Seville and the Guadalquivir river in recent planning: Encounters and disagreements

Abstract

Seville's relationship with the Guadalquivir has a double aspect: on the one hand, the river has been an important source of wealth for the city thanks to the commercial activity carried out in its port and, on the other, a cause of problems due to the frequent floods that have been regularly damaging its built fabric. The huge hydraulic work carried out since the end of the 19th century to improve the accessibility to the port and to defend the city from floods has continue to provoke conflicts at both urban and regional levels. This article reviews the history of those conflicts dominated by a clear port hegemony, focusing next on the challenges and opportunities that Greater Seville faces to give new meaning to the spaces linked to the living channel of the Guadalquivir river and its plains of flood. The construction of the contemporary city-region represents an opportunity to integrate them into the network of regional green spaces. Both urban and regional planning have gone in this direction, but the way is not without difficulties, which are illustrated here by recent debates regarding the future of the Tablada fields as a great peri-urban park.