Good practice:

Landscape itinerary and requalification of urban borders in the Estuary North of River Odiel

The territorial scope of this action covers the municipalities of Aljaraque, Gibraleón and Huelva, as framed within the Red de Espacios Libres supramunicipales del Plan de Ordenación de la aglomeración urbana de Huelva, POTAUH). The action is foreseen in the Andalusian Plan of the Bicycle 2014-2020, contained in the chapter of the Territorial Development Strategies of the Territory Plan of Andalusia (POTA). This plan establishes the Junta de Andalucía, Ministry of Public Works, County Council of the province, Town Councils and the logistic infrastructure operator ADIF as responsible entities for the project’s development and maintenance.
This practice, is focused in degraded areas such as the Tharsis dock environs (Aljaraque), the maritime-fluvial promenade of Huelva (Huelva) and the stream of El Tejar (Gibraleón). It is a 33 km long piece of multimodal infrastructure, aimed at pedestrians and cyclists, which runs mostly on existing tracks and pathways in the surroundings of the "Parque Natural de las Marismas del Odiel" (Natural Park of the Odiel Marshes).
Users and beneficiaries are cyclists or hikers in general and also the local population/ local Civil society, who will benefit from the marsh’s border enhancement, enabling them to reconnect with this outstanding landscape of high ecological value.

A detailed technical project with an estimated budget of 2,272,287.64 euros was developed in 2017 by Junta de Andalucía. It analyses three alternative routes and includes the restoration of the Tharsis ore loading pier.

This practice strengthens collaboration between public and private entities, such as, Junta de Andalucía, Ministry of Public Works, County Council of Huelva, Town Councils and the logistic infrastructure operator ADIF, under the framework of the Andalusian Plan of the Bicycle 2014-2020. There is an interesting collaboration from citizen's associations pursuing the improvement of urban borders preserving environmental values of the marshes started raising in the process.

Once the technical difficulties of an intervention that affects a protected area such as the marshes are solved, preserving them from pressure and the degradation of urban borders, the main additional challenge is having appropriate financial resources.

This practice is a good example of how to address a common problem of urban peripheries, especially when touching valuable environmentally protected areas such as marshes. Thinking of cycle tourism as a booster to recover landscapes at risk of degradation and making it compatible with environmental values can be a source of inspiration in another areas facing the same challenge.