There is a gap in most of the countries legal framework respecting its ability to connect vacant land and urban gardens. Hence research is needed to understand how regulation on vacant land might be designed to promote a more sustainable purpose to it. Urban gardens are a type of urban agriculture that could be potentiated by such. The aim of this paper is to show how that can be done through the Municipal Master Plans (MMP)legal and regulatory framework for the Portuguese case, by reviewing worldwide good practices on vacant land restorations for urban sustainable development. The paper comprises a literature review on good practices adopted in different countries regarding vacant lot restoration. The evaluation of good practices built on the achievement of three pillars of sustainability. Five Portuguese MMP were used, as empirical data, to support the design of a new legal and regulatory framework. The goal is to enhance the sustainable destination of vacant land by converting them into urban gardens.The analysis of these MMPs evidenced they disregard urban gardens as a tool to promote urban sustainability in spite of global trends to make urban territorial planning and management instruments greener. An additional outcome of this paper is to categorise different types of vacant land in the five municipalities under analysis according to their suitableness for urban garden conversion. The design of the legal framework enhancing of the conversion of vacant land into urban garden will contribute to the 2030 international agenda goals' achievement. The proposal would create an innovative legal framework in the case of Portugal, that could be replicated by other countries.
In Portugal, concepts such as sustainable construction, sustainable development, and urban sustainability indicators still have limited use and application. Thus, the aim of this paper is to create the bases for the establishment of a suport system for the evaluation and sustainability quality certification for the built environment, covering building and public open spaces. The certification system will be applied to the municipally of Coimbra, more specifically to its parishes. Then, through the results of testing, it is possible to check which aspects need improvement and what measures could be implemented to improve sustainability.
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