Environmental assessment in harbor areas: study on the proposed expansion of Cascais Marina/ Valutazione ambientale in ambito portuale: studi per l’ampliamento della marina e per il molo crociere di Cascais

The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon is today an important place of trade and excellent touristic destination constantly evolving: Cascais is headed to this area as a high quality tourist destination, based on an exclusive offer related to flows of people with a high purchasing power; the AML aims to 2020 the achievement of important objectives of urban, landscape and economic development primarily related to the tourism. In this context, Cascais offers to contribute to this growth through a tourism policy that provides for the expansion of its Marina in the configuration of port of call for cruise ships and large luxury yachts. Planning for a project of this scale, however, it puts at stake a range of issues related not only to tourism but to a radical change of the entire waterfront, especially in relation to the relevant environmental aspects which changes can irreversibly affect the attractiveness of the environment that features this coastal area for quality of bathing waters and for its landscape value. It is necessary to study the actions and their potential effects, which follows the development of a method whose objective it is essential to the environmental assessment of the validity of the project and the repercussions of such effects. The application of this method leads to the comparison of more planning alternatives and finally the choice of the proposal that best meets the initial targets.