surprising fluidity of who is 'us' and who is 'them', as well as perhaps helping us to understand just how much the new 'Europe without Frontiers' is rhetoric and how much is – or might become – reality.

Hydrological simulation of the international catchment of guadiana river

The intense and speed-up modification of the natural regime of the Guadiana River in the last four decades raised some concern about the effective water availability especially along the Portuguese -Spanish border. The beginning of the construction of Alqueva dam contributed to give more emphasis to this issue.The increase of the water storage in the Guadiana catchment, to satisfy the large water consumption from agricultural projects, caused modifications in the natural regime of the river. The Spanish storage capacity in the area increased from almost zero in 1954 to 4 000 hm3 in 1963. This value was kept almost constant until 1988, when a new increase almost doubled the existing water storage capacity within three years. The coincidence of this increased storage capacity with drought periods felt in the early eighties and early nineties exposed the actual vulnerability of water resources in both southern Spain and Portugal.To characterize the vulnerability of the water resources downstream of the Portuguese-Spanish border due to several upstream hydrological conditions and due to different sequences of humid and dry periods, a mathematical simulation model named IRAS (Interactive River Aquifer Simulation) was used. This model allows to jointly simulate surface runoff, water quality, underground flows and hydropower operation.This paper discusses the procedures used to simulate time series of runoff in the Portuguese part of the Guadiana catchment. Some of these time series reflect the influence of the schemes already installed others simulated the hydraulic schemes to be installed. The scenarios of theSpanish Hydrological Plan are considered as upstream boundary conditions.

Border Approaches: Anthropological Perspectives on Frontiers.

Investigates how ethnicity, nationalism and cultural identity are marked in everyday life at international borders. This anthropological study covers West Africa, the Turkish-Syrian border, India and the proposed Khalistan, the German-French border, the Portuguese-Spanish border, and Ireland.