Valparaiso (Chile): New leisure waterfront

Port cities often face the challenge of how to use their waterfront, as the port’s and citizens’ needs can vary. To address all actors’ needs holistically, it is important to ensure dialogue between the wider community affected, helping to anticipate potential issues and move projects forward. Creating access and activities on the waterfront is important to make the waterfront an appealing area and help promote the port city’s heritage and integration of the port into the city. After decades without maritime development, Chile’s main port in Valparaíso urgently needed revitalisation due to limited coastal land and increased goods transit. A winning redesign project, ‘Parque Báron’, emerged from a national competition in 2019, integrating sustainable infrastructure for tourism and commerce, with added anti-tsunami measures to respect the city’s history and safeguard against natural disasters, set for completion in 2024.

This good practice also includes objective 4.4 (Developing collaborative approaches, drawing on scientific and technologic knowledge from the scientific community and civil society to support decision making.) of the AIVP’s 2030 Agenda.