Accessibility Dynamics and Regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Perspectives in the Portuguese—Spanish Borderland

Abstract

Accessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.

The Socio-Cultural Factors in the Common Strategic Planning in European Territories: Principles for Sustainable Development Extracted from Borderlands

“…Concerning the distance between cities, we have Oradea and Debrecen with the maximum distance possible of the pre-selection criteria (60km), the border cities of Frankfurt Oder and Slubice, and Cieszyn and Cesky Tesin with a distance around 1Km separating their urban centers. Nevertheless, as other similar studies have already shown, the distance has no much significance in the success of the CBC [27,28,29]. In this regard, we have the example of the border cities of La Línea de la Concepción (Spain) and Gibraltar (Gibraltar-UK), where the CBC is seen as a failure [10].…”

“…Contextually, sentence d (Through the implementation of the CBC strategy, the job opportunities for both cities have increased), the answers showed an exact position of unclearnessonce the highest percentage was found in the agreement point 3 (with 38.8); even though, this affirmation also shows a slight agreement tendency. However, if we consider that the decision-makers and CBC representatives promise and announce better life quality standards, and many job opportunities for the local populations with the implementation of such border strategies -i.e., a recurrent situation in many of the Iberian Eurocities projects [28]; therefore, it was expected that those border populations select a higher level of agreement with this affirmation; which is are unfavorable findings for the government officials associated with this typology of activities. Indeed, past investigations confirm these discoveries and perspectives -i.e., [18,19,23,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39] are just some examples.…”

“…Nevertheless, as much as we produce about CBC in the EU and carry efforts to expand cooperation in different sectors of society are highlighted, due to institutional and administrative difficulties, cooperation has been limited in the vast majority of countries. This cooperation is sometimes strictly economic [9,10,11,12,13,14,15].…”

Eurocities of the Iberian Borderland: A Second Generation of Border Cooperation Structures. An Analysis of Their Development Strategies

“…The administrative boundaries had critical territorial implications, such as political, socioeconomic, regional or military implications, among many others [2,3,6]. With the implementation of these supportive EU policies, the borderland situation has undoubtedly improved in some structural ways, e.g., bridges, roads, and other infrastructures [7][8][9]. However, they have not been as effective in banishing the severe depopulation problems and economic decay that affect most of the Iberian border territories [2,3,10].…”

“…Regarding the Eurocities, there are also several relevant research works-i.e., in the Eurocities of Chaves-Verín [20,21,32]; Elvas-Badajoz [3,8,21,23], Tui-Valença [20], Bayona-Donostia [20,21], Douro-Duero [21], Cerdanya [20], and in the Lower Guadiana Region [20][21][22][23]. Moreover, studies were also conducted analyzing the whole of the Iberian Border [20][21][22][23][24]33].…”