A methodology to identify a network of industrial parks in the Ave valley, Portugal

In recent decades in Europe, municipalities have promoted many poorly qualified and widespread industrial parks. These policies have caused various problems such as oversupply of industrial land, obsolescence and high vacancy rates. The future of these sites is uncertain and has become a key issue in planning. Nowadays, policies are focused on upgrading these sites and on implementing regional coordinated practices. This paper describes a methodological approach to identifying a subregional network of industrial parks in the Ave valley, Portugal. The network is based on the parks' attractiveness and has the purpose of supporting planning policies in terms of upgrading and providing new sites. The approach was based on a multi-criteria analysis whereby the parks were ranked according to their attractiveness considering their coverage in terms of infrastructures, services and accessibility. Results show that the majority of the existing and planned parks, even if upgraded, will not be very attractive and will be limited to a municipal scale due to structural problems related to their location and poor coverage. Moreover, the paper also discusses the challenges in implementing this planning approach at a subregional level. Despite the specificities of the case study, this methodology could be adopted in similar studies.