A21_BARCELONA_A-MEDITERRANEAN-CITY_S-RUEDA_eng by Agencia BCNecologia

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This publication is the result of the agreement between Barcelona City Council and the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, in the framework of the Agenda 21. This is a translation of the original publication in Catalan (November 2002). Author: Salvador Rueda Director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona Contributions: Francesc Cárdenas, Jordi Selfa, Jordi Romero, Francesc Magrinyá, Bettina Schaefer, Marta Vila, Marià Martí, Enric Batlle, Francesc Albardaner, Rodrigo Díaz, Gisela Lorán, Joaquim Sabaté, Josep Germain, Joaquim Calafí, Josep Mª. Carreras, Francesc Llimona, Roger Sanmartí, Antonio Aparicio, Joan Carles Senar, Cynthia Echave, Moisès Morató and Núria Vilajuana. Published by: Barcelona City Council Maintenance and Service Sector Directorate for Environmental Education and Participation Publishing coordinator: Txema Castiella Design: Gauss Ambiental Photomechanics: Imatge i Producció Editorial Printed by: Imatge i Producció Editorial Ajuntament de Barcelona Legal deposit: B-39.255-2007 Barcelona, july 2007 All the uncredited charts and tables were drawn up by the author. The Urban Ecology Agency is a consortium formed by Barcelona Provincial Council, the Metropolitan Environmental Authority and Barcelona City Council This edition was printed on recycled paper. The cover is Methaphor of 310 g/m2 and the interior Freelife Vellum White of 120 g/m2

FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Biodiversity and the green network in the urban area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Biodiversity. The green network and ecological connectors in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

B A R C E L O N A I N T R A N S I T T O WA R D S S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

. . . . . . . . . 6 E F F I C I E N C Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

INTRODUCTION

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Efficiency. The urban metabolism

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

The cycle of materials: waste models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 C O M PA C T N E S S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The waste model

Compactness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The water cycle

A model of mobility based on superblocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Conservation and management of the demand for water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

The public space that appears in the proposal of superblocks . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Public space

Atmospheric pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Urban areas of integral action

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Rehabilitation and quality of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Cross-Section view of the Urbanism on three levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

S TA B I L I T Y

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

A more sustainable model of land occupation: more country and more city . . . . . . . 23 A polynuclear network of compact cities and towns in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The movement of persons and goods in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona . . . . . 28

Stability, social cohesion, co-development and the capacity for anticipation . . 72 Urban stability by fostering a balanced mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Ratio of university graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Stability and social cohesion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

COMPLEXITY

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

I N D I C AT O R S

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Areas of new centrality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 A mixture of urban uses and functions: areas of new centrality . . . . . . . . . . . 35

INSTRUMENTS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Information as a strategy for competing: density of legal entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Strategic lines for the economic development of Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Density of @ activities in Barcelona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The city of knowledge and the factors that foster the new economy: the 22@ district . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

O B J E C T I V E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

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As stated in the preamble to this Commitment, we need a city that is mixed and compact, efficient and diverse—in short, a more sustainable city. In order to achieve this, we must create new instruments and policies related to mobility, biodiversity, social cohesion and the use of resources. The Agenda 21 establishes objectives for progress in this gradual process. These will be achieved insofar as everyone, individually and collectively, accepts their responsibility and commitment. In order to move forward in this process it is also necessary to make a better definition of where we want to go. It is not just a question of imagining the future—in itself difficult—but of shaping it, of making it visible because the long-term prospects help us to get moving and because knowing the destination always makes the journey more feasible.

The work presented here—the result of a collaboration agreement between the City Council and the Urban Ecology Agency—is a prospective, integrated and systemic vision of the Barcelona that we want. By making a great effort to establish the environmental, economic and social parameters that will shape it, this vision has the advantage of specifying—and therefore making more real—this desirable future. In some areas the document goes beyond the limits of the municipal sphere because at the level of reflection and planning many phenomena fall outside the local reality. We trust that it will be a useful and stimulating material for all persons and institutions working to achieve greater urban sustainability. Its aim is to enrich the works carried out in the framework of the Barcelona Agenda 21 with a vision for the future that will be possible if we manage to work together towards sustainability.

Imma Mayol President of the Sustainability Commission

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

Barcelona has chosen the path of sustainability in order to move towards the city model that we need for the 21st century. After a long process of reflection, participation and consensus, the work of Agenda 21 in Barcelona, promoted by the Municipal Council for the Environment and Sustainability, culminated in the Civic Commitment for Sustainability, signed by 400 actors, organisations and institutions of the city.

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The Marina neighbourhood and the transformation of Poble Nou through its extension to La Sagrera, which involves above all the modification of the partially obsolete traditional industry and railways, will mark the practical completion of the urban development of the city. The extension of the port and the Forum area will complete the changes to the coastline of Barcelona. The remaining operations are undoubtedly of a more limited scope. Of course, the position of a municipality is closely related to the urban growth in its area. In Barcelona, the urban growth will therefore be very limited, and efforts must be focused in another direction to avoid losing the competitive edge. If Barcelona is full, what remains to be done in order to position it in the domestic and international context of cities?

B A R C E L O N A

I N

It seems that the course to follow is to seek a model that meets both challenges and achieves competitiveness through a new strategy based on information rather than consumption of resources. This is the aim of the urban model presented below, which will be put to the test by time and by the future events. The results, however, will largely depend on us, on the intent and the will that we apply to focus the changes in the direction proposed here. The strategic outlines include the measures that may lead to a reduction in the current urban malfunctions, and an increase in the environmental quality of the city. The lines of this vision for the future trace a Barcelona that would clearly improve the urban reality in general and the public space in particular. A proposal

T R A N S I T

It seems that Barcelona is forced to change its strategy from the one used by most urban systems, in which the town councils place their land on sale for new development in order to increase the sustained, rather than sustainable, economic growth and obtain the income in rates and taxes that they need in order to carry out the municipal projects. The new strategy must also take into account two aspects that inform the changes in the world today: the arrival of the information age and the reduction in the uncertainties that now face us due to the impact that human systems in general, and urban systems in particular, have on the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s systems that support our organisations.

Salvador Rueda Director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona.

T O WA R D S

S U S T A I N A B I L I TNYT R O D U C C I Ă&#x201C;

is also made to stabilise the system and give it greater social cohesion, without forgetting co-development with third countries. The model of Barcelona towards sustainability seeks coherence between the parts and formalises for the physical, social and economic areas the basic features that fill the initial theoretical framework with content.

The proposals presented here are the translation into the form of strategic proposals of the process of participation that was initiated in Barcelona, in order to define the city's Agenda 21. This document contains schematic proposals for Barcelona and ones that go beyond the municipal limits to include the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (the counties of the Maresme, Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat, Baix Penedès, Alt Penedès, Vallès Oriental and Vallès Occidental). The proposals for the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona are also schematic and are intended to serve as a basis for the discussion of the Strategic Plan of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the next Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona. A more sustainable model for Barcelona that fails to include the metropolitan reality is unviable. The outlines that are presented here attempt to achieve coherence in their criteria and in the area they consider, and this coherence is precisely why they were I N T R O D U C T I O N selected. The document is divided into four main sections, coinciding with the structuring lines of the model. Each line contains schematic proposals of different aspects of the urban and regional reality. The proposals are drawn up in strategic terms, but the economic, legal, organisational and educational instruments that will be necessary if they are accepted have not yet been fully developed. However, there is a section that presents some general instruments that make the proposal viable. There is also a section of synthetic indicators for monitoring the model.

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

The main aim of the present document is to build a prospective scenario for the Barcelona of the 21st century using criteria of academic ecology in general and urban ecology in particular. It is an intentional model (like everything proposed and carried out by man) that aims to lay down the patterns and the direction that Barcelona must follow in a process towards sustainability in the new information age.

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THE UNITY OF THE SYSTEM AND THE ENVIRONMENT THE METABOLIC FLOWS

MODELS OF URBAN METABOLISM

EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

POLLUTING IMPACT

URBAN SYSTEM

In the diagrams on the left, the urban system appears at the top and its environment at the bottom. In order to maintain its organisation, the city needs to extract resources from other systems that are converted into its support systems. These flows of resources—materials, water and energy—involve an exploitation (in ecological terms) of the environment, whose structure will in some way be simplified. The management models of these resources that are adopted by the city will increase or reduce these flows. For example, if our waste management model includes recovering and recycling most of the paper and cardboard that are consumed (newspapers, magazines, packaging, etc.), in the equivalent manufacture of new paper it will be necessary to cut down fewer trees, i.e. the forest systems will be exploited less. Furthermore, the consumption of resources in the city will involve a new polluting impact, both on the support systems and on the city itself, and the volume of the impact will also depend on the management model that is intentionally chosen. Continuing the above example, it is concluded that if it is taken to the landfill site, all the paper and cardboard that has not been recovered will release atmos2 pheric pollutants (CO and others) and liquid pollutants (leachates with inks and others). If it is taken to the incinerator, most of the components will be emitted into the atmosphere (the atmosphere is one of our support systems). This impact will be increased by the transformations of the extra trees that must be cut down in order to turn them into paper pulp (a very energy-intensive process that therefore emits atmospheric pollution and has a great impact on the water system because it is highly polluting).

ENVIRONMENT: SUPPORT SYSTEMS

In summary, the city needs to exploit the support systems because it is an open system, but the volume of exploitation and the impact depends on the management models that we adopt. This is intentional, so it depends on us.

THE INFORMATION FLOWS

URBAN SYSTEM

In order to maintain their organisation, cities also need information and knowledge. Part of this already comes with the resources. We bring another from other places of the world in the form of companies that set up their businesses here (professionals, executives, teachers, artists... a diverse range of people), and with them come new technologies, software, methods and ways of solving problems that together make our cities increase their organisational complexity. Part of our organisation is sustained through the simplification of other systems, above all when there is a reduction in the assets that would increase their organised structure.

SIMPLIFICATION

INFORMATION

URBAN ORGANISATION

ENVIRONMENT: SUPPORT SYSTEMS

The process, based on this strategy that is today globalised, is simply unsustainable. We must therefore seek a strategy for competing that is not based on the consumption of resources, and at the same time a model of urban organisation that reduces the impact that we have on the earth's systems.

In the diagram one can see the greater unsustainability of the model on the left, which involves greater pressure due to exploitation and impact (shown in the size of the arrows) than the model on the right.

The adjoining diagram shows the main flows that are established biunivocally by the urban system and the systems that sustain the urban organisation. Exploitation and a polluting impact affect the ecosystems, simplifying them, but what is of most concern today is that they are exerted without limits. Indeed, the combination of exploitation and impact is ever greater, making the “pressure” on the support systems rise above the "carrying capacity” of some of them. A reasonable exploitation of the support systems is necessary, but it is not reasonable to carry out the exploitation without limits, i.e. when the systems are overexploited, compromising the mechanisms of renewability or leading to the exhaustion of the resources. The same occurs when the disturbance to the ecosystems caused by a polluting impact is so high that the simplification to which it is subjected does not allow it to recover and achieve a "balanced" functioning.

URBAN SYSTEM

MANAGEMENT MODELS

URBAN SYSTEM

IMPACT

However, urban systems and regions compete with each other for their position in the national and international ranking of cities. The urban strategies used to obtain positions of advantage are based, unfortunately, on a growing increase of resources, i.e. on an increase in the impact on the support systems, which consequently leads to an increase in the uncertainties in the earth's systems.

The current pressure on the support systems and its rising tendency is clearly “unsustainable”, so the first objective for “sustainability” will be to reduce the pressure currently exerted on the support systems by urban systems in general, and by Barcelona in particular.

IMPACT

Cities are without doubt the systems that have the greatest impact on the ecosystems of the earth, and it is clear that the battle of sustainability will be won or lost in them. Therefore, the reduction of the uncertainties mentioned above depends essentially on the application of models of urban organisation aimed at reducing the impact on the systems that “support” us (because they provide us with resources and take our waste).

Furthermore, as a result of the urban organisation, which will transform and consume the resources that have arrived in different ways, a great amount of waste will be generated that cannot be maintained in the city (it would toxify the system) and will be projected to other places (other systems), causing a new impact.

to migration for ecological reasons in increasing areas of land.

MANAGEMENT MODELS

In the diagrams, the size of the arrowss is proportional to the size of the pressure.

The reduction in the pressure on the environment depends above all on the models of management and urban organisation, and these obviously depend on the will to direct them towards objectives of reduction.

The impact on the systems also affects the human groups that have for centuries enjoyed the resources of their territory, leading

URBAN ORGANISATION AND ITS COMPLEXITY AND STABILITY Reducing the pressure on the environment should not, in theory, involve a reduction in the urban complexity, i.e. it should not involve a simplification of the city and compromise its future. It is well-known that the first thing that is lost with a cut in basic materials, water or energy is the organisation. Furthermore, the simpler systems show a greater dependence on energy centres; as the systems become complex, energy plays a more secondary role,

until it becomes a very small support in the construction, maintenance and changes of the system. In more evolved and more complex systems, the components use information as a centre. As systems reach higher degrees of evolution, information becomes the organising centre of the system and energy is only a complementary medium for it.

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

These show our limited capacity for anticipation with regard to problems on a global scale caused by behaviours and models of organisation and management of reality on a local scale.

The relations that urban systems establish with other more or less distant territories can be characterised by flows of materials, water, energy and information. In order to maintain the organisation of a city, enormous amounts of resources must reach it in the form of raw materials, objects and artefacts, as well as information. All this feeds the system and maintains the city organised, and it can even increase its organisational complexity.

EXPLOITATION

Human life and its most complex organisations (cities) are threatened by the increase in the uncertainties projected by the earth’s systems in response to the impacts they suffer from man and his activities. The uncertainties are expressed in several ways: probable climatic change, movement of millions of persons for environmental reasons, over-exploitation of fishing grounds all over the world, depletion of fossil fuels and basic minerals, human appropriation of clean primary production, etc.

THE PRESSURE EXERTED BY URBAN SYSTEMS ON THE SUPPORT SYSTEMS

EXPLOITATION

URBAN SUSTAINABILITY: THE THEORETICAL BASES OF THE MODEL

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

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Increasing the organised information is the urban strategy for competing that could replace the current strategy based on the consumption of resources. A greater urban complexity (the second aspect to take into account for sustainability) provides a position of advantage over other, more simplified systems, because information is multiplied whereas energy is only added.

“development” and “sustainable” is an oxymoron, i.e. a combination of contradictory terms, because the term sustainability is linked to the idea of reducing the pressure on the support systems. Therefore, either one changes the strategy for competing or one ceases to speak of sustainable development because the current strategy makes them contradictory.

An increase in complexity also involves an increase in the urban functions that give it stability.

The equation of sustainability is solved if one manages to apply an urban model that incorporates an increase in the urban organisation and at the same time a reduction in the pressure on the environment. The schematic proposals presented below attempt to approach this equation in a coherent and integrated fashion. Developing these proposals will involve major changes in the way we understand urban issues and the action we take.

This new strategy based on information should make it possible to achieve compatibility between the terms “development” and “sustainable”. Indeed, with the current strategy for competing based on the consumption of resources, which is the meaning of the term development, the pressure on the support systems increases, and is translated into an increasing unsustainability. With this strategy

THE COMPONENTS OF A MODEL OF BARCELONA IN TRANSIT TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY As stated above, the urban model that is proposed for Barcelona must allow the city to project itself into the future in competition with other cities and urban areas, whilst reducing the consumption of resources that it needs to maintain its organisation and increase its complexity even further. The model also includes a set of interrelated proposals that can significantly improve the urban quality, and in theory reduce most of the malfunctions of the current model. A complementary series of outlines for regional planning are also proposed. These are essential for a systemic understanding, based on criteria of sustainability, of the relations that must be established between the different parts of the territory. The model is based on four structuring lines: compactness, complexity, efficiency and stability. Each of the lines explains a part of the reality, the part that is closest to it, but all of them are encapsulated in a single, integrated proposal. The proposal focuses on Barcelona and also—schematically—on the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, because the two are condemned to understand each other in their strategies. The current malfunctions must be understood partly as a result of the current disconnection and lack of coherence. Of the four structuring lines of the model that guide Barcelona towards sustainability, two of them, compactness and efficiency, include the strategic proposals for reducing the pressure that our city exerts on the support systems.

Compactness is a line that articulates the models of land occupation and new planning, mobility, public space, building types and the underground city, i.e. the aspects that deal with the form and functionality of the city. Efficiency is a line that proposes the adopting of a new metabolic system that reduces the disturbance of the ecosystems. It articulates the models of urban metabolism: water, materials and energy, i.e. the flows that provide the city with resources and that must be managed appropriately after they have been consumed in order to avoiding polluting both the city and the wider environment. The other two lines that sustain a more sustainable model of Barcelona, complexity and stability, deal with the organisation of the city and a new strategy for competing based on information and knowledge and give meaning to the model of the knowledge city. Stability deals with social cohesion and also covers co-development, on the understanding that solidarity, equity and the reduction of conflicts necessarily involves giving all human groups a share in sustainable development. A limited number of synthetic indicators are proposed for monitoring the different lines of the Barcelona Model.

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

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COMPACTNESS

COMPACTNESS VS DISPERSAL

Compactness is the state or quality of being compact. According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, the adjective compact means "consisting of parts that are positioned together closely or in a tidy way, using very little space."

The conditioning factors imposed by formal physical proximity are of special relevance in order to get an idea of the objectives expressed above in relation to sustainability.

In the field of urban planning, compactness expresses the idea of proximity of the components that make up the city, i.e. the location of the urban uses and functions in a limited space.

the public space and in the buildings, allow a separation to be made between the city and the country; this is not possible in the diffuse city, which is configured as an immense suburb. Indeed, the functionalist zoning and the network of infrastructures imposes an orderless mixture that simplifies the urban parts as well as the rural and natural ones. Horizontal transport destroys the mosaic of areas that could have an independent development.

Compactness therefore facilitates the contact, exchange and communication that are, of course, the essence of the city. It increases the probability of contacts and thus reinforces the relation between the elements of the urban system.

a) The formal solutions adopted in the compact city, both in

b) The Mediterranean city at our latitudes is characterised substantially by the public space, which is the place where civic life takes on meaning. Its functions go beyond mobility and include many others such as leisure, markets and festivals. The public space characterised by the corridor street, which is what mostly shapes the urban landscape, is lengthened and extended in each of the public facilities: markets, libraries, sports facilities, cultural facilities, civic centres, schools, beaches, parks and gardens, etc. Together, the street and the facilities form a unit, an interconnected mosaic that revitalises civic life every day. Public space in the diffuse city is compartmented, and in each place it can fulfil a function. For example, the motorways that play the role of the main streets only allow the function of mobility. The market and its functions, and trading, have been shifted to the superstores, which have everything (in residential estates there is nothing). The aisles of the shopping centre play the role of streets, though they are regulated by the commercial interests rather than by municipal regulations. The single-family house acts as the core of a star that extends its points to connect to the exterior and covers many of the functions of the public space of the compact city. Many houses become in rotation social clubs, bars, restaurants, etc.: the weekend barbecue is the excuse to bring the friends and/or relatives together, and each person takes turns at being the host.

c) In the compact city one can consider building its mirror image underground. Today, most of the frictions that arise at ground level due to traffic, loading and unloading, parking, etc. can be resolved below ground level. In the diffuse city, of course, this is not possible.

d) The conflicts of transport generated by the diffuse city can only be solved by increasing the infrastructure to restore the lost speed or to desaturate the network. This dynamic process is complementary to, and generally predates, new dispersed urban settlements that will make any extension of the network insufficient, because they will transfer the problem of congestion and the variables that accompany it (atmospheric pollution, noise, pollution of the landscape, greater consumption of energy and time) to increasingly large areas. With the current technology, it is only possible to increase the number of contacts and physical relations in the diffuse city by increasing the road network. The proximity of uses and urban functions in the compact city allows public transport to reach a sufficient critical mass to maintain itself and offer a regular and comfortable local service, as well as facilitating movement by bicycle and on foot. In the compact city, the great majority of citizens have “access” to the city and can enjoy it without depending on anyone. The elderly, children and persons without a driving license or car represent 70% of the public, and when they live in dispersed housing estates they lack autonomy and therefore access to the city: they only obtain access to the services if someone drives them there.

e) The number of potential contacts per unit of energy and time consumed in transport is far greater in the compact city than in the diffuse city. In the same proportion, the emissions of pollutants for each contact are far lower in the compact city than in the dispersed city.

f) The separation between persons with different incomes in the compact city is less than that imposed in the diffuse city. The public space in Barcelona can be occupied by any person, whatever their social condition. Furthermore, the mixture of incomes that is found in much of the built fabric is a substantial element of social cohesion and co-habitation. The housing estates of the dispersed city are occupied according to income, leading to a social segregation that is increased through the almost exclusive use of the public space by the residents of the estate, who consider any person from outside the estate who uses it as an “intruder”.

