Bridging the gap between city and water: A review of urban-river regeneration projects in France and Spain

The urban regeneration of European river spaces since the 1990s has allowed their transformation into new axes of centrality and socialization and has seen the concentration of green areas along the banks of Europe's cities. This process has been promoted by the implementation of various projects, conducted at different scales and with varying budgets, in a range of urban-river habitats; yet, all of them seek a common goal: the exploitation of river spaces as new areas for social uses. In Western Europe, both France and Spain have implemented major projects that serve as good examples of urban regeneration. This paper identifies, classifies and analyses the main French and Spanish urban-river regeneration projects described in studies published since 1990 through a literature review and a statistical treatment of data. We identified 47 publications, referring to 12 projects in France and 14 projects in Spain, that allow us to conduct an analysis of the characteristics of this urban regeneration process. Overall, the projects are highly varied, above all in terms of their scale, the way in which they use processes of public participation to reach citizen consensus, and their implementation of environmental measures as a complement to urban regeneration. The projects with the largest budgets, as well as those targeting the largest areas for regeneration, have been made possible thanks to EU funding. In contrast, smaller budgets and interventions of shorter length and area tend to characterize the projects without EU funds. Additionally, processes of public participation have also been a key element, above all in France, and most projects with environmental rehabilitation have been carried out in Spain.