Experimenting community impact evaluation (CIE) for assessing urban regeneration programmes: The case study of the area 22@ Barcelona

Abstract

Urban regeneration is a complex and multi-faceted process. It can be defined a comprehensive and integrated vision of actions which aims to tackle urban problems and to improve the economic, social and environmental conditions. These strategies also involve several stakeholders which have different powers, interests and objectives in the transformation processes. Integrated evaluation tools are able to consider the multidimensionality of the urban context and the feedback of the different actors involved. These tools are mainly of use for the decision makers. This paper explores the use of Community Impact Evaluation (CIE) which is a multi-actor methodology that aims at defining the convenience of complex projects according to the social preferences expressed by different members of the community. In this paper, the CIE methodology is applied in a peculiar way in order to assess the different impacts generated by the 22@ Barcelona project, considering the effects at the different scales and over time. A synthetic analysis is conducted in order to estimate the nature and the intensity of the impacts among the different stakeholders. The evaluation shows the role of economic interest in urban regeneration processes and how the change in the political local context allowed a review of project.