One of the dangers faced by Barcelona (though it may seem a contradiction) is the development of an excessive compactness arising from speculation or poorly applied policies in relation to this concept. The current tendency of producing city (different cities in all continents show this) does not end with the dispersed occupation of the land but (following the same model) continues with the vertical growth of central areas that are mainly filled with tertiary activities, in some cases driving out the resident communities. These business districts control the development and the destiny of large areas of land. The resulting proportions between buildings and public space are in favour of the former, breaking the balances of civic life, which are those related to urban quality and quality of life. Therefore, the idea of compactness must be regulated and corrected, because in excess it can generate more malfunctions than solutions, at least from the viewpoint of sustainability. But what are the rules for correcting compactness, and what are the points of balance and the theoretical basis for approaching it? At this point, following some of the proposals already put forward by Cerdà and adapted to our current knowledge, one must revive some of the dichotomies that he considered for the planning of the Eixample. In particular, the dichotomy relation-isolation led him to divide the Eixample into 50% buildings and 50% green and open spaces. For the inhabitants of a town the civic life, which is carried out in the public space, represents a basic dichotomy similar to their own personal life. Indeed, the life of an individual is essentially two things: inner life and relation. Civic life is also on the one hand interaction and communication, i.e. relation, and on the other hand peace, silence, relaxation and contact with nature, i.e. isolation. The history of Barcelona is full of examples and actions (some legal, others illegal) that have subverted this dichotomy following the logic of speculation: one need only consider the planning regulations introduced successively since the early days of the Eixample, all increasing the building density and rapidly eliminating all the green spaces. The proportion of built space to green space in Barcelona is too much in favour of the former, involving a deficit of one of the parts of civic life. This is translated into an increase in

the urban pressure that has a variety of consequences for the city and the region (for example, the proliferation of second homes). The compactness of the different urban fabrics shows the deficit of green spaces, above all of those used daily that are less than 200 metres from one's home. On the other hand, private vehicles occupy 65–70% of the total public space for moving, parking and loading and unloading. This massive presence of artefacts dissipating energy behaves like a single reticular machine (in fact when there is a problem at one point of the network, it affects the whole), emitting noise and atmospheric pollution, causing accidents, etc. This is added to the pressure caused by the excessive building density and makes the public space, which is the main characteristic of our Mediterranean city, “unlivable”. Therefore, the uses and functions of public space have been limited by speculation, which replaced green spaces with buildings, and cars, which have invaded most of the urban space. The city is therefore on its hands and knees, and restoring part of the balance is one of the objectives of the model for a future city. The partial recovery of the balances between relation and isolation can only be achieved by reconsidering the use of the space above and below ground.

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THE CORRECTION OF COMPACTNESS

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A MODEL OF MOBILITY BASED ON SUPERBLOCKS

Grid of basic routes for private vehicles

Grid of basic routes for above-ground public transport

Grid of basic routes for cycle transport

The structuring of the transport networks into superblocks can resolve most of the current urban malfunctions linked to mobility and the use of public space.

SUPERBLOCKS FOR PRIVATE VEHICLES The superblock (in physical terms) is composed of a set of basic roads forming a polygon or inner area (intervia) that contains within it several blocks of the current urban fabric. The network of superblocks extended over the municipality of Barcelona should form a mesh that is as isotropic as possible, covering it in its entirety. The basic roads are in general between 400 and 600 metres apart.

Cerdà showed that the most efficient network in urban fabrics is an orthogonal one. Radial networks and ones that contain diagonals are inefficient.

The through vehicles only occupy the peripheral roads that define the superblock and are considered as basic roads. The interior (intervia) is closed to through vehicles and open (by means of a system of cards and bollards) to residents, public transport, disabled persons, emergency vehicles and, in some streets, bicycles.

The intersection between the different components of the network causes “frictions” that do not arise in orthogonal networks.

In the course of time the superblock can be opened and disappear as such when it is considered suitable; the idea of the superblock is therefore as flexible as one wishes to make it. Loading and unloading is performed mostly in the interior of the intervias during certain periods of time. It therefore does not interfere with the traffic flow on the basic roads. A system of underground or closed car parks peripheral to the intervia with access from each of the basic roads guarantees that any person can reach the centre of the superblock in a couple of minutes. The residents can park at any time in the interior of the superblock if they have a parking space off the public thoroughfare. The network allows the connection and accessibility of the entrances and exits to the city and the itineraries that connect with and between the districts.

THE SUPERBLOCKS FOR ABOVE GROUND PUBLIC TRANSPORT (PT) The current network of buses does not operate as a network. In the best of the cases, the citizens know the bus line near to their home. The metro, on the other hand, works as a network. A network of buses that comes close to the idea of a network may take shape if it is designed on an orthogonal basis, i.e. in order to go from one point to another one needs to make at most one change. The bus network would form an orthogonal mesh of vertical lines from the sea to the hills and of horizontal lines from the River Besòs to the River Llobregat, with pairs of routes travelling in both directions. In most stretches the lines of the basic network would have segregated lanes and a frequency of about 5 minutes. The increase in frequency, the segregated lane and efficient traffic-light sequencing in a grid with a section of 400 m would mean that the buses would be faster than they are now, and even faster than private vehicles at peak times. The proposal represents a relatively small modification of the current transport network, though it would eliminate many of the diagonals that are now used. The bus network, and the extended network proposed by the Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI) and shown in the diagram “Movement of Persons and Goods” presented below, form the public transport proposal that will make it feasible to reduce vehicle traffic, as laid out in the previous section.

In the Ribera neighbourhood of Barcelona a superblock has already been in operation for quite a few years.

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A MODEL OF MOBILITY BASED ON SUPERBLOCKS

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THE SUPERBLOCKS FOR BICYCLES

The network would again be structured orthogonally following the idea of the superblock so that much of the land would be covered except for part of the northern area of the city and MontjuĂŻc (at least in the uphill routes). The bicycle becomes a true means of transport if:

1. It has its own interconnected network covering the whole area and most of it is segregated.

2. It is safe. 3. It has secure parking facilities. A space for bicycles is pro-

4. Several units of PT are fitted out for transporting bicycles to overcome the impediment of slopes with a gradient of more than 4%.

vided in the peripheral car parks of the intervias.

THE SUPERBLOCKS FOR PEDESTRIANS

The number of journeys on foot represents over 26% of the internal journeys. This percentage may be increased because the proposal includes:

1. Intervias connected by a network of green areas and qua-

5. The section has a single level in the interior of the inter-

lity materials for all pedestrians (without physical barriers).

vias to indicate that the main form of transport is walking.

2. Most of the network for pedestrians has sound levels of

6. The architectural barriers are removed and the whole city

Leq < 65 dBA.

3. It is a safe network with fewer accidents. 4. It is an attractive network because it combines greenery and urban design with spaces for spending time and commercial activities. Gradients of over 8% Gradients of 6-8% Gradients of 4-6% Gradients of 0-4%

is made accessible to disabled persons.

THE PUBLIC SPACE THAT APPEARS IN THE PROPOSAL OF SUPERBLOCKS

Current and future green space Diagram of the green spaces and spaces for spending time that appear in the proposal of superblocks

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PUBLIC SPACE

NEW USES AND FUNCTIONS FOR THE PUBLIC SPACE OF BARCELONA

The public space is the main element defining the model of the Mediterranean city. It is where the life of the city develops, and embodies its essence: contact, exchange and communication.

In addition to journeys on foot, the public space in the intervias can fulfil other functions of civic life: spending time, playing, leisure, contact with greenery, etc. Here the structure of superblocks can partly make up for the current deficit of green and leisure spaces that speculation and cars have reduced to a minimum.

As stated above, for the inhabitants of a town the civic life, which is carried out in the public space, represents a basic dichotomy similar to their own personal life: relation and isolation. The proportion of built space to green space in Barcelona tips too far in favour of the former (for example, in the Eixample buildings occupy 61% and green spaces 6%) and the same can be said of the occupation of the public space by private vehicles (between 65 and 70% of the total). This involves a deficit of one of the parts of civic life and leads to an increase in the urban pressure. Continuing with the example of the Eixample, the proposal of superblocks would increase the green and residential spaces by almost 30%.

Civic life, however, is also relation, exchange and communication. The mixture of legal entities in a place—i.e. economic activities, associations, facilities and administration—attracts a certain number of persons who give life to this part of the city. The intersection between relation and isolation determines the variables of the medium and its quality, and fills the idea of the city with content.

THE CONTROL OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES IN THE PUBLIC SPACE The combination of certain formal solutions in both the building and the public space may allow us to partly control the variables of the environment or of the medium as we do in the interior of buildings, where we control the temperature, the lighting and the relative humidity. One must therefore control the environmental variables in the public space in order to improve the urban and environmental quality (comfort), which involves a relative control of the sunlight and shade, the temperature and the air movement, the sound scenarios and the polluting immissions, the security and urban relations. The control of the medium provides the best scenario for the new uses and functions of the public space. The idea of controlling the medium brings us towards the more advanced stage of an ecosystem in its succession, on the understanding that an ecosystem is the multivariate relation between bodies and environment in a given space and that it manages to achieve a certain control of this medium.

An example of a superblock in the Eixample of Barcelona Source: Drawn up by the author for ProEixample 18

The proposal of superblocks mostly involves freeing almost 60% of the public space now occupied by cars in order to increase the green area. In this area, the aim is not so much to form naturalised areas but to enhance the second aspect of civic life linked to isolation and contact with green spaces.

In the intervia of the superblocks, the design of the section of the street and of the furniture, the use of quality materials and water, the placing of two green zones at different heights (at street level and on the building, see the section on urban biodiversity), and the definition of the uses and functions of the urban fabric can allow one to control the variables of the medium: the sound scenario, the urban landscape, the climate and the security.The control of the environmental variables in turn affects several aspects of the urban metabolism: energy and its consumption, water and the quality of the air.

URBAN GREENERY Apart from the proposals of recent planning, the proposals contained in this document could significantly increase the urban greenery.

a) Inner streets of the intervias. The purpose of freeing urban land is to increase the urban functions linked to isolation: contact with greenery, birds, water, the earth, the soil... all immersed in a high-quality urban landscape. The crossroads of the Cerdà grid cover an area of 1900 square metres, which is a similar size to the Plaça del Sol. This means that one would have over 150 potential squares of greenery, linked to multifunctional streets in which greenery rather than the road is the structuring component.

b) Inner courts of blocks. The construction of underground car parks in the inner courts of the blocks, as laid down in the proposal for peripheral car parks of the superblocks, would allow gardens to be built at ground level in the inner courts, and part of the profits could be devoted to maintaining them. This proposal would increase the number of inner courts from 17 to 45 in the medium term (2008).

c) Gardens on the slopes of Collserola. The intersection of the hills with the urban fabrics allows a series of buffer gardens to be drawn covering the north of Barcelona. d) Greenery in the new urban projects. The transformation and remodelling of large areas of the city: Poble Nou, Sant AndreuSagrera, Nou Barris, Trinitat Nova, etc. provide new greenery that in some cases links large urban areas.

URBAN AREAS OF INTEGRAL ACTION THE BIRTH OF A NEW URBANISM: AN URBANISM ON THREE LEVELS Barcelona is almost completely built. Its land is fully occupied and at most only 50,000 more dwellings can be built. However, it is proposed to plan the new urban developments by introducing a new urbanism that faces our current challenges as a society: sustainability and the coming of the new age of information and knowledge. The new urbanism, called "urbanism on three levels" (elevated, on the ground and underground) is composed of three layers (three horizontal planes on an urbanistic scale) that are planned with the same precision as that used in current urban planning in a single layer at ground level. Present-day urbanism is insufficient to deal with the variables of the new challenges. It fails to take into account the problems of water, energy, waste, biodiversity, urban distribution, services, the incorporation of new technologies, and the development of areas with knowledge-dense activities (among other reasons because planning tools as they are currently conceived are unable to do so), and this makes it more difficult to achieve the model of a more sustainable city and the model of a knowledge city. One of these models without the other is doomed to failure. In an urbanism on three levels one can link metabolic flows to the idea of efficiency, coming close to self-sufficiency through the use of renewable resources (rain and aquifers for water, sun for energy and recovered materials for construction, etc.). A new layer of biodiversity is developed at the top level. A public space is conceived on three levels, with the ground-level public space being reserved for the citizens. Urban distribution, parking and services are planned underground. As explained in other sections, there is a development of complexity, complexity in the new age and social cohesion.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: REHABILITATION AND MORE SUSTAINABLE NEW CONSTRUCTION Most of the work that is currently done on buildings in Barcelona consist of conversions and rehabilitations of interior and exterior elements. The adaptation of these processes of rehabilitation and new construction to the criteria of sustainability should lead to a better quality of life for the inhabitants (â&#x20AC;&#x153;housing for allâ&#x20AC;?), an improvement of the urban landscape, greater efficiency in the consumption of resources and the availability of new technologies. The creation of an environmental quality certificate must be promoted (related to the incorporation of water saving systems, facilities for selective collection, reduction of internal noise, use of natural lighting, use of renewable energies and materials with ecolabels, bicycle parking, accessibility, domotics, etc.). Furthermore, in the new developments and in the revitalization of neighbourhoods, the new habitability must be incorporated in residential building construction in order to adapt it to the new models of family structure, link it to nearby basic services and use local resources in the construction.

Integral actions

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REHABILITATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE

REHABILITATION AND URBAN QUALITY

Some of the dwellings that are built fail to reach suitable levels of habitability. Also, the buildings do not have the basic facilities such as lifts, which are vital for the inhabitants, especially the elderly.

The urban landscape of Barcelona has improved considerably thanks to the smartening up of its facades.

a control of the environmental variables can create comfortable microclimates.

The purposeful combination of facade smartening (above all with colour) and the distribution of vegetation, water, furniture, etc. can create (many) spaces of great urban quality and

The restoration of the external elements of the building provides a suitable level of safety for the use of the public space without problems.

The processes of rehabilitation undertaken in Barcelona—especially the major works undertaken in Ciutat Vella—have led to a significant improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants. Aspects such as health, security, comfort (redistribution of the internal elements of homes, common facilities, etc.), have been taken into account in the rehabilitation work. Also, in order to achieve a level of comfort in the interior of the buildings with façades giving onto the basic network of the superblocks (with daytime noise levels of over 65 dBA), subsidies should be provided to install double glazing on the façades in the line already initiated by the Urban Landscape Institute.

This increase in efficiency can be complemented with the placing of thermal solar panels, which save a great deal of energy. This saving will be increased if the rehabilitation work includes passive solutions of cross-ventilation.

The demolition of part of the rehabilitated buildings generates large amounts of rubble that must be recycled or, in some cases, reused. It should not be directly tipped in landfill sites. The internal components (the lighting fittings, facilities, etc.) of the rehabilitated buildings must be chosen for their efficiency and long life cycle.

MORE SUSTAINABLE NEW BUILDINGS Full rehabilitation Medium rehabilitation Slight rehabilitation

The model of the compact city involves multi-family housing as the main building type. The new buildings must allow for mixed uses and have public establishments on the ground floor. The buildings must form streets with formal continuity. The formal solutions that are adopted in buildings will determine the uses to which they may be put and will therefore have an extremely important effect on the city model. A model with a mixture of uses and functions such as the one proposed here cannot be developed with buildings of a single function repeated over large areas. The buildings in the areas of renewal must form part of an integral project that creates a new piece of complex “city”. The new buildings must have suitable dimensions, structures and facilities to house the activities of the new economy. Following the criterion of compactness, the urban mix must take into account the spatial proximity between residential, labour, leisure, shopping uses, etc, involving accessibility to the basic services and at the same time self-containment. Also, the new buildings must take into account the criteria of orientation, management and efficiency of energy, water and materials for a rational use of resources, and provide comfort and quality for the users. The design of the new buildings must be of high architectural quality and it must be identifiable, avoiding the homogeneous formal solutions of recent decades that are more appropriate for suburbs than for cities. For both the new and the rehabilitated buildings one must create an environmental quality certificate that includes the aspects related to metabolic flows: energy, water and materials. The new buildings must have a hypothetical qualification of 10 out of 10, and in rehabilitated buildings it is proposed that they at least increase the qualification by 2 points.

Rehabilitation of buildings in Ciutat Vella (1987-2001) Source: Rehabilitation Office of Ciutat Vella

REHABILITATION AND EFFICIENCY The double glazing proposed for the façades of the buildings of the basic network also leads to efficient energy consumption. The same is true of the construction of green roofs that lead to a significant energy saving in winter, and above all in summer.

CROSS-SECTION VIEW OF THE URBANISM ON THREE LEVELS

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THE DESIGN OF THE UNDERGROUND CITY

MOBILITY AND PARKING

Until now, experiences of underground urban design have been limited, though in cold climates the galleries built in some cities are over thirty kilometres long. Extreme climatic conditions force people to seek underground the meeting points with the characteristics of public space that we are used to experiencing above ground.

For some time the main aim of underground construction has been mobility. Underground railways have lightened the burden of mobility on civic life and have increased the speed of other forms of transport due to the lack of obstacles and friction. However, motor vehicles now occupy most of the built area underground.

It seems a totally reasonable and even strategic objective to design an underground city of Barcelona that will organise and distribute functions to solve some of the current malfunctions and reinforce the future development of the city based on more sustainable criteria. The lack of planning and legislation is partly undermining the future of Barcelona, and an improvised occupation will be a handicap for the planning of the area below ground that will have to be undertaken sooner or later. One must revise the current legislation and create new laws and/or modify those aspects that are now an insurmountable obstacle. The area below ground should be a public resource and the urban plans must permit the differentiation of each part of the buildings, particularly the parts developed underground. However, caution will be necessary in order to combine the design of the underground city with the archaeological remains.

New railway and metro lines must also be laid underground in Barcelona.

LOADING AND UNLOADING (L/U) L/U causes an increasing impact on the functionality of the city, above all in the central areas. Apart from the time regulations that might be established, using the space below ground may provide the great solution to the current frictions in mobility imposed by L/U. With this aim it is proposed to create a system of interconnected galleries.

The priority for building the galleries would be to combine the variables of motorised pressure at ground level and green area per inhabitant. The L/U performed with motor vehicles must be complemented by the railway, for which space must be provided on the railway network at strategic points of the city for distributing loads.

FLOWS OF MATERIALS AND ENERGY. SERVICE GALLERIES The L/U galleries connect to the surface by goods lifts for business, lifts for persons, and underground containers for waste. The waste collection services would use the galleries for removing the flows of domestic and commercial waste. The service galleries form a separate system. It seems that these would take priority in the intervias of the superblocks, and the interruption of the flow of mobility must be reduced to a minimum. The service galleries could have a prismatic structure similar to that proposed in the 22@ area. In addition to the channelling and transport of drinking water, sewage and rainwater, there would be a series of tanks for regulating floods and combined sewer overflow, and one could also add a separate water supply from the aquifers of the River BesĂ˛s or from the treatment plants for use in public services, industry and the corridors of green roofs.

L/U emergency exit

ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES

L/U entrance

L/U exit

L/U emergency exit

UNDERGROUND GALLERIES FOR LOADING/UNLOADING

Source: Drawn up by the author for ProEixample 22

Underground car parks have partly reduced the over-occupation of the public space, though there are parts of the city with a shortage of car parks that must be resolved in the near future. There is also a need to reduce the shortage of parking for motorcycles and bicycles. The proposal of superblocks requires a plan of car parks on the peripheries of the intervias covering the whole city.

In the major urban remodelling projects, and in the future if the formulas for managing energy and materials change in line with the proposals of this document, space must be reserved below ground to house the facilities that provide collective services. Also, a list of activities that can be carried out underground must be drawn up and the ones that are strategic must be chosen.

A MORE SUSTAINABLE MODEL OF LAND OCCUPATION: MORE COUNTRY AND MORE CITY

Current railway network Proposed railway network Built-up land Proposal for urban compaction Green corridors, Plans for Spaces of Natural Interest (PANIs) and reserves Free space

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A MORE SUSTAINABLE MODEL OF LAND OCCUPATION: MORE COUNTRY AND MORE CITY The aim of developing a more sustainable model for Barcelona without including the metropolitan reality (or developing a sustainable model of the metropolis without including the reality of Barcelona) is unreasonable, if not impossible, because any idea based on criteria of sustainability must approach the problem systematically, and such an approach must take into account the main characteristic of any system, i.e. the fact that it is open. In other words, Barcelona and the Metropolis are so closely related that anything that happens at one point of the territory has repercussions on others. Consequently, the agreements that can be reached in Barcelona in relation to its strategic plans must be coordinated with those of the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area. Though the agreements must be reached through institutional and territorial consensus, this section includes some strategic aspects for the discussion that are, in theory, coherent with the schematic proposals for the municipality of Barcelona. In order to reduce the malfunctions of the current model of producing “city” and to adapt it to new, more sustainable scenarios, one must stop the current process and reconsider it in the terms laid out below.

THE TERRITORIAL MODEL The territorial model that has proven to be sustainable for centuries in our temperate latitudes is the mosaic formed by farmland, forest and pastures, linked by riverbanks, hedgerows, irrigation ditches, streams, rivers... and in the middle the compact and complex city that spreads over the land as a polynuclear network of cities. Making more city and at the same time more country would be the synthesis of the urban and territorial models. Experience shows that these two models can be maintained and developed if the model of mobility fosters the configuration of nodes or centres, preventing urban sprawl.

THE DIFFUSE MODEL OF LAND OCCUPATION URBAN SYSTEM DIFFUSE URBAN PLANNING (current) d

roa ated

irrigated farmland

protected natural space

segreg

networks

dry farmland

DIFFUSE CITY housing estate for income X

shopping centre

buildings

university campus

housing estate

offices

hiper university campus

airport

infrastructures

housing estate office area

natural park

types of transport

housing estate housing estate for income Y

airport

motorway disperse buildings

transformation activities

energy

Consumption of land and loss of fertile land

Impermeabilisation and channelling of water courses

Insularisation and loss of biodiversity

Conservation of farming and natural systems

energy

water

waste

water

minerals

timber

ENVIRONMENT: SUPPORT SYSTEMS

oil

raw materials

1 The model of urban land occupation. It is proposed to change from the model of the diffuse city to the polynuclear model of compact and complex cities and towns. It is therefore proposed to change from suburbanisation to a system of cities. The polynuclear structure takes on the form of a split star, whose tips are organised as compact centres (similar to the beads of a necklace) separated by the green matrix.

