On February 7, 2012, the Municipality of Albufeira unanimously adopted the proposed Detailed Plan of Escarpão - Intervention Plan in Rural Area (PIER) and the Territorial Action Programme (PAT). Both Plans focus on an area of ​​326 hectares located in the Parish of Paderne, county of Albufeira.

The Detailed Plan of Escarpão takes the form of Intervention Plan in Rural Area, with a spatial extent confined to the mining area and the spaces occupied or in the process of occupation by related economic activities. The approval of PIER was conditioned on the establishment of a Territorial Action Programme, which is based on a diagnosis on the trends of transformation in that area, defines the objectives to be achieved during its duration period, specifies the actions to be performed by entities interested in them scaling down the timing of investment. Its implementation is assured by a contract between the municipality of Albufeira and the Complementary Grouping of Companies of Escarpão.