AIRPORT PLANNING AND REGIONAL PLANNING PROCESSES: THE CASE OF THE NEW AIRPORT OF LISBON

Abstract

The processes of airport planning and location choice for a new airport take usually a long time to develop and mature. During this time various changes usually occur. Generally these changes comprehend technological changes, changes in environmental legislation, usually becoming more restrictive, changes in the processes and paradigms of territorial planning, to name a few. In regions with high urban growth rates, the processes of sprawl and spatial growth could result in the abandonment of some initial potential airport locations.

The main purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between the planning process of the New Lisbon Airport (NLA) and the several territorial (both regional and local) and sectorial (transportation and road) planning instruments that were in place during the several iterations of this airport planning process.

At the end of the 1960s decade, the Portuguese authorities began to consider the need to plan for a new airport to replace the existing Portela Airport. In this process which took place over several decades a series of possible locations were analyzed with different depth levels. Several of these locations were over time invalidated for reasons arising from the urban expansion that took place in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA). Others were invalidated for environmental reasons, due to changes in the environmental legislation during this period of four decades. This paper analyses the various planning instruments that were in place during this period and their relationship with the planning process of NAL.