THE COMPACT MODEL OF LAND OCCUPATION URBAN SYSTEM

COMPACT URBAN PLANNING

2 The network of free systems. It is proposed to create an railway

interconnected green matrix of great biodiversity with a farming component that is to be promoted.

networks

COMPACT CITY

forest

3 The model of mobility. It is proposed that most of the mobi-

farmland pastures

buildings

town

centre

road infrastructures Building density Proximity of uses and functions accessibility

airport

types of transport

lity between centres should depend on a railway network that creates urban nodes. A high-speed intercity type railway in some cases and local lines and the metro in others. It is proposed that the structuring and compaction of the urban centres should be carried out in a radius of two kilometres around the stations. Two kilometres is the ideal distance for access by bicycle or on foot.

4 Metabolism models (energy, water and materials). The model of mobility, the building types and the model of regional development based on a polynuclear system of compact cities have a far lower consumption of natural resources, including landâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and are therefore more sustainableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;than the metabolism models of the dispersed city.

minerals

Consumption of land and loss of fertile land

Impermeabilisation

Insularisation Support systems

Conservation of farming and natural systems

transformation activities

water

oil timber raw materials

ENVIRONMENT: SUPPORT SYSTEMS

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The territorial model is accompanied by the models of mobility, energy, water, materials, etc. that characterise it and keep it organised and functioning:

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A POLYNUCLEAR NETWORK OF COMPACT CITIES AND TOWNS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA

The current railway network Inter-urban trams Other lines Proposal of high-frequency local lines Proposal of low-frequency and regional lines High-speed train Proposal for urban compaction with the current and future railway network Urban centres outside the proposal for urban compaction Free space

The first action to be taken in the future Regional Plan, Strategic Plan, etc., is to determine where the city starts (and ends) and where the country ends (or starts). The definition of limits in this case is strategic and the municipalities must promote the specific projects of the problems of “gradient” in the border areas between the city and the country.

The compact network of cities and towns in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona would take on the shape of a split star, in which the tips are compacted around the railway stations serving the urban land and the programmed and unprogrammed development land. The reinforcement of the polynuclear character of the model of urban settlement requires the creation of new centralities in the low-density areas through the introduction of suitable activities and the proposal of higher densities in certain areas. The growth must be centripetal, stitching together the current suburbanisation with operations that structure new centrality, always respecting the boundaries linked to the node-creating collective transport. Centrality, as will be seen, involves reinforcing the mixture of uses and functions. At the same time, attention must be paid to maintaining the central cities, to renewing and transforming the existing urban fabrics coherently with the criterion of minimising the development of new land. With this aim, suitable criteria and guidance must be provided for rehabilitating the central urban areas, structuring and densifying the peripheral urban fabrics and maintaining isolated urban areas basically for second homes. The proposal would have to be articulated rapidly in order to channel the current demand. Indeed, the estimated housing demand in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona in the next 20 years is between 250,000 and 400,000 new units, which must be programmed in the areas to be compacted with basically multi-family building types, with the aim of making cities rather than housing estates. The unprogrammed development land must in most cases become undevelopable land and the development land that has not been developed would be revised. Development on the latter would be allowed if it fits in the areas of new centrality or it would be transferred with systems of compensation if it is beyond the boundaries. The introduction of new uses in the territory must be accompanied, as a condition sine qua non, by a suitable rail mobility infrastructure. As the rails have a linear structure, one must determine which nodes are to be reinforced and which must serve to stitch together, structure and compact the current urban chaos. The occupation of new undevelopable land is not acceptable in any cases, and existing operations of this type must be returned to their original state or—if this is not possible—equivalent areas and strategic locations must be applied. One must start with the public or private cases that most affect the development of the green matrix. Another solution to the buildings constructed on undevelopable land complementary to the above would be to set an expiry date for the occupation (25, 50 years).

2. The proposal of structuring of compaction centres stems from the intersection of the circumferences around the railway stations and the green matrix. The compaction is applied only to land that has previously been classified as urban, programmed development land and unprogrammed development land. The map is therefore a simple diagram that provides an approximation of the idea of urban polynuclearity and is merely intended to serve as a basis for the discussion of the model of urban land occupation. The lines are not precise and are not intended to be so. Therefore, one should not seek any boundaries or the correspondence of any urban fabric to the patches that have been drawn.

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A POLYNUCLEAR NETWORK OF COMPACT CITIES AND TOWNS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA2

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THE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS AND GOODS

The current railway network Other lines Inter-urban tramway High-frequency local lines Low-frequency local and regional lines High-speed train Basic road network Free space

The key element of any Plan, that which clearly determines the final configuration of the territory, is the model of mobility that is chosen. Attempting to create a polynuclear model of regional planning with a proposal that defends a network of roads and basic routes such as that proposed in the General Regional Plan of Catalonia is unviable. A dense network of roads and segregated routes clogs up the territory. On the other hand, models based on public transport—particularly railways—create nodes.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT Integrated fares, together with the promoting of local lines, have been the most important actions taken by the rail management in the last 20 years. In this same line the idea of the network should be extended so that all rail lines in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona are under a single management. The proposal of the rail network (metro, local lines, FGC, RENFE) shown in this strategic diagram includes all the proposals of the Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI, 2001) and almost all the proposals of the Regional Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona (RMPB, 1998). The MPI was a quantum leap in public transport services, but it failed to deal clearly with a rail model for the area outside the conurbation. The RMPB proposes a grid network without taking into account the system of exploitation of the rail system, which is an essential factor for its viability. As stated above, the linking of urban centres must be fostered through the rail network and the proposal of regional compacting must be based on railway stations within cycling distance (approximately 2 km).There are recent studies on the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona that show that there is a long-term correlation between the existence of stations and urban compaction.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN THE CONURBATION OF BARCELONA The MPI has focused mainly on the conurbation of Barcelona, covering an area that goes from El Prat de Llobregat to Badalona. It thus marks a qualitative change in the new layout of lines 9 and 12, in the stretch to Esplugues de Llobregat. Nevertheless, there are certain sectors of the conurbation that require an improved service. The service could be extended with the aim (among others) of taking the economic heart of the city that follows the axis from Passeig de Gràcia to Maria Cristina as far as the 22@ sector in Poble Nou. The axis could be structured following the Diagonal to the sea, with a combined service of local lines and metro that is currently not offered. The proposed tram service will be insufficient if Barcelona decides to establish a powerful area of new centrality in the 22@ district.

THE LOCAL RAIL SYSTEM AND THE REGIONAL SYSTEM One must first consider the interactions and potential of the local services of RENFE and FGC, which were not included in the MPI, in order to seek synergies and substantial improvements in the rail services. The FGC lines, for example, do not cross the city, and this could be solved by using the potential of the combination of the Diagonal-Meridiana corridor. It is essential to take advantage of the future regional system associated with the high-speed train, including the stations of Vilafranca del Penedès, Martorell, Sant Joan-Hospital General de Catalunya, Cerdanyola-Ciutat Badia, Granollers. Furthermore, the modernisation of the regional system should not focus exclusively on the potential of the high-speed train. It must consider the modernisation of the regional system of RENFE, adding the necessary tracks for competitive intercity trains, as is being done in other metropolitan regions of Europe. The specialisation of long-distance networks and the related infrastructures may partly remove the bottlenecks in the local

network of Barcelona, which could lead to an increase in local train journeys of approximately 50% (in 2001, RENFE local lines transported an average of 377,000 passengers per day). For a viable connection of the county capitals to the rest of the Metropolitan Region, it is proposed that the stations of the regional system be connected with two branches proposed in the RMPB (Mataró-Granollers and Vilanova-Vilafranca), in addition to the radial lines already laid down in the MPI. The semi-direct lines from Barcelona to Vilanova and from Barcelona to Mataró should be extended respectively to Vilafranca and Granollers in order to provide access from the exterior to any point of the Metropolitan Region, and to give the towns of the coast access to the regional service without having to go through Barcelona Centre.

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THE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS AND GOODS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA

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INTERRELATION BETWEEN REGIONAL COMPACTION AND TRANSPORT SERVICES In addition to the conurbation of Barcelona (Barcelona, Hospitalet, Esplugues, Cornellà, Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Sant Adrià, Badalona), one must add a second multipolar conurbation defined by the municipalities of Terrassa, Sabadell, Barberà, Cerdanyola, Sant Cugat and Rubí, which must have services of the same level but a different nature.

In the free spaces the mobility with private vehicles (particularly four-wheel drive vehicles) must be effectively limited, and the best way to achieve this is to redraw a basic network of dirt tracks of limited, pre-established size that would be considered as heritage tracks (like the network of cattle tracks).

In this case, one must reconduct the settlements and adapt them to an extension in linear axes connected to the local stations, in addition to the proposals of layouts laid down in the MPI and the creation of new stations on the existing lines. The Papiol-Mollet goods corridor will shortly offer passenger services and take advantage of the synergies of regional transport.

The port, as was determined in the sixties, is strategic for the interests of the metropolitan region and even for Catalonia. The volume of goods arriving by sea should be restored to the levels of a few decades ago.

The new linear axes for picking up passengers could have tram services. One of the possibilities would be to create linear axes on the corridors Mollet-Palau-Caldes, Martorell-AbreraEsparreguera, and Vallirana-Cervelló-Sant Vicenç dels HortsMolins de Rei. One must consider an integral inter-urban bus service in the other corridors in which the demand does not call for a tram service.

Actions of the MPI 2001-2010 Source: Metropolitan Transport Authority

The road network must be contained in its current situation and any new infrastructures (whether or not roads) must run over land that has already been designated in order to avoid the current increase in partitioning of the land, new unusable interstitial spaces, and the consequences of the barrier effect. Proposals such as the fourth ringroad and the Horta tunnel must be revised because they are incoherent with the model. From the viewpoint of roadways, one must clearly distinguish between the industrial district of Martorell and the area formed by Sabadell, Terrassa, Rubí, Sant Cugat and Cerdanyola in the Vallès Oriental and the Alt Penedès. The former is composed of compact, polynuclear sectors, whereas the latter corresponds to a diffuse urban development. Therefore, the former must be provided with the basic network whereas the latter must be provided with a local network.

Furthermore, most of the containers should be transported by rail (from the port and to the port), which is why it is important to unify the European gauge in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. Goods transport, including transport to and from the port, should be improved through Integrated Goods Centres connected by rail with areas for distributing the loads, for which some currently underused stations could be used. The new use of the territory through transport has led to the creation of a new, parallel network of distribution and consumption based on Logistic Goods Centres and Shopping Centres. In the future one must revise their evolution and distribution in order to adjust them in a system that fosters mobility in a compact fabric. The Sectoral Plan for Shopping Areas must be revised and a Sectoral Plan of Logistic Centres must be created. The airport is once more a strategic infrastructure that must change its status as an international airport, as has been stated repeatedly. Aviation must be used to cover large distances and medium distances must be left to high-speed trains.

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COMPLEXITY

THE TENDENCY TOWARDS COMPLEXITY OF THE SYSTEMS

Etymologically, complexity (from the Latin complexus, meaning entwined, twisted together) denotes a fabric of heterogeneous constituents that are inseparably associated: it has the paradox of being at the same time a unit and multiple.

Everything that is organised in the Biosphere tends to increase in complexity provided that there are sufficient resources for this to happen. Indeed, the two evolutive processes of the systems on earth, the evolution of the species and the succession of ecosystems, have undergone and are undergoing changes in time that tend to increase in complexity. The urban systems also increase in complexity and one can thus distinguish—at least intuitively—between the current urban systems and the human settlements of any other period. With the passing of time we have incorporated new, different activities and we have increased the number of activities.

At first sight, complexity is a quantitative phenomenon, an extreme quantity of interactions and interferences between a very large number of units. But complexity not only includes quantities of units and interactions, but also uncertainties, indeterminations and random phenomena. In a sense, complexity is always related to chance. Complexity is thus linked to a certain mixture of order and disorder, an intimate mixture that in urban systems may be partly analysed using the concept of diversity. Living organisms, and especially man and his organisations, are information carriers that accumulate, dynamically in time, characteristics that indicate the degree of accumulation of information and the capacity to have a significant influence on the present and to control the future. In principle, the fabric of heterogeneous constituents (com3 plexity ) that we wish to see grow in the municipality of Barcelona is composed of the economic activities, institutions and urban associations, i.e. everything that is organised and that adapts to the set of strategic objectives of the city. The urban organisations have different attributes involving specialised activities that make the division of labour possible. The vast majority of citizens form part of one or several urban organisations, either voluntarily or in exchange for remuneration. These organisations have specific objectives that during working hours are imposed on the aims of the individual members of the organisation. In fact, urban organisations have the status of legal entities, with similar rights and obligations to those of persons.

The calculation of complexity (H) is included in the section of indicators.

COMPLEXITY VS SIMPLIFICATION Agricultural societies in our region have been characterised by limited urban concentrations where much of the surplus from the country was brought together. These urban centres were surrounded by enormous extensions of farmland. Farms are in fact ecosystems in their first stages of succession, i.e. they are highly simplified areas. This is because man establishes a direct and self-interested relation with certain vegetables and does everything within his power to keep out the rest of the organisms with pesticides, guns and fences. When man abandons the crops, the field fills with weeds, then shrubs and finally trees, which are accompanied by a throng of animal organisms that, in the process, increase the complexity. In industrial societies, particularly Anglo-Saxon ones, the crops have given way to the “planting” of buildings that have occupied entire regions, separating the residential uses from the industrial uses, from the shopping uses, from the tertiary uses, from university campuses, and from leisure areas. This is the so-called functionalist model, which assigns “one” function to each territory, with the aim of seeking rationality. Each urban function (residential, industrial, etc.) is comparable in terms of organised information to a field of potatoes, barley, etc., and the result is a simplification of the territory in which workers meet only workers on the industrial estates, students meet only students on university campuses, and very similar people interested in similar questions meet each other on the housing estates of single-family dwellings. The surpluses, the increases in value, etc., end up in the urban centres, which become business centres and control the territory. Their position is expressed formally through skyscrapers and the fact that each activity occupies the most central (most expensive) land.

The complexity of all these urban systems is great, but that of their constituent parts is not. They occupy large extensions of land and are the best example of the strategy of competition based on consumption of resources. The vegetation has been replaced by buildings, which are more profitable because they raise the price of the land and consume more materials, more energy and more water. Whereas for farms one needs rapidly growing plants, for urban systems one creates structures of greater and faster consumption. One must create new urbanised areas that have very little diversity and reap the fruits of a new and simplified organisation. In these systems, the efficiency—i.e. the amount of resources that must be consumed in order to maintain (or create in some cases) a unit of organised information—is very low. This is the tendency of producing company cities that has been observed since the early 1970’s in the metropolitan Area of Barcelona—a clearly unsustainable tendency that is leading to a widespread, irreversible artificialisation of most of the urban land with a gradient of less than 10% (i.e. flat land). This is an explosive process similar to the process of urban occupation of the coast (some experts have qualified it as a destruction). The Mediterranean cities of southern Europe have long treasured their characteristic mix of uses and functions. Many of the buildings house several uses and each neighbourhood has a lot of everything. The home, the market, the church, the shop, the services, etc. are near at hand, and provide most of the urban functions. There is a high level of complexity in most of the urban fabric of these Mediterranean cities.

The strategy of increasing the complexity without needing to substantially increase the dissipative system is the alternative to the current model, which bases its competitiveness on increasing the dissipative outskirts. The same competitiveness, or even more, can be achieved by increasing the organised information of the current centres without needing to waste more

COMPLEXITY, A BASIC CRITERION FOR PLANNING

space, and making the organisation and the processes of energy consumption more efficient. One must make more "Eixamples" and fewer scattered housing estates. Within the strategy of increasing the complexity of urban ecosystems, it must be taken into account that adding a similar amount of information to two different systems is more enriching for systems that already have more information. Information is not added, but multiplied. This is a strategy that marks a possible path in the competition between urban systems, which in this case would involve the factor of entropy.

Having said this, it is proposed to increase the complexity in general and in certain areas in particular, and that this increase should be an objective of the future planning of our city. The reasons for this objective include the following: •

The increase in complexity in the city involves increasing the mixture of urban uses and functions, which allows unrestricted access to the city. As has been seen in the section on compactness, the dispersed distribution of the diffuse city over the land does not allow the majority of citizens to have access to the city.

•

The increase in complexity in a limited space involves an increase in the trajectories of relation between the various information carriers, which allows an increase in synergies of all types, including the economies of agglomeration and of urban development. Also, systems composed of heterogeneous parts include more recurring regulating circuits.

•

The proximity between complementary elements (companies, research centres, training centres, administrative offices, non-governmental organisations, etc.) allows the human, technological and financial resources to have a greater probability of bilateral encounter and integral and multiple encounter.

•

The increase in the probabilities of contact between diverse elements provides one of the basic characteristics of complex cities: creativity.

It is also proposed to increase the complexity of the urban centres that are to be compacted in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. It is proposed to design the increase in diversity in the natural systems of the region with greater maturity. Between the complex urban and natural systems, one must maintain (because it is strategic) a dissipative system formed by areas of farmland that feed both poles.

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As a result of the tendencies mentioned above, some of these cities have suffered from an acute tertiarisation of their centre and a displacement of their populations. In the case of Barcelona, for several reasons, part of this process was prevented, which has allowed—and still allows—new centres with a considerable complexity to be added to the city.

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AREAS OF NEW CENTRALITY

Diversity Index (H) Bits of information per individual

The measure of the complexity (H) per block reflects the degree of maturity or centrality of each territory. On the map, the darker colours denote greater complexity. The density of information per block (measured in bits of information per legal entity) shows the degree of centrality of the different parts of the city, which allows one to know the degree of maturity of the areas that are to be developed. As can be seen, the Eixample is the district with the greatest amount of organised information, not only in Barcelona but also in Catalonia. It is the heart of the city and the remaining districts are balanced around it. From the map it can also be seen that the areas of new centrality that have begun to be filled with content are those that have an umbilical cord with the heart of the city, and consequently it is strategic to articulate the related variables (design of the public space, introduction of new activity, facilities, etc.) in order to trace the corridors of complexity from the heart of the city to the nucleus of the area of new centrality. An in situ analysis allows one to conclude that the umbilical cords have urban continuity when the mix of activities comprises niches into which things can be fitted and the journeys can be made on foot. There is a direct relation between the diversity of activities and the density of pedestrians occupying the space for different reasons. The central heart of Barcelona has been shaped over 150 years and the areas of new centrality are to be shaped in a shorter period of time. The teachings that we can obtain from the Eixample and from the analysis of the new developments must lead to new configurations of centrality that must reinforce our urban identity and our competitiveness.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CENTRAL AREA OF BARCELONA 1 The buildings of the central area allow for a mixture of uses

5. The central area combines the activities of proximity and the

and functions. Housing, retail, the tertiary sector and in some cases even manufacturing are found in most of the buildings.

6. The space is occupied by the citizens 24 hours a day without

2. There is a great mixture of uses and functions in the territory (H is very high) and it is divided into neighbourhoods around the market. The proportions of housing, retailing and tertiary activities are balanced. The relations that are established are anonymous but also neighbourly.

3. The connection between the different uses and functions has formal continuity and can be made on foot. Public transport complements the accessibility to the central city.

metropolitan activities. creating deserted areas.

7. The centre is still being made (this has been going on for 150 years) because the architectural solutions allow for this. The activities change as times changed without the need to change the scenario.

8. The model of centrality is completely Mediterranean.

4. The public space is public and regulated by ordinances.

CURRENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AREAS OF NEW CENTRALITY 1. Outstanding buildings with a single function are promoted. 2. The formula used so far to achieve centrality has focused on the mixture of large shopping centres (6 cases), central railway stations (2 cases), office buildings (7 cases), hotels (7 cases) and leisure areas (3 cases). Sometimes, coinciding with projects of a certain scale, other uses of different natures are located in them, such as university premises, cultural centres, etc. In the case of the areas of new centrality beside the sea, each one is accompanied by a marina. Today the proportions of housing, retail and tertiary activity are not yet balanced. The predominant relations are anonymous and less neighbourly.

3. Journeys with private transport are encouraged. Some of these containers have 5,000 and even more parking spaces. The separation between built volumes desertifies the area and hinders journeys on foot.

4. The central spaces of the new areas are located in the interior of the large containers, which become semi-public and are regulated by company regulations rather than municipal ordinances.

5. Metropolitan activities are predominant. 6. Large deserts are created during many hours of the day. 7. The rate of transformation is rapid and one must assess the degree of flexibility of these containers to change their function.

8. The model has been imported from the Anglo-Saxon world.

ADAPTATION OF THE AREAS OF NEW CENTRALITY TO THE COMPACT AND COMPLEX MEDITERRANEAN CITY MODEL 1. The outstanding buildings must be stitched into to the existing urban fabrics with buildings that accept the mixture of uses.

2. The urban functions in each area must be rebalanced. There is no point in maintaining the areas of Diagonal-West and Montjuïc as areas of new centrality. In the new areas of centrality one must include all the activities (even manufacturing), seeking the best technology to achieve compatibility. One should analyse the mixture of University/Research, Companies and Administration and its probable introduction in some of the areas of new centrality.

3. The itineraries on foot must be recomposed following the idea of superblocks. The same with public transport.

4. The public space must predominate over other options, on the understanding that public space is the main characteristic of the Mediterranean city.

