Urban Edge and Regeneration Processes in Economic Activity Areas of the Metropolitan Area of Valencia

Abstract

In the Valencian Comunity context, transition spaces between urban and rural areas are not considered spaces with specific regulations, although they reflect critical urban situations faced with a territory with little response capacity. A situation that is aggravated by focusing on peripheral or peri-urban industrial soils. We approach their analysis with a methodology that contrasts theoretical contributions linked to urban culture with other more recent ones and we resort to field work and the operability provided by geographic information systems to advance, from reality, to the results of applied research on the territory. Our aim is to highlight the role that economic activity land can play in introducing improvements in their urban and territorial environments. It is therefore necessary to remove it from the character of secondary urban soils, or soils with lower standards, since its main role cannot be subordinated only to contributing to the economic impulse of a region. Its materialisation on a limited land resource commits it, like any other urban activity, to today's urban planning challenges and to the requirements of balanced and sustainable development. This paper proposes new models of intervention, based on criteria of phased urban planning regulation and strategic actions, which allow for the reformulation of urban margins destined for economic activities in response to current crises and the opportunity for new urban-rural spatial relations.