A brief history of the growth of the Metropolitan area of Barcelona.

The structural pattern of any given area is conditioned by the predominating transport system. For example, the railway, a means of transport limited by movement from and to a specific point within a given network, creates nodes. On the other hand, the motor car with its independent character, freedom from any time restrictions, use of routes adapted to the topography and with its tendency towards high speed, provokes a random and wholesale occupation of road accessible land.

What are and will be the consequences of this in our locality?

Planning of land fit for development in the Metropolitan region

(Source: Barcelona Metropolitan land Plan "Pla Territorial Metropolità de Barcelona")

Sprawling development and its consequences

The urban sprawl of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region was apparent in the early 1970s manifesting itself explicitly towards the end of the decade.

1957 to 1972...

By 1957, 10 000 hectares of Metropolitan Barcelona had been developed, a figure which had grown to about 20 000 by 1972. Thus in fifteen years as much land was developed as had been in the entire previous history of the region.

The following maps show the urban growth during these two periods; firstly, from the Middle Ages up until 1957 , and secondly, the period 1957- 1972. (Source: Pla Territorial Metropolità de Barcelona)

The 1960s represent the period of the opening up of Spain, a time of economic growth, escalating tourism, large population migration, housing developments, second homes and of course the Seat 600. A movement towards the rest of the western world was evident during this period.

...and the "boom" in land development .

The really explosive period of expansion took place during the following 15 years. Between 1972 and 1986, 20 000 hectares had been built on doubling that of the previous 15 years and once again doubling the area developed in the whole of the region's history. By 1986, 40.000 hectares of the Metropolitan area had been built on. Through the application of the 1976 General Metropolitan Plan a degree of control over growth was imposed, leaving the major area of expansion in this period to the 27 municipalities on the outskirts of Barcelona. During this period car ownership was becoming a consumerist common denominator.

Urban sprawl (hectares)

Source: Albert Serratosa, "Els Espais oberts en el planejament metropolità: realitats i propostes"

Town planning logic: land speculation

In 1989, 143 of Metropolitan Barcelona's 162 municipalities had some kind of town planning aimed at regulating their development. The planning logic was ambitious: in each case seeking a position of competition where economic logic reigned supreme over all over considerations in land development. Space became an essential component of consumer growth and therefore of business, disregarding the correlation between urban growth and population growth, which in the past had been respected.

By developing the flat land, the fertile stretches and the river basins, the urban sprawl spreads out in a chaotic manner; a housing estate here, a block of flats there, following the course of a river an industrial estate, beyond that the shopping centre with its immense parking area, etc, etc,. Such is the vision greeting travellers approaching Barcelona at a distance of about 40 km.

...and its consequences

Obviously there is loss of open space, not only a result of the low density of the developments ( in many cases less than that of old established villages), but also a result of the large areas of "no-man's-land" left between one development and another. These neglected expanses are often strewn with urban waste and general debris, representing for the vast majority of the population highly undesirable spaces.

THE "QUART CINTURO": A FACTOR THAT WOULD ENCOURAGE INDISCRIMINATE DEVELOPMENT

The General Land Development Plan for Catalonia (Pla General Territorial de Catalunya ): the root of all evil.

Taking into account the pattern of land development in recent decades along with the proposal laid down in the General Land Development Plan for Catalonia (Pla General Territorial de Catalunya ) to develop all land with a gradient less than 20%, it would be reasonable to assume that the pressure across the metropolitan area to reclassify land formerly not designated for development will escalate.

Flat land is not particularly abundant in Catalonia, which makes all the more serious the segregating effects of its use for transport infrastructures and the resulting destructuring of the open spaces.

So whilst the difficulties of building in the more mountainous areas will facilitate their preservation, lowlands and river basins, especially those in the Vallès and Baix Llobregat, could quickly be converted into endless stretches of suburbia. The same could shortly occur in the Collserola hills if the development of the Sant Cugat-Cerdanyola plan goes ahead.

What will be left of the Vallès ?

The current development policy in the Vallès, with its interpolar ring roads segmenting the access to areas into homogeneous blocks, until now branching out from the Besós river basin, will result in the building development of all available flat land. The "Quart Cinturó", the Mollet interpolar road and the other segmentations planned will guarantee the development of the remaining flat land in the Vallès in record time.

The present building mania shows a blatant lack of sensitivity and a worrying degree of ignorance about world systems, be it in a local or global context. A thorough understanding of eco-systems must be a sine qua non of any ecologically sensitive town or country planning.

Parks are neither "gardens" nor "zoos"

Agricultural and open spaces form a vast reservoir of natural resources with enormous potential in providing food, water, clean air, timber, geological and plant material. By looking after these we will be helping secure our present and future survival. Along with compactly designed cities, these spaces constitute our most valuable resources.

When fragmentation of natural spaces occurs, as is the case with the present road-building policy, species disappear. The subsistence of protected areas often depends on the existence of a large surrounding buffer zone that provides space for movement of species. Such spaces will be directly affected by the construction of the "Quart Cinturó" whose planners have paid no heed to these important considerations.