5. The activities of proximity must be combined with metropolitan activities.

6. The mixture of uses and functions allows the street to be occu-

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A MIXTURE OF URBAN USES AND FUNCTIONS: AREAS OF NEW CENTRALITY

pied—and therefore controlled—by the residents most of the time. 35

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INFORMATION AS A STRATEGY FOR COMPETING: DENSITY OF LEGAL ENTITIES

In urban systems, an increase in the GDP and in the macroeconomic indicators is translated into an increase in the consumption of land, materials, water and energy. The socio-economic and political actors have sought suitable mechanisms (technological, organisational, etc.) for increasing the consumption of resources and obtaining, as a result, better competitive positions in the national and international ranking of cities. In the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the consumption of land in a period of just 25 years (1972-1997) was 30,000 ha, compared with 20,000 ha in the whole of its previous history. The consumption of energy and materials has followed similar proportions, as if the resources or the containers where the waste is taken had no limit. The current competitive strategy is based on the consumption of resources, and it is understood that the advantage is for the competitor who is best placed to consume the most resources. This strategy is consolidated and expanded through the use of new technologies which have allowed it to be globalised. Sustainability, as stated above, is based on the increasing reduction of the pressure on the support systems. This means, among other things, reducing the consumption of resources or limiting the exploitation of the ecosystems. The strategy for competing that is used is therefore increasingly unsustainable. We will call it the E strategy, which indicates the consumption of resources represented by the energy consumption. The question now is whether there is another strategy for competing. The answer is yes, if we apply the principles arising from the evolution of complexity in the biosphere. It is the strategy based on information, the only one that can make development and competitiveness compatible with the idea of sustainability.

4. This principle shows similarities with the laws of Fourier, Hartley Fix, Om, etc., in which to each force X there corresponds a flow J. Examples of these homologous quantities are the thermal gradient and the heat flow, chemical affinity and speed of reaction, electric potential and electric current, density gradient and mass flow, etc.

The strategy consists in increasing the organised information (complexity) in time, by making an increasingly lower use of resources. This strategy is based on the principle of Margalef, which postulates that the maintenance and/or increase in complexity of a space occupied by a system develops at the expense of reducing and simplifying other spaces4. There is a net flow of materials, energy and information from the less mature (less com-

plex) space to the more mature (more complex) space. In this case the complexity (the organised information) would be the force and the flow would be formed by the traffic of matter, energy and information from a less mature ecosystem to a more complex one. Each time that a legal entity is created in an urban system, organised information is added, so knowledge is added. When the system has a high variety of information carriers and a large number of each one (i.e. when it has a high level of complexity) the attraction of new and innovative information carriers increases and the maintenance of unique activities is possible. Increasing the organised information intentionally is the strategy to follow because information complexity confers an advantage over other systems with a less complex organisation, and information is not added but multiplied (money shows a similar behaviour). It is the H strategy that shows us the degree of organised information of the urban system. If this is the strategy, we should place all our efforts at its service, particularly those arising from the knowledge society and the new economy. In a certain state, the increase in H provides us with critical mass (which is why it is so important to develop the areas of new centrality), because new and innovative activities appear. In this strategy it is especially interesting to have those activities that best control the present and most anticipate the future, i.e. those that control most knowledge and information: these are the @ activities and also those that incorporate the @ activities in their processes and make them more efficient in the consumption of resources. Furthermore, the incorporation of information in goods and technology must seek the development of “clean production” and the dematerialisation of the economy. The following diagrams summarise some aspects of the two strategies that are presented: in the first case (the current situation), the E strategy is imposed over the H strategy, whereas in the second case (the knowledge city), the H strategy drives and leads the competitive process. The competitiveness that is consubstantial with life itself is the vital tension of any system. It is intimately related to the “power” (P) that the system holds within it. Here it is considered that the power of influence and control is a function of

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INFORMATION AS A STRATEGY FOR COMPETING

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the organised information in the space (H) and its capacity to consume energy (E). Between two interacting systems, where P1>P2, it seems, according to Margalef's principle, that the net flow of materials and/or information will go in the direction of maintaining or increasing the complexity of P1 and of simplifying or reducing the complexity of P2. It may also happen that the flow of materials or even of energy is inverted, but this must be attributed to the role that this flow plays in the increase or decrease in complexity of the two systems. For example, the input of waste materials from a more mature space to a less complex one is merely a flow of matter that may seem to be inverted, but this flow frees the more complex space from a certain impact and degrades the more simplified space. The flow, therefore, must be understood in the context of creation or reduction of structure and organisation.

CENTRAL URBAN SYSTEM

NEW CULTURES TOURISM

LESS INFORMATION-DENSE OBJECTS AND GOODS

LEGAL ENTITIES WITH HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE HEAD OFFICES OF COMPANIES

WORKERS

SURPLUSES CAPITAL GAINS INVESTMENTS

WORKERS

NEW, LESS-QUALIFIED RESIDENTS

INVESTMENTS THAT WILL RETURN PROFITS

In the second diagram, which we have intentionally called the “knowledge city model”, there is a significant increase in the organised information as a motor of a strategy for competing based on knowledge. This is a contextualised information that is fed by the “richer” flows that come from the extensive periphery. Barcelona should attract and create new legal entities with a high level of technology, knowledge and potential influence that are distributed over the whole city, filling especially the areas of new centrality, beginning with the 22@. One must also attract, “create” and retain new brains, executives, intellectuals, professionals and artists, who increase the current stock of knowledge.

NEW RESIDENTS (BRAINS, EXECUTIVES, GRADUATES, PROFESSIONALS, ARTISTS)

Occupation

FLOWS TO MAINTAIN THE CONTROL AND THE SPECIALISATION OF P2

TOURISM SECOND HOMES

The first diagram, corresponding to the current situation, shows a central urban system that bases its competitive strategy on a growing increase of resources and a slight increase in the organised information. Its central position5 is based on a largely inherited complexity and the control and exploitation of increasingly extensive peripheral areas.

CURRENT SITUATION

LEGAL ENTITIES OF CONTROL AND LESS TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION CENTRES

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FLOWS THAT INCREASE THE ORGANISED INFORMATION IN P1 AND SIMPLIFY P2

PERIPHERAL URBAN SYSTEMS

Occupation

The current loss of population and—more worrying—the ageing of the population in many areas of the city must first be halted. Then, one must introduce new residents with a diversity of ages in order to stabilise the system, which is in danger of being lost through this problem. The flows towards more simplified systems must reinforce the model of polynuclear cities with a high level of organised information, so that the set of “central city and nearby cities” acts as a single knowledge system towards areas that are further removed. One must therefore increase the level and diversity of the legal entities in technology and knowledge of nearby cities.

THE KNOWLEDGE CITY MODEL CENTRAL URBAN SYSTEM FLOWS THAT INCREASE THE CO-DEVELOPMENT AND FOSTER POLYNUCLEARITY

Occupation

5. The limits of the central city are arbitrary and have different extensions in each case, as also happens with the periphery. Barcelona, for example, is central for the Catalan region and beyond, but it may be the periphery of other, more complex urban areas in the international ranking of cities.

PERIPHERAL URBAN SYSTEMS

Occupation

NEW CULTURES MIXED IN THE TERRITORY, TOURISM

INFORMATION-DENSE AND DEMATERIALISED OBJECTS AND GOODS

LEGAL ENTITIES WITH HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE HEAD OFFICES OF COMPANIES

WORKERS

NEW RESIDENTS (BRAINS, EXECUTIVES, GRADUATES, PROFESSIONALS, ARTISTS, YOUNG PEOPLE, CHILDREN)

SURPLUSES CAPITAL GAINS INVESTMENTS

INVESTMENTS THAT WILL RETURN PROFITS AND INCREASE THE H AT THE PERIPHERY

WORKERS

NEW RESIDENTS

LEGAL ENTITIES WITH A HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE CONTENT

The increase in the complexity in the polynuclear system of cities should be accompanied by a new equilibrium of the jobs, so that housing and employment are located in the same municipality. In order to achieve this, of course, other complementary measures, such as those related to housing policy, must be implemented.

TOURISM SECOND HOMES

The transmission of knowledge from other cultures should be fostered for mutual benefit with the newlyarrived members of the first generation, by promoting the cultural mixture and above all the territorial mixture. With regard to their areas of origin it is proposed to establish programmes of co-development that allow future flows to be based on information and not only on the flow of resources as now. MORE INFORMATION-DENSE OBJECTS

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FLOWS THAT INCREASE THE ORGANISED INFORMATION IN P1 PROPORTIONALLY

AXES OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF BARCELONA

Training and research centres

Airport Llevant University Campus Fira de Barcelona Biomedical Research Centre Knowledge Gateway ZAL Port Areas of new centrality

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STRATEGIC LINES FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF BARCELONA The geographical position of Barcelona gives it advantages that should be reinforced in the line that has already been taken. The compact and complex model of the Mediterranean city that already exists must also be reinforced and improved through the strategic proposals presented here.

THE LOGISTIC BARCELONA The first axis of support of the economy of Barcelona is still, as was stated in the Master Plan of 1968, the port of Barcelona in combination with the airport. The pole of logistic activities of the area and the supporting activities such as the trade fair can be converted into one of the most important distribution centres in the Mediterranean. However, after the mobility model presented above, one must link the flows of materials and energy entering and leaving the port to the railway or to other appropriate channels rather than to road transport. The port of Barcelona must be consolidated as the great logistic and maritime platform of southern Europe. The expansion of the port, which is already underway, the arrival of the European gauge railway, the extension of the logistic area of Barcelona (Logistic Activities Zone and the logistic park of the Free Zone) and the extension of the airport (passengers and goods) are the basis for a new positioning. The airport must be the gateway for direct flights to most cities in the world. Such a connection attracts companies and qualified persons, as well as tourism. The extension and improvement of the trade fair sites and the creation of congress halls of different sizes should consolidate this line of attraction (new companies and professionals, executives, etc.) and act as the showcase of the innovative position of Catalonia and Barcelona. A rapid public transport connection between the different elements, such as the Congress Centre of Forum 2004, Plaça Espanya and the Pedrosa Estate, is strategic.

THE DIGITAL BARCELONA The second axis is linked to the development of the new economy and to the construction of the new model of a knowledge city. The proposal presented in the territorial model involves the reinforcement of the city of cities working together to seek synergies and productive specialisations.

creation of ICT activities and the application of information (knowledge-dense @ activities incorporate more research and innovation) and criteria of sustainability to any urban activity: industry, construction, facilities or public space. This is the basis for the digital Barcelona.

The new polynuclear metropolis shows territorial features of competitiveness that partly characterise its economic model because it is diversified overall but specialised in the different centres that comprise it. The small and medium-size dimension of the business fabric and the regional externalities of the economies of localisation, urban development and networks give the region great flexibility and the capacity to adapt its production. Overall, the factors of competitiveness place us at levels of technological intensity and knowledge close to the EU average.

The proposal for areas of new centrality, with the 22@ district at the forefront, must grow through the application of the factors shown in the following strategic diagram. Important initiatives of training and R&D have already been undertaken in the field of ICTs and biomedicine. They should be extended to the field of culture, multimedia, publishing, urban ecology, oceanography, the environment and sustainability. The urban quality of the Barcelona of the future and the critical mass of diverse activities should reinforce the attraction of new design centres in any field.

The reinforcement of these competitive factors must be complemented with those linked to the change in the economic base (today 63% of employment is tertiary in the province of Barcelona), which can be incorporated in the strategy for competing based on the information presented in this book.

Finally, one must guarantee the connection of the network of cities via optical fibre and/or other emerging types of connection (such as satellite connection).

Indeed, the extension of “clean production”, the EcoManagement and Audit Schemes (EMAS) and the design of goods with criteria of dematerialisation, must be added to the

THE TOURIST BARCELONA

•

creating new knowledge-dense and technology-intensive activities

•

conceiving the design of goods, buildings, public space, etc., with new criteria

The third axis is quality tourism. The first asset of the city is still the city itself, which combines a public space of high quality with an exceptional architectural heritage. In addition to this base there are the cultural, scientific, educational and sports facilities, each of which should have a strategic plan. The trade fairs should also have a strategic plan and grow substantially in combination with the first and second axes.

•

applying new technologies to all areas

•

opening new applied research centres

•

adapting training and education programmes to the new systemic scenario

At certain times of the year the arrival of large numbers of tourists in Ciutat Vella leads to a series of malfunctions in the public space that must be reduced. The carrying capacity of the centre and the number of tourists it can hold must be determined.

THE SUSTAINABLE BARCELONA The fourth axis focuses on the environmental sector, the urban ecology and sustainability. As well as cities, some countries are reinforcing their economic development by applying criteria of sustainability that are giving them an added value in addition to the criteria of the new economy: Sweden and Denmark are clear examples of this. The development of the set of proposals presented here opens a major path of economic development because the proposals cover the urban reality in its totality. The proposals presented here with regard to the public space, in which criteria of urban ecology and sustainability are applied, represent a Copernican change in the urban quality. Urban quality is one of the most important intangibles for attracting business, executives, researchers, professionals and artists. Barcelona is already high in the international ranking of cities with regard to quality of life. The execution of the proposals included here would make it one of the most attractive places in Europe.

Also, the proposals related to production and services represent a profound change in the business culture, by internalising the environmental costs, using clean (efficient and innovative) production and technologies with a lesser environmental impact and incorporating a new generation of jobs, both in the emerging environmental sector and in the adaptation towards sustainability of the traditional sectors of production. This change requires economic, organisational, legal and educational instruments, as well as mechanisms of control to promote the orientation of companies towards sustainability. The new economic sector requires the collaboration of the public sector and universities, which must help to promote and adapt research and technological innovation, and to provide vocational and university training. The public administration must stimulate green purchasing and adapt public calls for tenders for works and services to this aim.

THE UNDERGROUND BARCELONA The fifth axis is the area below ground. The city at ground level is already practically fully occupied, and the tendency of vertical growth must be inverted and aimed towards the area below ground. The design and the construction of the underground Barcelona could become one of the most successful economic lines of the city. As is described in the strategic outline dedicated to the design of the underground city, public transport, loading and unloading, parking, the services that manage the metabolic flows, the introduction of certain activities, etc. are an open path for the sectors of construction, security, new technologies, logistics and the environment—and with them banking, insurance and advanced services. For example, according to the MPI, the planned investment in the construction of the new metro lines and the extension of existing ones in the conurbation of Barcelona is 7,300 million euros.

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The new model for Barcelona involves, among other aspects:

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DENSITY OF @ ACTIVITIES IN BARCELONA

Number of @ activities per block

THE FACTORS THAT REINFORCE THE NEW ECONOMY As stated above, at a given stage the increase in H provides the critical mass (this is why it is so important to develop the areas of new centrality) for the appearance of new and innovative activities. In the competitive strategy that models the knowledge city, it is particularly interesting to include those activities that best control the present and most anticipate the future. These are the ones that have the greatest information density and that control the most information: the @ activities. The new economy, however, is not limited to the companies of the ICT sector or those that produce or design Internet, because most production activities are progressively incorporating ICTs in their organisation. As a result, changes are occurring in the business models, with an increase in the importance of network functioning. In the knowledge city the sources of the growth are different. The fundamental factor is the knowledge that, with the existing training and capacity of innovation, will determine its capacity of growth.

1. Training Technological change occurs jointly with an organisational and socio-economic change. The level of training of the workers determines the possibilities of innovation and adaptation. Continuing training, the new skills of the workers and a less hierarchical business organisation are basic aspects of the new economy. Another important aspect is the ability to retain trained people (to avoid the brain drain) and to attract many others no matter where they come from. One must increase the number of persons and companies with a high knowledge density.

At the same time, one must develop specific training plans to reintegrate unemployed persons, in particular the least favoured groups. These objectives make it necessary to assign more funding to education and research, and to adapt and modernise the structure of universities and education to the new times, combining aspects of the knowledge society and sustainability.

2. Research and innovation The capacity to generate and incorporate innovations, no matter where they come from, is strategic for the knowledge city. To this end, it is necessary to create suitable conditions of incubation and dissemination by: •

increasing the public and private funds assigned to research and innovation that facilitate scientific and technological applications in economic activities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

•

creating concerted infrastructures between the public and the private sector that support innovation

•

creating networks (technology transfer centres) that foster exchanges of information and knowledge and connecting scientific research with production systems and funding, and

•

fostering the creation of favourable environments for innovative activities.

In the 22@ district synergies are sought by bringing together in a relatively small area universities, technology centres, research centres and production. However, the compatibility of the activity with the rest of the urban uses and functions, which are mixed, makes it necessary to incorporate clean production in the production processes. This involves designing the new products with a minimum use of resources and production of waste and applying new technologies in the processes and in the whole organisation. Barcelona must attract leading research institutions to promote this activity.

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THE CITY OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE FACTORS THAT FOSTER THE NEW ECONOMY: THE 22@ DISTRICT

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3. Intangible factors for the location of companies In addition to the known factors for the location of companies, other factors known as intangibles have recently become very important in tipping the balance towards setting up a new business in a given area. The quality of life, the existence of a favourable environment for attracting professionals from all over the world and a good science-company-funding connection are basic intangible factors for the creation and introduction of new companies. Also, contrary to what was previously thought, it is now known that emerging business are concentrated even more than traditional ones. This is due to that the essential element of knowledge, whose transmission is performed by persons more than by technology, though the latter helps. Persons seek compact areas (the 22@ district could be an ideal area) with high quality of life and cultural attractions that are dynamic and generate creativity, where they can develop and obtain benefits from the application of their knowledge. The proposals for improving the public space with the proposal of superblocks increase the urban quality of Barcelona and significantly reduce the most dissuasive factors of living in Barcelona, which are linked to the current model of mobility. The 22@ district and other areas of new centrality may be ideal for creating networks for exchange of information and knowledge, and for connecting research, companies and funding. Work is already being done to reduce the current deficits. However, the importance of certain emerging sectors (telecommunications, environment, audio-visual, biotechnology, aeronautics) must be increased, as must investment in R&D and infrastructures of international telecommunications and rail and air transport.

4. Funding The companies that use venture capital funding tend to lead the growth in turnover, research and employment in their respective sectors. The differences in the financial system—especially the capacity to fund venture capital projects—determine the development of innovation and the activities of emerging sectors such as ICTs. The traditional instruments for funding investments must be complemented by new ones such as venture capital, the technology securities market or stock-options (which attract and retain professionals in innovative companies).

Scenario of maximum diversity planned for the 22@ district Source: Drawn up by the author for 22@ SA

In addition to initiatives such as Barcelona Emprèn and Catalana d’Iniciatives, others must be added and adjustments must be made to the Spanish legislation and taxation, which are excessively restrictive with regard to the entrance of capital and other financial instruments of high risk and a long period of return. Also, a network of experts should be set up to assess and award a guarantee of technical and scientific quality and/or viability to the projects that are presented.

BIODIVERSITY AND THE GREEN NETWORK IN THE URBAN AREA

Basic road network

Other types of vegetation

Boundary of Collserola Park

Forest environment

Linear axes and digitations

Farmland

Open construction

Maquis and brushwood

Marshland

Meadows

Proposal of green roofs

Vacant and bare

Current and future urban parks, riverside spaces and artificial reefs

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BIODIVERSITY AND THE GREEN NETWORK IN THE URBAN AREA The consolidation of the city determines to a great extent the inclusion of new organisations. However, the possibilities of growth are necessarily linked to imagination, the freeing of space that now has other uses and the will to combine uses. The city is a medium for biodiversity that should not be undervalued. In fact, some species in certain geographic areas find their only refuge in urban environments. Also, the more or less naturalised periurban spaces allow animal and vegetable species to exist, forming their own ecosystems in the biogeographic area in which they are located. These territorially discontinuous spaces, surrounded mainly by highly artificial urban fabrics, form valuable islands of biological diversity. In a relatively small area Barcelona has more or less residual examples of several natural ecosystems and environments as a result of its privileged geographical situation: • Two rivers with two deltas, one of which, the Llobregat, has recognised ecological value. • The Collserola range, which is characterised by its woodland. • A sandy coastal strip with a rocky headland (Montjuïc)..

1. The green network at ground level The interconnection of parks-gardens-interstitial spaces-inner courts, digitations and inner streets of superblocks would form an integral green mosaic, a veritable green network that would lead to an increase in the biodiversity and also in the quality of the public space. In the intervias of the superblocks, over 150 crossroads of the size of Plaça del Sol in Gràcia would be freed for use as squares, and with the inner streets they would allow the continuity of the network to be articulated. The design of these spaces could incorporate water and certain original landscape elements. In the new garden areas and in the existing garden areas of a certain size, landscapes and examples of the Mediterranean ecosystems should be designed and recovered, including autochthonous species (for example, mixed woods of holm oak and oak) like those that had covered the plain of Barcelona, the marshes of the River Besòs, etc.

2. The elevated green network Taking advantage of the fact that in Barcelona there are very few sloping roofs, it is feasible to design a green mantle (a set of green roofs) that covers part of the roof terraces of Barcelona with small gardens of varied types. The planting in the public space of trees that are taller than some lower built fabrics would mean that the green mantle would form a new green zone connecting areas such as

Collserola, Tres Turons and Montjuïc, which are currently disconnected. It would also be possible to connect these zones with each other (at ground level and at the higher level). The elevated zone could attract a great number of organisations, particularly avifauna, in areas that are now deserts for them. The green roofs also provide thermal insulation.

3. Programmes for increasing the urban biodiversity In order to attract a wide range of avifauna, one must develop specific programmes for creating environments and overcoming the limiting factors of urban territories. In this sense, one must identify and condition certain buildings to accommodate animal species of rocky environments that would complement the rocky environments of Montjuïc. In order to overcome the lack of food of certain species, the planting of green roofs with a variety of vegetation would lead to the existence of insects, worms and other organisms that comprise the diet of certain bird species. Also, the planting in the parks and gardens of certain species of trees and shrubs, and the placing of nesting boxes and special feeding boxes, would provide fruits and other foods as well as places of refuge and reproduction for certain birds, and even for mammals such as bats.

In certain parks small areas could be set aside for the reproduction of insects to complement the above actions. For other species in certain parks, microhabitats with and without water could be created in degraded areas, former quarries, etc. Finally, new areas (with fewer conditioning factors) should be set aside for the extension of the Botanical Gardens of Barcelona. Meanwhile, poaching, illegal trade involving animals and plants, and the abandoning of animals must be prosecuted.

The interface between different media creates organisation; in fact, the biosphere develops at the intersection between the atmospheric medium and the land and water. The same happens between the water medium and the earth at the bottom of the sea, rivers and lakes. The idea of a frontier is also very rich for the interests of Barcelona in relation to biodiversity. The frontiers of organisation between different media can be recognised, in our case, in the connection of Collserola with the city (the slopes), in the creation of green mantles along the Rivers Besòs and Llobregat, and in the ecological recovery of the infralittoral area of Barcelona. The recovery of the nearby coastline with hard substrate, combining breakwaters parallel and perpendicular to the coast with biotopes of production that link the ribs emerging from the coast, would form an area of 10 square kilometres, making it possible to create a new maritime district of Barcelona (the twelfth). Artisanal fisheries, sport fishing and oceanographic research and education are the main functions of this district. On land, the natural environments of Montjuïc must be restored, particularly the rocks and cliffs. The interface of Collserola with the city is essential for the preservation of the hill and for improving the quality of the urban fabric on the slopes. The penetration of green in the city must form a transition between the naturalised space and the urban fabric. The creation of a series of well-designed buffer gardens such as the Laberint, Park Güell, etc. would avoid the degraded vision given by naturalised spaces converging with built-up areas, and would increase the urban quality of the neighbourhoods in contact with the hills. These parks would be the front line of the Collserola, which should be connected to other nearby parks such as Les Heures, El Laberint, L'Oreneta and Els Tres Turons, which must in turn link other green spaces to reach Montjuïc and the coastal strip. The connection of Collserola with other natural environments such as Serra de Marina and Garraf is shown in the following strategic diagram.

In addition to the buffer parks, it is proposed that the interface between Collserola and the city should have other transition strips, such as publicly managed gardens (possibly with the participation of the civil society) and pastures, that could increase the presence of organisms at the frontier. They would also reinforce the vegetation representative of the stages of succession of Mediterranean vegetation, in which each unit of vegetation houses a characteristic community of plants and animals of great interest and potential from the viewpoint of biodiversity. With this objective, one could recover the marginal spaces in the border districts with the Collserola Park, which are often used for shanty towns and illegal horticulture. This would even make it possible to consider the extension of the Park. In the interior of Collserola islands without access should be defined as small reserves of biodiversity. The banks of the Rivers Besòs and Llobregat are the ideal connectors between Collserola, Serra de Marina, Garraf and the coastline, particularly the mouth of the Llobregat that adjoins the lakes of El Prat. The banks of the Llobregat must be lined with riverside woods. The final stretches of the Besòs should act as urban connectors and a green lung for the towns of Santa Coloma and Sant Adrià. In the final section of the Besòs, a marshland zone will be created as the continuation of the future Zoo at its encounter with the sea.

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BIODIVERSITY AT THE FRONTIERS OF ORGANISATION

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BIODIVERSITY. THE GREEN NETWORK AND ECOLOGICAL CONNECTORS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA

Green corridors, Plans for Spaces of Natural Interest (PANIs) and reserves Free space

Olèrdola - Garraf Corridor

Foix - Garraf Corridor

Garraf - Agriculture Park Corridor

10 Collserola Montserrat Corridor

Remolar - Murtra Connection along the Coastline

Ricarda - Remolar Connection

Baix Llobregat Agriculture Park

Güell Colony

Sant Vicenç Corridor

Source: Drawn up by the author for 22@ SA

Garraf - Agriculture Park Corridor

14 Collserola Serralada de Marina Corridor

21 Cisa Corridor

15 Santiga Corridor

22 El Montcabrer Corridor

11 Sant Llorenç Montserrat Corridor

16 Serralada Marina Gallecs Corridor

23 Montnegre Serralada Litoral Corridor

12 Collserola - Sant Llorenç Corridor (Green Route to Cerdanyola del Vallès)

17 Gallecs - Serralada Prelitoral Corridor

24 Montnegre Montseny Corridor

13 Collserola – Sant Llorenç Corridor (Green Route between Sabadell and Terrassa)

19 Nou Pins - El Rocar Corridor

18 Serralada de Marina Montseny Corridor

20 Riera de Teià Corridor

Giving a conservation name (PANI, Natural Park, etc.) to a space is obviously no guarantee of practically anything. The mixture of free spaces with infrastructures, the isolation imposed by mobility routes, the construction of buildings of doubtful legality, and the construction of reservoirs and other artificial structures that are always claimed to be essential are part of the pressure that must be borne by natural spaces and that degrade them to the point at which, in some cases, they are not even worth conserving.

BIODIVERSITY IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA The maintenance or increase in the complexity of a given space that is to be conserved depends on the size of the area, the proximity of areas of supply and the real connection with other natural spaces that allow exchanges of information between living organisms. There must be a sufficient number of green spaces in the city and the region. The sufficiency of greenery in the region is guaranteed if a clear division is established between the country and the city, breaking with the current mixture in which one cannot see where one ends and the other begins. The ecological stability of natural systems is greatly facilitated by the non-isolation of these spaces and the promotion of a model to distribute them that tends to form a grid of natural systems. When reserves are created or natural areas are isolated, for example, with the implementation of a road plan such as the current one, species are lost; this loss is related to the land area and is the result of the differential rates of extinction and immigration. One must therefore reduce the probability of extinctions. The reserves must be as large as possible and have no barriers. If the reserves are small they will contain fewer species in equilibrium than a single reserve of the same total area, so they must be placed together so that each one can be a source area of species for the others; the effect improves if the small reserves are connected by means of suitable habitat corridors. Interconnecting the natural systems and reserves in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and preventing their impoverishment and regression involves: •

extending the planned areas and merging some of them that are now separated

•

joining spaces that are now separated by means of protected habitat corridors of different sizes and characteristics adapted to the natural spaces, and

•

ensuring a minimum degree of protection of the unprotected interstitial areas and providing legislation to protect habitat corridors that are now degraded or destroyed: borders, hedges and windbreaks.

THE GREEN NETWORK IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA The structure of open spaces must guarantee the territorial equilibrium between areas that are highly exploited, those that are not very exploited and those that are unexploited, in order to guarantee the desirable ecological diversity within the physical medium that we inhabit. It should also be taken into account in decision-making on regional planning and management. Elaborating on the proposal by J.M. Carreras (1992), within this continual structure formed by the green network of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, one could establish the following spatial typologies:

1. Large forest masses in the coastal and pre-littoral ranges. 2. Agricultural areas such as that of the Penedès and-at another level but with equal importance-the Llobregat delta.

3. Continuous corridors in the river valleys of the River Llobregat and the River Besòs.

4. Maintenance of the agricultural and forest strip in the north of the Eastern and Western Vallès counties and of the agricultural and forest strips that complement the

comb-shaped structure of the continuous city of the Vallès.

5. Articulating threads, which may in many cases follow the secondary streams of the main hydrographic systems, the streams of the Maresme, etc., penetrating the built fabric and forming possible networks of urban parks. In other cases these threads may even be itineraries or urban routes with the presence of greenery (landscaped areas, trees).

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BIODIVERSITY. THE GREEN NETWORK AND ECOLOGICAL CONNECTORS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BARCELONA

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6. Interstitial separators in which one can recognise the

7. A green structure of connection between the different

individual nature of the different urban centres of the continuous city as a territorial reference value. This would be one of the roles that could be given to the Maresme irrigated area.

green units in the compact city, with the creation of a ground level zone and an elevated zone, forming a unit connected to the green matrix.

THE STRATEGIC CONNECTORS OF THE GREEN NETWORK The connections between the different types of green spaces are threatened by the current urban expansion. They are currently strategic spaces for the maintenance of the green matrix of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Safeguarding certain connectors and replacing others must be the priority strategy of conservation. Some of the land occupations that currently most compromise the articulation of the network of biodiversity of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona must be revised and reversed. The map shows with a number the strategic connectors of the Metropolitan Region, which can maintain the interconnectivity between green spaces and are essential for maintaining the biodiversity in this area.

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EFFICIENCY. THE URBAN METABOLISM

ADOPTING AN OLD METABOLIC MODEL The Earth is a system that is open in energy and practically closed in materials, but the systems that it supports are open systems both in energy and materials Organisms in general, and man in particular, need to degrade energy and to use materials to maintain their life and that of the systems that support them. The only way to prevent this from leading to an entropic deterioration of the ecosystems and throwing us into balances that are different to the current ones, thus creating uncertainty for the future, is to articulate this energy degradation and the transformation of the materials through the only renewable flow of energy that we receive, that coming from the sun and its derivatives. In doing so one must maintain a complete recycling of the material cycles, as is continually shown by the functioning of the biosphere.

LINKING THE METABOLIC REGIME TO THE DISTURBANCE OF SYSTEMS Man is currently going through his third metabolic regime: the one that is supported by the consumption of fossil fuels. The uncertainties (a probable climate change, human appropriation of almost 40% of the net primary production of the earth's ecosystems, over-exploitation of fishing resources in all the oceans and seas of the Earth, depletion of minerals and fuels, etc.) projected by the current mode of production (based on the above metabolic regime) and the strategy used for competing are increasing as the limits of the ecosystems to accept certain carrying capacities become visible. With the increase in uncertainties, at the same time there is a reduction in our capacity to control the future, i.e. our capacity for anticipation. The only way to reduce the current uncertainties is to reduce the disturbances that we inflict on the ecosystems at any scale-in other words to reduce the entropy that we impose on them. This means that what is really important is the level of disturbances (entropy or simplification of the systems) that we generate with our action. The metabolic regime must therefore be linked firstly to the entropy generated and secondly to the consumption of resources, including energy6. In nature, both the process of evolution and the succession of ecosystems are linked to the increase in efficiency in the

6. Man may reach the point at which he is able to sustain his organisation with clean, renewable energies. However, if he does not change the strategy for competing it is highly likely that he will use these energies to disturb the functioning of the ecosystems even further. The use of renewable energies is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

consumption of resources to obtain equivalent or greater levels of organisation. Those that fail to fulfil this law end up disappearing. Our way of acting is just the opposite because, as stated above, we obtain advantageous competitive positions if we are capable of consuming more resources than others; it does not matter how efficient we are. Efficiency, which is a law in nature, is a minor issue for us. However, this strategy for competing based on the increase in the disturbance of the systems is simply “unsustainable”. The way to increase our capacity for anticipation is to follow the law of efficiency and therefore to modify the rules for competing. Our strategy for competing must be based, as stated above, on information and knowledge, and increasingly less on the consumption of resources. Obtaining greater organised information (H) with a lower consumption of resources (E) is the equation of sustainability and is therefore the direction to take in all the areas and policies of planning in general, and of the metabolism in particular. In a process aimed at sustainability or at increasing the capacity for anticipation, the quotient E/H must become increasingly small. The current tendency, however, is the opposite, and inefficiency is the best ally of competitiveness.

LINKING EFFICIENCY TO URBAN MODELS From the outset, the planning of any organisational aspect of the city or the territory must take into account the natural resources. The relation established must be purposeful and aimed at achieving maximum efficiency in the use of resources and minimum disturbance to the ecosystems.

THE CYCLE OF MATERIALS: WASTE MODELS The idea of sustainability is based on the level of pressure that the action of man exerts on the earth's support systems. The human systems that exert most pressure on the earth's systems are urban systems. These need enormous amounts of materials and energy to maintain their organisation-and if necessary to increase it.

The adjoining diagrams show two scenarios that represent the material flows (the size of the arrows is proportional to the flow) that go from the support systems represented here with a globe (in fact the materials that reach the city now come from any part of the world) to the urban system. The raw materials taken from the support systems are channelled towards the network of industrial transformation that converts them into consumer goods that will be consumed in the city. Furthermore, the treatment and disposal of the materials consumed (waste) channel their return to the support systems, whether in the form of polluting impact or as recovered resources that will be dumped in the form of compost or enter the industrial network as raw materials. The centre of the diagram shows the model of municipal waste management. The modification of the material flows in the whole scenario will depend on the management model that is chosen. A waste management model in the framework of sustainability must reduce the exploitation of materials, i.e. it must reduce the amount of raw materials extracted from the support systems and also reduce the pressure caused by the polluting impact on the earth's systems.

A FUTURE MODEL OF MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

THE CURRENT MODEL OF MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT URBAN SYSTEM

URBAN SYSTEM

CURRENT WASTE MODEL

CONSUMER GOODS

FUTURE WASTE MODEL (proposal) CONSUMER GOODS WASTE

WASTE

TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES TREATMENT PLANTS

TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES

TREATMENT PLANTS

RECOVERY ACTIVITIES

INCINERATORS INCINERATORS LANDFILL SITES

LANDFILL SITES RAW MATERIALS

ENVIRONMENT: SUPPORT SYSTEMS

RAW MATERIALS

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The first diagram represents the current model of municipal waste management. In order to maintain its organisation, the city needs to contribute materials and energy from the support systems (the environment); these will be exploited in order to extract the natural resources [raw materials, see flow diagram (a)], which will be transported to the industrial network of transformation (b) where they will be converted into consumer goods (c) for consumption in the city (e). Some of these consumed materials-such as returnable containers, furniture and clothing-can be reused (f) (g) (h), but reuse currently represents a token amount in comparison with the volume of waste generated. At present, the materials consumed (e) are mostly abandoned (90% of the materials become waste) and only 10% are collected selectively as potential resources (i). The selected materials go through processes of recovery: the inorganic materials are recovered for introduction in the industrial network (j) and the organic materials are stabilised for returning to the land (K). The unsuitable materials collected selectively will be separated and considered as waste for disposal (h). The flows of ordinary waste that are abandoned (m) are converted into waste that will be dumped in landfills (most of it) (q) or sent to the incinerator of Sant AdriĂ de BesĂ˛s (n). When the materials consist of-or contain-special waste (batteries, fluorescent tubes, refrigerators, etc.), they will be sent to treatment plants (r). The current management of the disposal installations means that their polluting impact is considerable, as is shown in flows (o) (s) and (l), though this impact is currently being reduced significantly, thanks to the incinerators that reinforce the treatment system and the fact that the Garraf landfill site will treat its leachates and use part of the biogas that is currently emitted into the atmosphere.

The second scenario represents the system-environment unit with a model of waste management designed to reduce the pressure on the support systems of both exploitation and the polluting impact. The network of flows has the same meaning as in the previous diagram (the current model of waste management). The future model of waste management proposes:

1. To increase the flows of reuse of materials (f), (g) and (h).

4. To reduce emissions and dumping in landfill sites. To achie-

2. To increase the flow of organic and inorganic waste collected selectively (i) and recovered for use in industry (j) or deposited on the land in the form of compost (k).

ve this, the amount of waste taken directly to the landfill site must be reduced. In the future scenario there must be no residual flow that has not previously gone through a treatment or recovery facility, i.e. only rejected material may be dumped. Finally, the biogas of the landfill site, which is currently one of the factors that most contribute to the greenhouse effect, must be used.

A greater reuse and recovery of materials makes it possible to reduce the level of pressure caused by exploitation of the support systems: in other words, the introduction in industry of a greater amount of recovered inorganic materials (j) means that the amount of raw materials (a and b) is lower. Also, a greater contribution of compost to the land involves a greater biofertility of the soils and also a reduction in the use of inorganic fertilisers that ultimately come from the support systems. The future scenario also proposes:

3. To reduce the amount of materials abandoned (m).

Progress in the proposal of the future scenario involves moving towards sustainability because it reduces the pressure on the support systems both by reducing the extraction of raw materials and by reducing the polluting impact of the municipal waste management model.

Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Environment Agency (EMSHTR) have started a process of waste management (PMGRM) that is currently one of those that is most copied by other cities in Spain, both in its theoretical framework and in its specific proposals in the different areas of management. The transition from one model to another is taking place more quickly in the treatment than in the collection.

MINIMISATION AND REUSE OF WASTE The best waste is no waste, so one must minimise the generation of waste, especially containers and packaging and special waste materials. Though the municipality has limited competences for adopting measures aimed at minimising waste, it must take all the action within its power, such as the regulation of advertising delivered to homes, the replacement of plastic bags, etc. One of the most problematic plastic materials is plastic film, because it creates cross-pollution in the rest of the waste fractions. It is therefore proposed that its consumption be reduced to a minimum. Though the programmed scenario meets all the prevailing regulations, one must advance progressively in the application of the deposit system for packaging and containers (in the participation process, the representatives of the superstores voted against the recommendation made in this document) because it is the most effective system for these fractions when one wishes to apply the principle of the three Rs: reduction, reuse and recovery. The introduction of the deposit system also drastically reduces the number of containers in the public thoroughfares. Because (until the deposit system is introduced) the proposed model depends completely on the will and awareness of the public, one must implement an information and education programme, with sufficient funding, in the terms laid down in the PMGRM, in order to encourage responsible consumption and reduce waste. It is also proposed to promote the second-hand market (electrical appliances, clothing, furniture, etc.) in shops, trade fairs and dumps.

RECOVERY AND SALVAGE OF MATERIALS The goods consumed are not considered as waste but as recoverable resources. Applying the aims of recovery of the PMGRM it is proposed to collect selectively 60% of the materials released into the system, of which around half are organic and half are inorganic. The rest of the materials released will initially be waste for disposal. It is proposed to first separate (in the kitchen) and then selectively collect the following fractions: organic matter, paper and cardboard, glass, light containers, furniture, textiles and special waste. To achieve this one must redesign the material elements (bins, containers, lorries, etc.) of the various waste fractions from the kitchen to the treatment and disposal plants. In a compact and dense city such as Barcelona, it is absolutely essential to coordinate the model of waste management with the model used for managing urban space. For example, one must redesign the collection points for waste and access to the same. The block as a unit of management and the area below ground could both play a special role in the collection system. It is proposed to collect the organic matter selectively, because it is one of the fractions that the public is best able to separate and that can cause the greatest damage in the rest of the fractions due to cross-pollution. The organic fraction must be collected in a specific container for domestic waste generators, and the large-scale waste generators (the food markets and Mercabarna - the central

distribution market) must separate and collect it carefully. The organic fraction would be sent to ecoparks that will create compost (or stabilise the organic matter) and biogas. The compost generated can be used in state programmes for improving the biofertility of Spanish soils (which have a deficit of organic matter) and to combat desertification. These programmes must regulate the quality of the compost and must be developed through consensus with the institutions and appliers. Paper and cardboard are the second fraction of municipal waste in weight. Printed paper forms the largest part of the fraction. It is therefore proposed to collect it door-to-door, as they do in cities such as Vienna and Munich, which show results of over 60% recovery of the paper. Paper and card-

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THE WASTE MODEL

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board containers will be placed in the refuse deposition areas for domestic paper and cardboard of residents who do not have space in the hall of their building. Shops are the greatest generators of cardboard (80%), so door-to-door collection is also proposed for them. Waste tips must become material recovery centres rather than collection and transfer centres. The hotels and catering sector generates the largest amount of waste glass, so door-to-door collection is also proposed in this case. Domestic glass must be collected at refuse deposition areas.

Until the deposit system is introduced, it is proposed that light containers be collected mostly at the refuse deposition areas. However, it is proposed that 25% of this fraction be collected on the pavement. It is proposed to apply clearly the principle of "those who pollute must pay", though it should not represent a licence to pollute. This means that for the collection and treatment of the containers and waste of containers, ECOEMBES would have to pay the real costs of the process.

DISPOSAL OF UNRECOVERED FLOWS One must apply suitable measures to limit the flow of rejected waste. It is proposed that no waste should reach the landfill site in massive amounts: only waste arriving from previous treatment centres should be accepted. It is proposed that the biogas of the Garraf landfill site should be collected and used (along with the biogas from the methanation plants) as fuel for the fleet of metropolitan buses and the fleets of lorries for cleaning and waste collection. It is proposed that the leachates of the Garraf landfill site should be processed with tertiary treatment. One of the most strategic aspects of waste management by Barcelona and the municipalities of the Metropolitan Authority is the capacity of the Garraf landfill site, which has practically been exhausted. There is an urgent need for new tips. If none are found, one must reconsider what is done with the flows that cannot be recovered at present, whether for technical or economic reasons.

Balance of masses. As stated above, one must reduce the pressure on the support systems caused by the extraction of resources. Therefore, the future scenario involves the introduction into the industrial network of 200,000 mt per year of inorganic materials and the spreading on the land of 28,000 mt per year of good quality compost. In the current scenario 60,000 mt are recovered per year, not counting rejected waste, and only half of this (30,000 mt per year) not counting private collection. If we leave out private collection in the future scenario, the recovery of inorganic materials of the management model reaches 170,000 mt per year, that is, six times more than today. Energy balance.

Emissions to the atmosphere.

In the energy balances of the two models of waste management one finds that energy consumption in fossil fuels is 204% greater in 2006 than in 1996. On the other hand, the recovery of electrical energy is 194% higher in 2006 than in 1996. This recovery of energy could increase even further if suitable technological measures were adopted to increase the performance. The saving due to recycling is far greater (711%) in 2006 than in 1996. The balance is clearly greater (404%) in the scenario of 2006 than in 1996; indeed, the energy balance for the future scenario involves an energy saving of two and a half million Gjth, when in the current scenario the saving is only half a million of Gjth.

In the table of emissions to the atmosphere one can see that with the application of the proposed measures the CO2 equivalent* of the future scenario is 619,000 mt per year and 2,150,000 mt per year in the current scenario, involving a reduction of four times the emission of CO2 equivalent. The future scenario only takes into account the use of 40% of the biogas of the landfill site, though this could be increased, thus improving the reduction in the CO2 equivalent emitted to the atmosphere. The rest of the indicators of pollution are reduced (except heavy metals), and those that are not reduced are negative, which means that in both scenarios the waste management involves a reduction in emissions. Disposal of liquids. With the exception of ammonia, the pollutant load of liquid disposal in the future scenario is always lower than in the current scenario.

After adding proportionally, according to its greenhouse effect, the set of gases that affect this phenomenon.

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COMPARISON OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE CURRENT AND FUTURE SCENARIOS

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THE WATER CYCLE Water is probably the most limiting factor of the development of Catalonia and the semi-arid regions of Spain. It is therefore a strategic liquid for Barcelona. The policies applied so far by local, regional and national governments have not been based on the limitation of water use. They have continued to treat urban development, industry, farming, tourism, etc., as if water were not a scarce resource and Spain had a surplus of it. This is particularly the case in the regional planning policies set up thirty years ago, which promote and encourage the spread of singlefamily dwellings with swimming pools and gardens with lawns and water-hungry plants; in the tourism and economic promotion policies that foster the proliferation of golf courses with Scottish turf; in the intensive farming policies that have ruined and continue to ruin the aquifers of entire counties; and in the water policies (water conveyance, channelling...) that spoil the fishing in large areas of the territory and increase7 the speed of rainwater runoff towards the sea.

The lack of a conservation and management policy to deal with the demand for water and include it in the general planning policies leads to the urgent need to convey water from other basins or to desalinate seawater. This is a reckless measure that has serious ecological, economic and/or social impacts. The decision to convey water from the Rhone would also involve an additional risk, because it first goes past five nuclear power plants, one of which reprocesses plutonium. A leak would at least ruin the channelling and therefore the investment. It does not seem very wise to adopt such solutions, or to continue with the policy of wasting such a strategic resource. The strategy that must be adopted is therefore related to the programmes of conservation and management of demand that take into account at all times the role of water and the fact that it is a scarce resource. After the application of the proposals for conservation and management of the demand for water, some of which are presented here, one must ensure the supply of water to all the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. The supply sources (desalination and/or conveyance) would only be increased when it has been demonstrated that the initiatives of conservation are insufficient.

URBAN MANAGEMENT OF WATER. THE CURRENT MODEL

SYSTEM: CITY

EVAPOTRANSP.

DWELLING

TERTIARY

CONSUMPTIVE USE INCORPORATION IN THE PRODUCT

PURIFICATION PLANT

DRINKING WATER NETWORK

SLUDGE

WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT

SEWERS LOSSES

7 . The current tendency of occupation and artificialisation of the territory progressively increases the rate of rainfall runoff from any point of the basin to the sea, reducing the recharging of aquifers and the provision of water for the earth's ecosystems.

H2O FROM WWTP

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GROUNDWATER wells BASIN

In both diagrams, the size of the arrows and the tubes is proportional to the water flow. ENVIRONMENT: HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

EXTERNAL BASINS

The aim of water conservation programmes is to reduce the demand for water, improve the efficiency of use and avoid the deterioration of water resources. Managing the demand means obtaining the greatest possible volume of water services with the same amount of water.

The three thirds rule

Retaining the water in the basin

The general rule of dividing water into three thirds, a third for the earth's ecosystems, a third for the marine ecosystems and a third for human activities, should guide the programmes of conservation and management of demand.

Reducing the current speed of the water on its journey to the sea is strategic. In order to achieve this, one must maintain the current areas of forest and farmland and extend them, especially with riverside woods. Farmland and open spaces with a gentle slope should be maintained, and if necessary extended, and impermeabilisation and other uses should be prevented in areas of infiltration and recharging.

The third that in theory corresponds to us should guide our management of water.

Furthermore, urban growth must be limited in the MAB to the proposed areas of compaction, avoiding the increasing impermeabilisation caused by the current tendency to produce city through buildings and infrastructures.

URBAN MANAGEMENT OF WATER. THE FUTURE MODEL

Saving water

SYSTEM: CITY

In general, farming is the activity that consumes most water, though in the central basins it is a limited resource. The flows consumed currently can be reduced significantly by using efficient irrigation techniques. .

EVAPOTRANSP

SAVING RAINWATER

TERTIARY SAVING NON-DRINKING RAINWATER

CONSUMPTIVE USE INCORPORATION IN THE PRODUCT

PURIFICATION PLANT

SAVING NON-DRINKING RAINWATER

DRINKING WATER NETWORK

The current gardens that consume large amounts of water and inorganic fertilisers must be replaced by â&#x20AC;&#x153;xerophyticâ&#x20AC;? gardens containing plants that consume little water and compost. Moreover, the current irrigation systems must be replaced by more efficient nocturnal systems. These ideas should be extended to golf courses, which should replace the current type of turf with one that is adapted to our country. Also, the construction of new golf courses must be halted until they are considered feasible according to the new culture of water use.

NON-DRINKING WATER NETWORK

SLUDGE

H2O FROM WWTP

WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT

SEWERS LOSSES

GROUNDWATER wells

ED US RE

ENVIRONMENT: HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN

With the same idea of efficiency, one must act in the fields of industry and public services. The margin for applying efficiency policies is still wide in both cases, though a substantial improvement has been seen since the introduction of the treatment tax.

The use of water for swimming pools must be regulated, which means first regulating the use of water from the aquifers. The current lack of effective regulation means that the level of the aquifers falls significantly during the driest seasons: late spring and summer. Other measures of water saving, such as those in domestic facilities, are discussed below.

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CONSERVING AND MANAGING THE DEMAND FOR WATER IN THE CENTRAL BASINS OF CATALONIA

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THE QUALITY OF WATER IN THE BASINS The programme for managing demand must be accompanied by another programme for conserving water resources in order to restore the deteriorated quality of the bodies of water and-with the increase in quality-to increase the biodiversity and extend the uses to which the water can be applied. The impact of diffuse pollution is growing, and it is threatening part of the existing water resources (pollution of aquifers and eutrophication of water courses and reservoirs) in places where the activities that generate it are most intensive. The creation of “banks” of organic matter in specific areas of the territory may reduce the current impact. The areas with an organic matter bank must be forced to use compost to replace manure, purines and most inorganic fertilisers. The current treatment plants and the technology used in them, added to the low flow of our rivers, means that the water quality is insufficient to fill the rivers with life. The degree of execution of the Plan for the Treatment of Waste Water already shows this. One must thus apply the programmes included in the Sewage Plan and extend the treatment of waste water to all urban centres through the introduction of specific treatments (in some cases tertiary) in industry, on industrial estates and/or in the current WWTPs.

QUALITY OF WATER IN BARCELONA Before it reaches the filtration plants, the route taken by water in the Llobregat and Ter basins takes it through uses and reuses that leave their mark on the content of the water in the form of pollution. The filtration processes are intensive and allow the water to be qualified as “acceptable in terms of health”. However, though the organoleptic properties, conductivity, etc., of the water supplied have improved in recent times, most citizens choose not to use it as drinking water. The application and extension of the programmes laid down in the Sewage Plan would make it possible to obtain a higher quali-

CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE DEMAND FOR WATER In order to get close to the theoretical third of the water of the basin that corresponds to human activities, we must develop a series of initiatives that would be expressed in the following programmes.

fication of the water as “drinking water”, and it could thus be consumed as it is in Madrid and New York. The citizens of Barcelona currently spend almost 180 million per year on bottled water for consumption. To allow the network of tap water to be used generally as drinking water, one would probably also have to add top-quality water from the River Noguera rather than from the River Ebre, whose level of salinity makes it unsuitable for use as drinking water.

1. INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME a. The creation of separate networks. The proposal of superblocks is accompanied by a network of service galleries that follow the mesh of secondary streets. This network, which is connected to the above-ground routes, is an intermediate stage that allows two separate networks to be developed throughout the city. The process of execution could be in the medium or long term, depending on the debate on the water policy and its degree of sustainability.

b. The repair of networks and the blocking of leaks is the most advantageous procedure for saving water, and a wide range of technologies and advanced systems for leaks and sealing are available. The losses of water to the distribution network, considering as such the difference between the water pumped and the water invoiced, is estimated to be about 25%. Between 8 and 10% of this corresponds to real losses due to breakdowns and leaking valves and pipes.

The remaining 15-17% corresponds to uses of water that are not accounted for, such as fraud and bulk agreements with organisations. The cost of repairing the networks and removing leaks is lower than that of obtaining, filtering and purifying the water that leaks into the sewers.

c. Location of illegal dams. The identification and removal of illegal dams can save a considerable volume of water.

d. Individual meters for users who have bulk agreements. In the event of agreements with a maximum flow, regulations must be established to ensure a rational use of water and to prevent water from being released into the sewers without having been used.

e. Reduction in the supply pressures. Significant savings in non-volumetric use can be achieved through measures such as the correct management of the pressures

f. Computerised management of the networks. This must

gement of the network and a service of better quality. The computerisation should include the climatological parameters, the adaphic parameters, the components of the system and their state, the quality of the water, the control of pressures, operations control, meter control and management of operating and maintenance costs.

include the parameters that allow a more efficient mana-

2. SAVINGS PROGRAMMES

a. The new culture of water must be spread to the persons

b. Pricing. As is known, one of the most effective instruments

and legal entities that use it. To this end, public awareness programmes must be created to provide people with information, education, training and demonstrations, and to involve the civil society.

for saving is to adjust the price of water for specific aims. Prices in increasing brackets, seasonal differentiation and special surcharges pass on the responsibility for saving water to the consumers, thus making careful consumption a habit.

3. EFFICIENCY PROGRAMMES

a. Residential programmes. Hydraulic and sanitary effi-

It must be taken into account that maintaining a lawn can take up 90% of the water consumption when it occupies only 40% of the garden. Reducing it by half can lead to a 50-60% reduction in the water used.

ciency devices in dwellings: water saving aerators, toilets, dishwashers, washing machines and the control of leaks and dripping can achieve a potential water saving of around 35%. Kits with shower attachments, two aerators, simple devices for reducing the flow of the toilet and several leak detection tablets pay for themselves in less than a year. After observing the success of programmes of this type in other cities, it is proposed that the new and rehabilitated buildings should incorporate the above devices and appliances. In order to achieve this objective it will be necessary to introduce legal and economic instruments, etc. The programme should also be extended to current buildings through subsidies and technical assistance.

b. Programmes for gardens and other outdoor uses. Though the number of private gardens and swimming pools in Barcelona is small, efficiency programmes must be established to reduce the current consumption of water for this reason. A garden with water-thirsty plants may consume up to 60% more water than a Mediterranean or xerophytic garden.

c. Programmes of public parks and sports areas. The preliminary planning of the gardens, the reduction of lawns, the use of compost, night-time irrigation with efficient techniques, the selection of plants requiring small amounts of water and good maintenance would lead to a lower consumption of water.

d. Commercial, industrial and institutional programmes. Developing a water audit programme in companies consuming large amounts accompanied by measures that allow a rapid return on the investment is the first measure to apply to business. For sectors that have the possibility of recirculating the water (car washes, dry cleaners, laundries, cooling industries, etc.), a specific efficiency programme must be developed. Other sectors such as hotels and catering may include actions and instruments of management, as well as marketing programmes based on water saving and measures involving design and infrastructures. The government and the public companies must incorporate the efficiency programmes and savings in their facilities. Also, new commercial activities and of tertiary activities must include water efficiency devices as a condition for obtaining an operating licence.

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through the regulation of the daily cycle so that the pressure does not rise at night, leading to an increase in the number of leaks, and the use of a pressure of between 3.4 and 4.1 atmospheres to obtain the maximum efficiency.

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4. REPLACEMENT PROGRAMMES

a. Reuse and recycling programmes. A list of industries that can use treated water must be drawn up and a separate network must be created to supply them. The Free Zone, the Bon Pastor industrial estate and the industrial area of Badalona-Saint Adrià are candidates for this. The list would be extended to companies that can recycle water (by using it in the same application). Before building desalination plants, one must study the advisability of building sophisticated tertiary systems that treated water to be used for a wide range of purposes (agriculture, industry, etc.) and the advisability of building largescale separate networks (and pumping water uphill). The development of new or remodelled urban fabrics such as Trinitat Nova, Sagrera, Bon Pastor, Vall d'Hebron and the 22@ district should include a separate network for the use of replacement water. In order to reduce the effects of salination caused by the use of treated water, one must develop a system of rainwater collection from the south face of Collserola before it enters the sewage system. The mixture of the two waters would lead to a substantial increase in the water resources for the city of Barcelona and other nearby municipalities.

b. The use of the Besòs aquifer and the urban groundwater. Firstly, a programme of preservation from chemical pollution must be implemented in zones with groundwater reserves, and a programme for the recovery of aquifers that are currently little or very polluted must be developed. In the areas that do not yet have a sewage network, an infrastructure programme must be developed in order to avoid groundwater pollution. The Besòs aquifer and the facilities of the waters of Montcada must be used again (replacing the water of the drinking water network) for various uses. The initial elevation would allow the water to be channelled by gravity so supply a large area of Barcelona. The combination of water extracted from the Besòs aquifer and urban groundwater should make it possible to supply a large part of the industry, the municipal services, and the areas of Barcelona that are being remodelled (22@, Sagrera, Bon Pastor, Vall d'Hebron and Trinitat Nova).

c. Other replacement programmes will be studied: domestic waste water, brackish water, etc.

The advisability of building several reservoirs along the slopes of Collserola for irrigating the buffer gardens proposed above and part of the green roof included in the proposal must be studied.

5. MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMES

The current structure of water management is not adapted to replacement water, though it is a strategic need for a policy of conservation and management of the water demand. With this objective it is proposed to create, under the auspices of the Metropolitan Hydraulic Services and Waste Treatment Authority (MHSWTA), a joint-stock company to manage the new water culture. The company would have a “water bank” supplied with treated water, groundwater and rainwater. The clients of the company are the public sector, industry and the urban fabrics undergoing profound restructuring.

THE CURRENT ENERGY MODEL

POLLUTION

ENERGY

SYSTEM: DIFFUSE CITY

The plans and programmes that have been approved at a variety of levels affect mainly some aspects of energy management. However, they take a sectoral approach, failing to deal systematically with the management of companies and therefore failing to modify the reality of energy generation, distribution and consumption. The concern about the systems focuses mainly on climate change. The initiatives for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases concentrate on the energy cycle rather than on the aspects that could lead to a new metabolic regime based on a reduction in the disturbance of systems, i.e. on entropy and the consumption of mainly renewable energies. The change in the metabolic regime, and therefore the reduction in the disturbance of systems-including the atmospheric system-can only come about through a change in energy culture, which involves profound changes in the way we understand regional planning, urbanism, architecture, industry, water management, waste, mobility... i.e. everything related to the use of energy, i.e. everything.

DIFFUSE URBAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL INEFFICIENT IN CONSUMPTION OF RESOURCES

HEAT TREATMENT

BIOCOMBUSTION

mobility

production activity

single-family dwellings

services refinery

biomass coal

energy oil energy

ENVIRONMENT

HEAT ISLAND

THE FUTURE ENERGY MODEL (tendency)

POLLUTION

SYSTEM: CITY

COMPACT CITY MODEL TECHNOLOGICALLY EFFICIENT HEAT BIOCOMBUSTREATMENT TION

refinery

mobility

housing and tertiary

efficient and compatible production activity

services

biomass

coal

oil

In both diagrams, the thickness of the arrows is proportional to the flow of energy and pollution.

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HEAT ISLAND

energy

ENVIRONMENT 63

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ENERGY GENERATION

Combined cycle plants For reasons of efficiency, the new combined cycle power plants (with a power of 800 MW) that are being built beside the River Besòs must give priority to supplying the conurbation of Barcelona.

The biogas would require a special system similar to that for electricity generation using renewable sources. In these conditions, the cleaned biogas would be supplied through the natural network gas.

Their installed power covers the current needs of the urban continuum. With the coming into operation of the new plant, the electricity generating initiatives in the conurbation will make sense, in theory, if they are more efficient or renewable.

Biofuels

Wind farms This technology has recently made a major advance in efficiency and is expected to become even more efficient in the medium term. The installation of an off-shore wind farm on the continental platform in front of the Forum area and at the breakwater of the Port de Barcelona could contribute a peak power of 15-30 MW .

Thermal solar collectors The excellent Solar Ordinance shows the path to follow for the development of this technology and its application in new cases. In newly created urban areas or ones undergoing major renewal, the installation should be accompanied by seasonal heat storage systems and should be set up to cover most domestic hot water and heating needs. The combination of the two technologies allows domestic hot water and heating to be supplied in our climate with performances of no less than 60%, regardless of the meteorological phenomena (periods with overcast sky, rainfall, etc.).

Biogas The Garraf landfill site (with an energy generating potential similar to that of the Sau Reservoir) and the methanation plants included in the Metropolitan Municipal Waste Management Programme (MMWMP) are today the most important potential sources of renewable energy of the conurbation of Barcelona. For various reasons involving energy use, economics and improvement of the urban quality, after cleaning the biogas will be used in the natural gas network or in public transport: buses, taxis and refuse collection vehicles (the biogas generated at the landfill site can cover the fuel needs of all three fleets, which are equivalent to about 22,000 litres of diesel fuel).

The introduction of these fuels should be encouraged in public transport and favoured or given positive discrimination in private vehicles, for example with hybrid engines, etc.

Thermal treatment of waste The selection and subsequent treatment of organic matter laid down in the MMWMP will lead to a better energy performance of the waste incinerated at Sant Adrià del Besòs.

Photovoltaic solar panels Solar collection is perhaps one of the renewable energies with the brightest future. However, at present, technical, economic, legal or educational factors-or all at the same time-are hindering the introduction of solar panels. The Solar Ordinance should be extended progressively and dynamically, by applying it to new cases as the above impediments are resolved. It should first be extended to the common facilities of buildings: lifts, stair lighting, etc. The rehabilitation or construction of new public facilities (schools, cultural facilities, etc.) and important buildings of a certain size used for retail trade, offices, etc., must generate part of the energy they consume as laid down in the Energy Action Plan (EAP).

In transport The current mobility model is the greatest consumer of energy. The proposals of superblocks and those arising from the regional planning model for the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona that are included in this document define a scenario that would reduce the energy consumption of mobility by no less than 30%. In the city, the reduction would have to be promoted through tax measures, positive discrimination and the use of high-effi-

ciency hybrid vehicles. The incorporation of the best technologies would also have to be promoted through the use of kinetic energy storage systems in trains and the metro and fuel cells, etc., in private transport. The proposal of superblocks involves eliminating a very large number of traffic lights and sundry signs. The energy saving will be proportional to the number of traffic lights eliminated. The rest must be LED traffic lights.

In buildings The proposals included here are the consequence of-and therefore give coherence to-some of the outlines and strategic lines presented in this document, in some cases expanding on those included in the EAP. The proposal of superblocks creates a network of basic roads, which in most cases will be subjected to levels higher than 65 DB(A) during the day and 55 DB(A) at night. In order to guarantee quality of life and comfort of the residents who live or work in buildings located on these roads, priority should be given to soundproofing programmes (such as the one being developed by the Institute for the Urban Landscape) and the insulation of facades through double glazing. This measure would be applied potentially to 23,000 buildings. The proposal of green roofs included in the section on urban biodiversity with the aim of creating elevated green corridors connecting Collserola, Els Tres Turons and Montju誰c is a means of saving energy and providing a green roof surface. The new buildings and rehabilitated housing must include energy-saving criteria from the design to the use of the building when the dwellings are occupied. The criteria should include the location of the building within the compact city, its connection with public transport, and the affect on the landscape. They should also include the orientation, sunlight and shade, natural cross-ventilation, the behaviour of the buil

ding with regard to the prevailing winds, and the shape and volume of the buildings. These criteria allow the energy relationships of the building with the environment to be optimised. This is also the aim of the energy efficiency criteria provided by passive systems linked to the design, such as thermal insulation, solar protection, inner courts and natural lighting, and facilities designed for greater energy efficiency. All the new and rehabilitated buildings should incorporate systems of solar collection for domestic hot water and heating, whenever possible in combination with larger-scale seasonal heat storage. The energy efficiency of electrical appliances and low consumption lighting should be included in the manual of all dwellings, particularly new and rehabilitated ones. For new and rehabilitated buildings, the environmental certificate mentioned above in the section on building should include an energy certificate that takes into account these criteria.

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CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ENERGY DEMAND: SAVING AND EFFICIENCY

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In town planning The ultimate aim of an energy plan based on sustainable criteria is to come close to energy self-sufficiency with renewable sources. In this direction, the neighbourhoods undergoing renewal and new neighbourhoods must be designed to incorporate energy self-sufficiency right from the start. The 22@ district and the Trinitat Nova neighbourhood are the first candidates. The proposal for controlling the environmental variables involves the use of vegetation, water, lighting, paving, colours, etc. that leads to a reduction in the energy consumed in public spaces and buildings (the vegetation and water provide shade and cooling in summer and insolation and insulation in win

ter) and by nocturnal lighting, which also reduces the light pollution. Furthermore, the design of public space and the use of quality materials will increase the number of journeys on foot and by bicycle. The proximity of uses and functions provided by the model of the compact and complex city multiplies the probability of contacts (the essence of the city) at a lower energy cost.

In the cycling of materials It is well known that the consumption of energy needed to produce a ton of paper, glass and other materials from raw materials (cellulose, sand, etc.) is far greater than that needed to produce a ton of the same materials from recovered paper or glass. This is why the programmes of selection and recycling of materials in the flows of waste are important, and the programmes of minimisation are even more important.

In economic activities The measures of efficiency that are being applied are still timid and the question needs to be reconsidered. This, however, means applying energy criteria to analyse any aspect of clean production and the workplace, starting with the design of the products. In manufacturing one must foster the networks of subproducts that operate like the trophic networks in nature. Recycling and reusing material and energy flows that would otherwise be tipped and treated leads to a considerable energy saving.

MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS

The current panorama of energy management follows a logic that is far removed from the criteria presented here. A management body must adopt the strategic lines we have put forward if their objectives are to be achieved. To this end it is proposed to create a joint stock, non-profit, energy service company to manage the generation, distribution and certain aspects of the consumption of energy based on criteria of sustainability. The company will have an â&#x20AC;&#x153;energy bankâ&#x20AC;? fed by renewable energies and if necessary by energies from efficient technologies. It will provide services of heating, cooling, electricity and piped gas (from biogas). The special system for generating electrical energy from renewable sources must extend its legal framework to all renewable sources such as biogas and biomass. In this scenario, the profits of the company are proportional to the energy saving and to the source of the energy flow, which increases if the energy comes from renewable sources. The first customer is the public sector (municipal buildings and facilities, schools, universities, public transport, decorations, etc.), for which integral energy services are provided. Certain projects, such as electricity generation by wind farms that have long periods of return on investment, may be funded through contributions by private individuals (limited amounts), which will be returned with an interest similar to that of a fixed-term investment, but far lower than the return on a business investment.

HEAT ISLAND POLLUTION

ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION

SYSTEM: DIFFUSE CITY

In Barcelona, atmospheric pollution is a direct consequence of the consumption of energy rather than the processes of transformation of materials. The most important action taken in the last 20 years was the great change from liquid and solid fuels to gas in the period 1986-89. In the early 1980’s, the electricity generating plants of Sant Adrià de Besòs had already made the change from fuel-oil to gas. These fixed foci burned half of the fuel-oil of the province of Barcelona, 1.1 million mt, and they emitted the frightening amount of 57,000 mt/year of SO2 (a gas) into the atmosphere. In the case of Barcelona, the replacement of liquid and solid fuels represented a change of 400 million therms, which in combination with the beneficial effects of the replacement of fuels at Saint Adrià brought the classic components of atmospheric pollution, SO2 and particles, to acceptable levels. Since then there have been no significant changes in the sources of pollution, or in the main source of atmospheric pollution of Barcelona that remains to be solved, road traffic, which has increased rather than decreasing. This is partly due to the growth of the dispersed city model, which led to a spectacular increase in the number of vehicles entering and leaving the city, above all after the construction of the Ringroads.

CONSUMER GOODS

DIFFUSE URBAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL WASTEFUL IN CONSUMPTION OF RESOURCES

HEAT TREATMENT

BIOCOMBUSTION

PRODUCTION ACTIVITY

SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLINGS

SERVICES TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES

ENERGY ACTIVITIES

MATTER RAW MATERIALS ENERGY

ENVIRONMENT: ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEM

FUTURE EMISSIONS TO THE ATMOSPHERE (proposal)

HEAT ISLAND POLLUTION

SYSTEM: CITY`

CONSUMER GOODS

COMPACT CITY MODEL EFFICIENT IN CONSUMPTION OF RESOURCES

HEAT TREATMENT

BIOCOMBUSTION

TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES

MOBILITY

HOUSING AND TERTIARY

EFFICIENT AND COMPATIBLE PRODUCTION ACTIVITY

SERVICES

RAW MATERIALS MATTER

ENERGY ACTIVITIES

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CURRENT EMISSIONS TO THE ATMOSPHERE (tendency)

ENERGY

ENVIRONMENT: ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEM

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The components of air pollution in Barcelona have thus changed from the classic SO2 and fumes from fixed sources to primary pollutants from mobile sources (CO, NOX, VOC, benzene, particles, etc.) and secondary pollutants (oxidants such as O3), which come from the photochemical reaction between NOX and hydrocarbons. Also, the episodes of atmospheric pollution that occurred in the early 1980’s in the coldest months of winter are now experienced in the hottest months of summer, when there are high concentrations of O3 and NOX. Furthermore, the volatile organic compounds from the combustion of petrol, and above all of diesel fuel, include molecules that have been proven to be carcinogenic, such as benzene, 1,3 butadiene and derivatives of the same. These compounds are the main source of cancer in the urban environment. A significant reduction of the emission of pollutants in Barcelona could be brought about by the superblocks. Indeed, the emission of pollutants by traffic could be reduced to a third of the current level, on the assumption that the network of through vehicles would, as now, be saturated. The percentages of reduction would, of course, be similar to those expected in the area of energy. One of the consequences would be the reduction in photochemical oxidants, which are today, along with nitrogen oxides, the pollutants with least flexibility (the ones with the smallest margin before they reach the legal limits). This measure would easily compensate for the emissions generated by the new combined cycle power plants. Another important measure for reducing atmospheric pollution is the replacement of diesel fuel by natural gas, biogas or LPG in public transport, which must be extended to the whole fleet of buses and taxis. The number of kilometres covered daily, particularly in the centre of the Eixample, more than justifies this measure.

ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION

ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION AND THE FORMATION OF THE HEAT ISLAND The emissions of fumes and hot gases produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, in conjunction with the thermal behaviour of buildings and the materials of public thoroughfares, leads to an increase in the heating of the air masses that are closest to the ground. The temperature in the city centre is a few degrees higher than that on the outskirts, and in winter there may be differences of 3-10º (Oke 1980, Hobbs 1980). Hot air carrying suspended particles and chemical pollutants rises, is cooled, and falls again following a convective cell, creating a sort of dome called a "heat island”. In winter, on sunny days with anti-cyclonic conditions, when the sun sets and the heat accumulated in the ground during the day is released, an inversion of temperature is formed that may have a height of several tens of metres and is called a surface inversion. The pollutants trapped in this layer close to the ground accumulate until the solar radiation on the following day breaks the inversion. Occasionally, when an anticyclone settles over the Iberian peninsula for a few days with high pressures, another inversion is added to the surface inversion. This one is more dangerous because it is not dissipated during the day, and is called a subsidence inversion. When this falls below one thousand metres, retaining the pollutants of several days, it can cause episodic situations of high atmospheric pollution.

The incident radiation on the flat and vertical surfaces of the public thoroughfare and buildings, which have a different thermal behaviour to water and green zones because of the colours and the type of materials, increase the average temperature of the city. Another contributing factor is the higher long-wave heat radiation in more densely built areas due to the reciprocal effect of absorption and reflection. The increase in the average temperature is greater in winter than in summer; there is less snowfall and freezing than in the rural environment, which represents a greater storage of heat in the land. The formation of fog in winter and the increase in cloudiness in summer cause a decrease in the number of sunny days in urban zones.

Clouds form due to the presence of condensation nuclei caused by pollution and heat stagnation, which with a decrease in the air circulation due to the building density leads to greater precipitation.

GREENHOUSE GASES

The difference in temperature between the centre and the outskirts could be reduced through the introduction of the proposals presented here, related to the new configuration of the public space resulting from the creation of the superblocks and the increase in biodiversity in the urban area. The two proposals would lead to a significant increase in the area of greenery. The evapotranspiration from the green roofs, the new squares, the new trees and the shade cast by the trees on sunny facades would lead one to expect a new balance of temperatures between the centre and the outskirts.

The emission of greenhouse gases in the city of Barcelona is between 3 and 5 mt of CO2 equivalent per capita. This is relatively low, particularly compared to other cities in developed countries. The two most important emitters are vehicle traffic and waste management, which account for more than 60% of the greenhouse gases. The rest of the emissions (36%) are distributed mainly between the industrial sector and building conditioning (heating and cooling). In order to reduce the contribution of greenhouse gases, priority must be given to taking action on the main emitters. The various proposals of the Barcelona model clearly include action on both traffic and waste management. The proposal of superblocks could lead to a reduction of over 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted by this sector. In the case of waste management, the proposals of collecting biogas from the Garraf landfill site (as a fixed source, it is the largest individual generator of greenhouse gases) and converting the organic matter of the waste in the ecoparcs into biogas, along with greater efficiency and increasing the calorific power of the incinerator, would lead to a greater than fourfold reduction in the emissions of this sector. The measures included in the different sections of the document, particularly the models of regional planning and mobility and the metabolic models referring to energy and the water cycle, would reduce the remaining emitters of greenhouse gases in all cases. Furthermore, the proposals related to biodiversity would lead to a significantly higher volume of CO2 than that taken up by the existing vegetation.

THE REDUCTION OF STRATOSPHERIC OZONE (O3)

The gases that destroy the O3 layer are also greenhouse gases, but local action can make only a small contribution to reducing them. The programmes for reducing these compounds are mainly in the hands of national governments. However, a contribution can be made at a municipal level by raising civic awareness about buying certain products or taking used products to the tips.

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The cooling effects caused by evapotranspiration are lower in the city, where there is a lower vegetation mass and fewer water bodies, which means that water drains rapidly from the surface to the sewage network, largely independent of the natural drainage network. However, there are also periodical increases in relative humidity, particularly at night, in periods of good weather and in winter, as a result of the condensation caused by the overheating of the land.

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NOISE

As in the case of atmospheric pollution, horizontal mobility is the main cause of environmental noise in cities. Noise is a consequence of rapid energy consumption. Like mobility, it is closely related to the functioning of the city. Today, however, it is considered to be one of the malfunctions that is most difficult to solve because, as will be seen below, it involves a change in the mobility model in the city. This is why no regulations on environmental noise have been approved in the autonomous communities, the state or the European Union. Solving the problem of noise involves making profound modifications to the current mobility model. An analysis of the data of the noise map of Barcelona shows that most streets with a daily traffic flow of over 10,000 veh./day have noise levels of over 70 dBA. These sound levels are clearly attributable to the traffic density in the street in question. In order to reduce the sound level generated by traffic to below 65 dBA, one must significantly reduce the number of vehicles circulating. As a guideline, a reduction of 10 dBA in streets with over 10,000 veh./day requires a tenfold reduction in traffic, assuming that the sound emission of each of these vehicles responds to the current standard technical characteristics. Of course, the reduction in the number of vehicles decreases the sound level, though it follows a logarithmic function. For example, if in a four-lane street cars are only allowed to drive on two lanes, with the same traffic density the noise level would fall by 3 dBA. These considerations have immediate repercussions on traffic planning, because in order to decrease noise to acceptable levels (< 65 dBA), the reduction in traffic volume is so drastic that it becomes necessary to classify the streets into main routes and those with residual traffic (residents, emergency vehicles, deliveries at restricted times, etc.), which become practically pedestrian streets.

Noise is an environmental variable that for the purposes of management follows the principle “all or nothing”. Again, the proposal of superblocks appears to be the best solution. Indeed, freeing 60% of the road network from through traffic reduces noise in the interior of the intervias to levels of less than 65 dBA during the day and 55 dBA at night. The improvement of the environmental quality through the execution of this proposal would undoubtedly be spectacular. On the main roads of the city carrying through traffic, it is proposed that the programme of soundproofing windows on facades that is today being developed by the Institute for the Urban Landscape should concentrate on the streets that form the basic network for traffic. Following the line that has already be initiated, sound reducing road surfaces should also be included in this network. The problems of clogging of the sound absorbent surfaces currently used may be solved through the use of new elastic road surfaces with an optimised absorption behaviour and a long useful life. Until now, the attempts to reduce environmental noise have shown few results and the proposals have been defensive. In urban spaces where the daytime equivalent sound level is over 65 dBA (approximately 50% of Barcelona; above this level the intelligibility of a conversation at a distance of one metre without shouting is less than 100%), the urban quality suffers. With the proposal of superblocks, most of the public space in the intervias (the spaces between the basic roads) has lower noise levels. More importantly, with the proposals included here for the public space and urban biodiversity, particularly the proposal of green roofs, it is intended to create a programme for generating sound scenarios. The attraction of avifauna, particularly insect-eating birds, would create a new sound scenario that in some places could be mixed with the sound of running water to create sound microclimates of great environmental quality.

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STABILITY, SOCIAL COHESION, CO-DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY FOR ANTICIPATION

STABILITY As stated above, in the metropolis the complexity increases overall, but if we analyse the parts of which the present-day city is composed, we find that they have a reduced diversity because of their functional zoning. The homogeneity of the single-function zones of the city is the prime cause of most of the malfunctions of our urban systems. Functional zoning places the same things in the same spaces. The study of the increases or decreases of the mixture-the mixticity or the diversity in a given territory-reveals some of the potential malfunctions of the system, as well as the elements that give it stability. Indeed, the analysis of diversity gives an idea of who occupies the space and the probability of exchanges and relations between the components with information within the system. If one chooses a similar surface of space in a compact city, the value of diversity is higher than that in the diffuse city. This is easy to understand because the diffuse city gives each space a predominant-and often almost exclusivefunction. As stated above, workers relate with workers during a large part of the day in large areas called industrial estates; students relate with students on university campuses; housepersons relate with housepersons in residential areas; in the superstores the persons shopping have little contact with others, except those who weigh the food or those at the checkout. We could continue this list to include all the large singlefunction areas of the zoned city, in all of which we would discover a reduced diversity. This is the model of organisation of the city that planners in the course of the twentieth centuryand particularly those of the Modern Movement-considered the best way to rationalise urban space and to respond to the incompatibility of functions in the same space. The application of the functionalist model reveals profound unsolved malfunctions. The spaces with a predominant function are left deserted and without life in certain time periods (certain times of day, holidays, etc.). The separation of functions leads to a social segregation because it brings groups with similar attributes together in different spaces. People are segregated particularly by their income level and by ethnic group, religion, etc. The functionalist model therefore generates instability.

SLOWNESS AND STABILITY

The analysis of certain realities allows us to deduce that the social segregation that is observed in the peripheral areas and part of the centre of our cities is leading to certain problems of instability: lack of security, social exclusion and civil disobedience. In these spaces we find a low diversity of incomes, qualifications and professions, in addition to shortcomings in the associative network and in other aspects normally associated with diversity. It is also found that the energy flows that are used to maintain the structure and order are weak, and consequently the organisation becomes unbalanced. On the other hand, in the parts of the compact city in which the values of diversity are high, these problems are less acute. In fact, to increase the diversity is to impregnate the area of land in question with a city full of opportunities, information exchange, and control of the future through the generation of stability. The systems composed of heterogeneous parts include more recurring regulating circuits. The stability is sustained precisely by the existence of recurring regulating circuits. The mixture of diverse people in the same space, as we have seen in CerdĂ 's Eixample, in which different incomes, trades, qualifications, etc. live in the same building or in close proximity, is the guarantee of survival of these systems because it provides stability and maturity. Furthermore, a greater diversity of uses in a specific area, i.e. a greater mixture and density of uses (residence, services, economic activities, facilities, etc.) provides the right context because it increases the exchanges of information and consequently allows the creation of channels of energy flow that sustain the complex organisation. In the same sense, there is an increase in the associative network. However, one must also consolidate and increase the strategies of cooperation between the public sector and the non-profit sector, in order to promote civic participation, volunteer work and the coordination of efforts. One must foster and facilitate the development of civic networks as one moves towards participatory budgets.

The process of introduction of new urbanised spaces is necessarily slow in order to fit together and interrelate their different components in a time arrow pointing towards increasing complexity. In the sectors of the city that have been developed slowly and uninterruptedly, without major disturbances, by consolidating and renewing the supporting structures (for example, the Eixample of Barcelona), the diversity of the components has gradually increased, and consequently the stock of organised information that provides stability and opportunities has increased to the detri-

Explosive growth such as that which has happened in the last 25 years in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona provides a greater input of energy and more opportunities for new colonisation and new starts. However, in more mature structures, a greater number of testimonies of the past tend to be conserved in the same place, including supplementary information. Also, when a great amount of energy is applied in the development of planning, or economic activities are introduced that have an impact on the fabric of activities that has already been structured, etc., there arise disturbances that are capable of destroying information. This normally occurs in discontinuous situations in time and space, and as a consequence of events that can be considered to arise in larger or more developed systems (such as superstores).

SOCIAL COHESION

In addition to the strategies arising from mixture and mixticity, one must also add the ones that meet the basic needs and establish the balances between the various actors in the city: work, housing, education, culture, health, security, etc. must be guaranteed in the solution to the current problems. Creating the conditions for fostering equal opportunities regardless of gender, age, race, religion or physical condition in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;growthâ&#x20AC;? of individuals and groups becomes the guiding function of the social programmes.

CO-DEVELOPMENT

The analytical System-Environment model indicates with a globe where the exploitation of the earth's systems starts and where the polluting impact occurs. The support systems of our cities have been occupied for centuries by human groups who have seen, and continue to see, how the resources are obtained and in some cases how the waste (or polluting industry) arrives, thus degrading or impoverishing the systems that in turn support their organisations. This process, which has increased with globalisation, is leading to an annual increase in the number of environmental refugees, and is one of the main causes of conflict between human groups. The movement of persons in search of survival is growing and is the expression of one of the uncertainties now facing the countries of the first world.

The strategic proposals included in this document (see Diagram 1) that seek to reduce the pressure on the environment also aim, of course, to promote the growth in the organisation of the groups that live in the support systems. The System-Environment model that forms the theoretical basis for defining the BCN model includes the idea of co-development. Despite the difficulties that this involves for a city like Barcelona, it would be appropriate for some of its surpluses, which may be of a varied nature, to be sent to cities in Africa or Latin America. Of course, the transfer of surpluses must include the know-how and the criteria that are included here.

In the countries of the third world the uncertainty has become a harsh reality.

INCREASING THE CAPACITY FOR ANTICIPATION

Some variables of the environment, both local and global, are subject to limits and a lack of flexibility. Therefore, if one wishes to maintain or even increase the organisation of our cities without compromising the future of the urban systems and perhaps of the urban species, one must first understand the reasons for the increase in the uncertainty of the environment and then modify the epistemological bases supporting the transforming action and above all its purpose and direction. This information, this knowledge, must stimulate a rethinking

and a reorganisation of the city in order to respond to the messages sent to us by the environment: this is the so-called capacity for anticipation. Increasing capacity for anticipation necessarily involves first understanding and then revising our way of thinking and acting. The change forces all levels of society to become permeable: individuals and organisations, the new culture of sustainability and the relation to the world, at whatever scale.

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ment of an excessive increase of new structure supported by a waste of land, energy and time and a growing consumption of resources.

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STABILITY AND SOCIAL COHESION

Family economic capacity

Rate of ageing (%)

Foreign population (%)

AGEING

European cities in general and those of the south in particular have a praiseworthy level of co-habitation (it is one of their main assets), though in some cases it has been compromised recently.

The adjoining maps show how the rate of ageing (the ratio of persons over 65 to persons under 14 years of age) is increasing, and this phenomenon is spreading to the whole city except in the area of the Olympic Village. The problems that this involves with regard to social services, health, facilities, mobility and urban dynamism are hard to solve. The rejuvenation of the city is therefore a strategic need.

Co-habitation, living together, is intimately linked to mixture, and the right mix of incomes, qualifications, professions, religions, ethnic groups and races. However, cohabitation also depends on other factors, such as the socio-economic scenario, the formal solution provided for public space and the diversity and the mix of uses and functions in a given urban fabric. As a whole, it allows or fails to allow the public space (the home of all) to be occupied by persons of any social condition (income, age, origin, credo, culture, etc.) at any time of the day. These two conditions give the level of health of a city and are the acid test of whether a space has been rehabilitated, revitalised.

The experience of the Olympic Village from the viewpoint of rejuvenation was a success and should definitely be extended to the 22@ district and the rest of Poble Nou. It would be advisable for all areas of integral rejuvenation (La Sagrera, Trinitat Nova, Ciutat Vella, etc.) to incorporate a rejuvenation programme. In addition to the channelling of young immigrant people to the areas with the highest rates of ageing and/or the areas of renewal, one must stimulate the birth rate with programmes that include funding, services, etc.

Living with conflicts that can be controlled by the community itself provides the framework for developing the essential aspects of civic life, including those that multiply contacts, exchanges and communication, which are indeed those that allow individual and collective growth and foster a sense of belonging, a positive identification with the place, creativity and innovation.

The evolution of the age pyramid is becoming one of the most problematic factors for stability in Barcelona.

Elderly people, however, need a network of specific services that ensure quality of life for this age group, and programmes of social and health care should be increased for people living in their own homes. Day centres should be promoted in order to ensure care and coordination between the home, day centres, hospitals and residential centres in the whole Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. The ageing population makes it necessary to create new places in residential homes for the elderly. In the areas with the highest rates of ageing such as the Eixample, imagination must be used to establish programmes to include young people in the central urban fabric. The combination of social, labour and educational programmes, etc., could allow persons of different ages to share space.

THE MIXTURE OF INCOMES As we have seen, the current tendency of producing city is separating uses and functions spatially and segregating social groups according to their family economic capacity, ethnic group, culture and religion. In the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona the segregation is mainly economic and the new housing estates cater for new residents according to their income. In the conurbation of Barcelona, which has now been practically built, the segregation of incomes took place during the massive immigration of the 1960s and 1970s.

The stabilising effect of placing persons and families with different economic capacities together is well-known. The Eixample and other urban fabrics designed in the 19th century took this into account by including several income levels in the same building. The magnificent results are clear to be seen. In Barcelona in general, and in particular in the areas of integral renewal, the revitalisation programmes must include the mixture of incomes as a priority subprogramme.

IMMIGRATION Since the 1990s (especially towards the end) in our country in general-and in Barcelona in particular-there has been a new flow of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. In the city, the immigrants with a low income are mainly concentrated in Ciutat Vella, creating pockets of population in which survival (everyone's first objective) dominates over other aims. In the early 1990s, before the flood of immigrants, one of the aims of the revitalisation of the historic centre of Barcelona was a mixture of incomes within each neighbourhood of Ciutat Vella.

The newly-arrived residents with higher incomes occupied mainly the periphery, though a few ventured into the centre of these neighbourhoods. The investments made in public space and building were accompanied by ordinary budgets for culture and social compensation policies. Though this was one of the most important processes of this type in Europe, it was partly weakened by the concentration of new residents with low incomes who made it necessary to reconsider the policies.

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URBAN STABILITY BY FOSTERING A BALANCED MIXTURE

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Each community, each urban area has a capacity to hold a limited number of new residents whilst maintaining a permeable mixture of cultures. When the percentage of immigrants goes beyond certain thresholds (however high the income of the new residents is: see the case of the Balearic Islands), mistrust and conflict soon follow. At that time, the stability and social cohesion suffer. Though it is highly complex, immigration must be planned. As we have seen, aspects such as housing, education, political participation, jobs and even the need to rejuvenate our social fabric cannot be ignored. Also, one must foster the mechanisms that favour rights and obligations in equal conditions as well

A HOUSING POLICY ADAPTED TO THE CURRENT PROBLEMS

as providing immigrants with knowledge of Catalan culture. One of the formulas for reducing conflicts that will probably be extended is that of co-development with the main areas of origin of the immigrants. Sharing growth (fair trade, technology, etc.) and establishing suitable bonds of trust and transfer of knowledge, is a long-term project but the only one that follows the principles of solidarity and equity, which are fundamental for the stability of the system. The arrival of new residents is strategic for the dynamics of Barcelona and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, but they must have a variety of incomes, knowledges and cultures.

The current situation of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona is complex. The city has been losing inhabitants since the mid1970s and the population is ageing. Though the number of residents aged 15-30 is the highest in history, and they form the largest group seeking jobs and housing, in the next fifteen years the decline in this age group will coincide with the death of the older age group. If the current dispersal of population in search of "greater quality of life" continues, in this period the city centre is in danger of falling into decadence. Immigrants are coming to fill existing jobs and the moderate number of new ones that would otherwise remain unfilled. Housing prices are high and there are relatively few empty dwellings. In this situation, housing becomes one of the most strategic aspects of the city. The latest studies show that the number of dwellings must be increased in order to satisfy the main groups of house-seekers: persons aged 18 to 35 years who wish to leave the parental home, and immigrants. The areas undergoing integral remodelling must resolve part of the problems, which are complex and cannot be solved by the mechanisms of the market. The factors involved are sensitive and problematic: an integral solution to the problems of ageing, immigration, employment and housing must achieve a balance of ages in all urban areas, a non-conflictive mixture of immigrants in all districts, economic growth, and selfcontained employment in the city. In the areas undergoing integral remodelling one must seek a balance between residential and commercial uses that provides stability and allows the city to be created. In order to provide solutions to the lack of housing and the rejuvenation of the town, the 22@ district must significantly increase the number of dwellings in the remodelled area. In view of the situation, the intervention of the public administration in the housing market is inevitable. It must apply a public policy against speculation and seek innovative solutions to encourage renting, foster the active

policy of public housing at the service of young people and low-income families, and provide independent dwellings with common services for the elderly and people with physical disabilities. Otherwise, large parts of the city will fall into decadence (this has already happened in other cities) and will be occupied by the tertiary sectors and large buildings. Furthermore, public policies must be based on the following criteria: •

Tax incentives for rehabilitation and rented housing

•

Modulation of capital gains

•

Development of stricter regulations on sustainability and habitability

•

Penalties for unoccupied or abandoned dwellings

RATIO OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES

Ratio of university graduates (%)

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STABILITY AND SOCIAL COHESION

EDUCATION, CHANGES IN THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL REVITALISATION The level of school failure, or rather the level of failure of schools, is high in specific areas. In the neighbourhoods of the coastal strip (except the Olympic Village) and those parallel to the River Besòs, it is exceptionally high. The challenges of the new information society, access to new technologies, access to urban services, social position, etc. are closely linked to a profound remodelling of schools and educational institutions. The lack of prestige of state schools in general, and especially in the above areas of the city, means that the mixture of children from families with different incomes does not take place. Children from families with average incomes are sent to study in the schools in the northwest of the city. One of the consequences of this is that the percentage of young people who obtain university degrees in the low-income areas is significantly lower. Furthermore, the lack of quality perceived in schools is a dissuasive factor for certain couples with children who could choose to live in areas undergoing revitalisation. The “growth” of the population, in the sense of having more opportunities in all fields of life, is linked to growth in the number of university graduates who train and live in a given area of the city. The desired mixture of incomes, as one of the fundamental factors of stability and social cohesion, may come about due to the choice of persons with different incomes to live in a given neighbourhood, or due to the education of children who later obtain university degrees and live in the same neighbourhood. There is a clear link between university degrees and income levels because of the employment opportunities that they provide. People who have accumulated information for long periods of time, through qualifications or professions that require a high level of knowledge, are less affected by the cyclic components of the economy and the declines in production. During periods of general decline in production, the less-skilled workers (and urban areas with a lower density of knowledge) suffer more from declining employment. Schools are therefore a strategic catalyst for social cohesion from all points of view: employment, mixture of incomes, access to the city, etc. depend on a sufficient number of places in state schools and high-quality education. The profound change in the educational institutions, however, will involve a new education programme and the social recognition of teachers, which will come about through a thorough renewal of the teaching staff and the mechanisms for supporting and training them; a change in the school structure, in coordination with the services offered by the city (social services, waste collection, parks and gardens, etc.)

and with the civil society, especially at neighbourhood level; and finally a change in the structure to adapt it to the knowledge society. Firstly, the education programme, which must be one of the basic lines in the process of revitalisation of specific areas of Barcelona, must be fostered through an educational renewal that increases our capacity to anticipate the uncertainties outlined above. This capacity for anticipation is based on an awareness (in fact, people are the world's awareness) that we are the masters of our own destiny, and whether or not we guarantee the future depends on each one of us. Secondly, the education programme must be dynamic, adapt to the knowledge of individuals and train them to deal with the changing reality. Thirdly, specialised knowledge must be contextualised in systemic thought. Fourthly, reality is the best school, learning is a coherent motor of action, and the urban reality is the most complex system created by man. The education must be the gateway to the city and to its services, whether or not they are virtual. Fifthly, in the educational renewal learning must have no age or limits. The project of transforming the educational institutions requires the support of a modernised network of libraries, a network of language-teaching centres, and a cable network that reaches everyone, giving all citizens e-mail accompanied by digital literacy campaigns.

EMPLOYMENT

The educational programme incorporates a set of specific lines of action for environmental communication that are presented in the document â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Civic Commitment for Sustainabilityâ&#x20AC;?.

The development of the economic lines laid out above, together with the rest of the measures of the various lines of action, must guarantee the future employment of the citizens of Barcelona. However, in the active employment policies a major effort must be made through specific plans aimed at unemployed persons over the age of 45, young persons and some groups threatened with exclusion. The unemployed must be helped to actively seek employment, and specific plans must be created to reduce the difference in the employment rate of men and women. Considering the current deterioration in employment quality, one must establish regulations that foster quality employment in all companies (including the special employment centres for integration in employment) by improving employment stability, security, working time, contractual conditions and participation.

must be reinforced. Also, the required professional and social profiles must be identified. Furthermore, in order to flesh out the model of the knowledge city, it is strategic to increase the number of informationdense jobs, because people who are able to carry them out have greater opportunities to find another in periods of recession. During certain periods, long-term planning will be necessary to integrate a significantly higher number of immigrants into employment. Finally, self-containment-i.e. the number of jobs in a given municipality filled by people from the same municipalitymust increase. Therefore, the areas of integral renewal, such as the 22@ district, must incorporate mechanisms for promoting proximity between homes and jobs.

The role of Barcelona Activa in promoting new activities and business start-ups, and as the coordinating body of the institutions involved at the various stages of business start-ups,

HEALTH SERVICE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL COMPENSATION PROGRAMMES

In this area one must guarantee equal opportunities, avoiding discrimination by gender, age, race, religion, physical condition, etc. One must support the universal public health system and reduce inequalities in the health of the population for socio-economic or geographic reasons (districts) or for reasons of gender or physical condition. Social protection should be extended to the sectors in need, and programmes should be set up to fight poverty, paying special attention to the Basic Social Income. One must also reduce the number of avoidable and premature deaths by reinforcing and innovating preventive medicine programmes (public health, drug dependence, school absenteeism, accidents in the home, traffic accidents, etc.) aimed at the general public and at the causes of social exclusion in specific groups. The promotion of healthy lifestyles (physical exercise, decrease in the consumption of toxic substances, etc.), the promotion of consumption of food produced by ecological cultivation and a healthy and balanced nutrition are essential to the aim of improving public health.

CIVIC SECURITY

The set of programmes presented here, and particularly preventive measures, are strategic objectives for fighting the lack of civic security. However, as the Charter of Barcelona states, the justice services must be reorganised in order to avoid recidivism by fostering fast trials and the coordination between institutions and bodies linked to security and justice.

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION

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INDICATORS THAT CHARACTERISE THE COMPACT, COMPLEX, EFFICIENT AND STABLE MEDITERRANEAN CITY MODEL Some time ago hundreds of people were employed in the drawing up of urban indicators. This state of euphoria has now cooled down somewhat. When one analyses the content of the lists one realises that the classification of reality by sectors tends to coincide in most of the A21s, but not in the indicators, which “indicates” that something is wrong. The number of indicators proposed to characterise each reality is enormous-in fact, it would give us a list of several thousands, which questions the very concept of indicators. The aim of the indicators must be to monitor the models over time. As the urban models are intentional, the indicators show to what extent the changes that have occurred are adapted to the initial intention. In this document we propose a limited number of indicators with the intention of characterising and creating the model of Barcelona. A more detailed presentation of the indicators that affect the processes of urban development, adapted to the proposed model of a Mediterranean city, has been drawn up by the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona for the City Council of Seville and can be found at www.ecourban.net. Furthermore, for each of the strategic outlines (the partial models included here of water, waste, energy, etc.) a number of synthetic indicators must be proposed to allow them to be monitored.

I N D I C A T O R S

1. INDICATORS OF COMPACTNESS 1.1. Compactness: C This indicator is close to the idea of building density or building efficiency in relationship to the consumption of land.

1.2. Corrected compactness Cc For a given unit of urban area, the indicator CC is calculated:

This indicator corrects the value of the compactness C, on the understanding that it is not consubstantially good because an excessive compactness may have negative effects for the interests of the city. The replacement of the developed area by the area in green spaces and spaces for cohabitation or spending time allows one to know, for a given urban area, the balance between building and free spaces and spaces for relations.

2. INDICATORS OF COMPLEXITY 2.1. Complexity: H The measure of H and its evolution is the main indicator of urban knowledge, as it is a measure that synthesises the density of information and at the same time its diversity. It is also a measure of the organised information because the calculation of H could be a measure of information noise if the components of the message were not organised. It is a measure of the organised information because each of the information carriers (legal entities involved in the message) renews its â&#x20AC;&#x153;survivalâ&#x20AC;? each day by fighting against disappearance. Its permanence is the guarantee that the measure of H is a measure of information rather than noise. The information content calculated as the logarithm of the combinations indicates the useful amount of information if the system is organised and forms a useful message, or it indicates the useful amount of confusion if it is not organised (Margalef, 1991). As Margalef stated, when measures of information are proposed for a limited and defined purpose, it is more honest and realistic to use a less committed name such as complexity. Complexity is measured using Shannon's formula and forms part of the theory of information: H expresses the number of bits of information per individual. Pi is the probability of occurrence; it indicates the number of members of the community that fulfil a specific criterion. The maximum H in a given community is obtained with the maximum differentiation of the information carriers and the maximum equifrequency of each one.

The distribution of the @ workspaces and the other workspaces (called high and low technology and knowledge by TrullĂŠn) allows the two figures to be distributed over the region. The relative intensity of @ distributed over the region in comparison with the average for Barcelona could give us the degree of intensity of @ occupations in the different zones of research in Barcelona. There are many other indicators (qualifications, professions, etc.) that involve individual attributes, and indicators (degree of tertiarisation, volume of activities, etc.) that are interesting but only complementary to the above ones, which are intended to be more synthetic.

3. Indicator of urban efficiency E is the consumption of primary energy in the urban system that synthesises the consumption of all the resources, including the materials that need energy for their extraction, transformation and disposal. H is the value of the indicator of complexity, i.e. of the organised information in the urban system. Ef therefore indicates the amount of energy (resources) that is necessary to maintain a given urban organisation H. The evolution of Ef shows the degree of efficiency of the

system, and consequently whether or not we are moving towards a more sustainable process.

4. Indicators of urban balance and stability 2.2. Dense complexity in technology and knowledge: H@ This indicator gives the degree of maturity in relation to the @ activities that are based there. The measure of a territory indicates the agglomeration, and at the same time the diversification, i.e. the degree of structuring of the activities @ in each urban area. For the development of the indicator a separate database from the general database of information carriers including only the @ activities was created. The comparison of H@ and H shows whether or not an urban system is evolving towards the knowledge society.

2.3. Occupation of the @ activities Employment is one of the basic indicators of the model, because the @ activities attract a greater number of qualified persons and a greater intensity of R&D in the final value of the production.

It might be thought that complexity is best in all cases. This is not strictly true, if the main aim is to maintain the urban organisation and everything that this involves. An increase in the tertiary sector (however @ it may be) that empties the city of inhabitants would, of course, be a catastrophe for the city. Consequently, though here they are only mentioned, one must achieve in all the areas of the city balanced proportions of uses and urban functions (housing, business, free space, etc.), a suitable mixture of generations, a suitable mixture of incomes and qualifications, and a suitable mixture of immigrants and locals. The calculations of these proportions are simple because the expression is the percentage of each component in the mixture. In some cases, the use of other indices can complete the simpler percentages. In the area of health, the life expectancy at birth is probably the synthetic indicator; in the area of income it is the Index of Family Economic Capacity (IFEC); in the area of the mixture of uses it is the number of legal entities per 1000 inhabitants. The rate of occupation and victimisation are two measures that provide a synthesis of the realities to be followed.

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The building density is related to the area that characterises isolation in civic life: green spaces, squares, pavements with a minimum width.

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I N S T R U M E N T S

Each of the outlines included here is a technical proposal requiring a set of legal, economic, organisational and educational instruments in order to meet its objectives. For example, for waste management an effort is being made to separate organic matter and the rest of the waste fractions through educational and communication campaigns, but a series of organisational aspects have also been developed: the New Contract is a civic agreement for the cleaning and recycling of waste, and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;ecoparksâ&#x20AC;? and the restoration of the Garraf landfill site have been funded by the European cohesion funds. In the near future, when all the waste recovery facilities are in operation, regulations must be established to limit the generation of mass waste. In addition to the specific instruments of each aspect (mobility, area below ground, waste, etc.), which in some cases must be developed in the near future, below we propose a set of general instruments that include and transcend them.

ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS

LEGAL INSTRUMENTS

As the battle for sustainability will be won or lost in cities, and today cities contain 80% of all citizens, it seems highly reasonable that the distribution of the national budgets between the national, regional and local authorities should be modified.

In order to achieve many of the objectives of the various realities presented, part of the current legal system must be modified. However, it is also proposed that a Territorial Law should allow a more sustainable development of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and its municipalities.

The percentages assigned to the local authorities should allow them to face the current and future challenges, which is at present impossible with the funding provided by the State.

This Law of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona should give the metropolitan government competences to attain the objectives set by the model.

The current process by which municipalities are mainly funded by capital gains on property must be halted. The result, as we have seen, is an immense suburbanisation of the territory.

EDUCATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

In the area of European funds it is probably too late to do anything, but it is clear that the funds assigned to transport (theoretically 50% of the cohesion funds) could have been used for a more sustainable model of mobility.

It has been said that the battle for sustainability will be won or lost in cities, and it has been seen that one of the conditions for victory is that citizens take charge of their existence and participate responsibly in the process.

ORGANISATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

This premise forces one to reconsider regulated and unregulated training programmes for people of all ages. It also forces one to create suitable educational scenarios for increasing the capacity for anticipation at various scales, which is currently so limited.

The close relationship between the individual elements in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the consequences of failing to deal with the problems in a holistic fashion make it necessary to create a metropolitan government to meet the great challenges of planning and the environmental, economic and social issues. This government must incorporate, for example, such important aspects as the management of all the rail networks, or rather the management of integral mobility. This proposal makes it necessary to reorganise the current institutional bodies. Furthermore, after the Rio Summit there is a need to create mechanisms of participation and e-government both for citizens and for the civil society.

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THE INSTRUMENTS OF THE MODEL

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As stated initially, the proposals of this document are congruent with the contents of the Agenda 21 of Barcelona and incorporate objectives and strategic lines that the Civic Commitment for Sustainability establishes for the period 2002-2012. In order to highlight the connections, the objectives and lines of action of each strategic proposal of the model are specified below.

O B J E C T I V E S Objectives of the Agenda 21 of Barcelona - Civic Commitment for Sustainability 1.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones

To reduce the production of waste and to foster the culture of reuse and recycling

To increase social cohesion, reinforcing the mechanisms of equity and participation

To foster economic activity oriented towards sustainable development

To make progress in the culture of the sustainability through education and environmental communication

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation

The model of mobility based on superblocks

The model of public space based on superblocks

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4, 6, 9 and 10.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 3. Pending in the streets of Barcelona.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 3 and 4.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects directly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects mainly the lines of action: 5 and 6.

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 3.

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 2 and 5.

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects directly the lines of action: 4, 6, 7 and 9.

The building strategies 2.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

To increase social cohesion, reinforcing the mechanisms of equity and participation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 8.

7. To increase social cohesion, reinforcing the mechanisms of equity and participation. This affects directly the lines of action: 6.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4 and 7.

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OBJECTIVES AND LINES OF ACTION OF THE CIVIC COMMITMENT FOR SUSTAINABILITY (CCS) OF THE AGENDA 21 OF BARCELONA (A21) INCORPORATED IN THE MODEL OF MOBILITY BASED ON SUPERBLOCKS

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The design of the underground city 1.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 6.

The polynuclear network of compact cities and towns in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona 1.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 3 and 5.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3 and 10.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2 and 8.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2 and 10.

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 5 and 8.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4.

The model of land occupation 1.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 2. To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 2. To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8 (extended to the consumption of land).

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4.

The proposal of new centrality areas 2.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2 and 3.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2 and 5.

To foster economic activity oriented towards sustainable development. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 4 and 10.

The strategic lines for economic development 8.

To foster economic activity oriented towards sustainable development. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

The movement of legal entities and goods in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona 2.

To defend the compact and diverse city, with a public space of quality. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 2.

To improve mobility and to make the street a welcoming environment. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10.

The biodiversity and the green network in the urban area 1. To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. 10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4.

To protect the free spaces and biodiversity and to extend the urban greenery. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10.

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 2.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4 and 6.

The model of waste 5.

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9.

To reduce the production of waste and to foster the culture of reuse and recycling. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9 and 10.

The proposal of conservation and management of the demand for water 4.

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 2 and 3.

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3 and 9.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action:: 2 and 3.

The energy generation and management

The proposals of stability and social cohesion

4. To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1 and 5.

To increase social cohesion, reinforcing the mechanisms of equity and participation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10.

To foster economic activity oriented towards sustainable development. This affects mainly the lines of action: 7.

To preserve the natural resources and promote the use of renewable ones. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4 and 5.

The proposal to reduce atmospheric pollution 4.

9. To make progress in the culture of the sustainability through education and environmental communication. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 8 and 9.

To achieve optimum levels of environmental quality and to become a healthy city. This affects mainly the lines of action: 1, 5 and 6.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 4, 5 and 7.

The proposal of urban stability and promotion of mixticity 7.

To increase social cohesion, reinforcing the mechanisms of equity and participation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 8 and 10.

10. To reduce the impact of the city on the planet and to promote international cooperation. This affects mainly the lines of action: 8, 9 and 10.

To consult The Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Commintment towards Sustainability - A21 BCN www.bcn.es/agenda21

B A R C E L O N A , A C O M PA C T A N D C O M P L E X M E D I T E R R A N E A N C I T Y. A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E V I S I O N F O R T H E F U T U R E

The biodiversity: the green network and ecological connectors in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.

LLIBRE SALVA 07 ANGLES

29/6/07

13:31

Pรกgina 88

"The Barcelona that w as always, but not quite and functions, efficient and

Preamble of The People's Commitmen

we need is the mixed city we have known all our lives, compact, as dense as before and now; a new city with diverse people d progressive, competitive yet co-operative."

nt towards Sustainability. Agenda 21 of Barcelona