Abstract
Cities are key actors in the fight against climate change since they are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while at the same time they experience the negative impact of this phenomenon. Mitigating and adapting to climate change requires fundamental changes in urbanism and city automobile traffic. Superblocks, a grid of blocks and basic roads forming a polygon, approximately 400 by 400 m, are one of the instruments for such changes. These type of city Superblocks represent a new model of mobility that restructures the typical urban road network, thereby substantially reducing automobile traffic, and accordingly GHG emissions, while increasing green space in the city and improving the health and quality of life of its inhabitants. Furthermore, the Superblocks do not require investment in hard infrastructures, nor do they involve demolishing buildings or undertaking massive development; they are in fact very low-tech urbanism. The city of Barcelona has been implementing Superblocks as one of the measures to combat climate change with very positive results. The paper analyzes the concept of the Superblock and its relation with climate change in cities. Along these lines, it analyzes the pioneer experience of Barcelona in the development and implementation of the Superblocks, as a radical plan aimed at taking back the streets from cars. The role of political power and institutional leadership has been key in societal acceptance and the achievement of tangible results. But there are also obstacles and drawbacks in the development of these types of Superblocks, such as the necessity to redesign the collective transport network so that car traffic can truly be reduced in cities, the possible negative influence on traffic going in and out of the city, the lack of visible advantages if they are not implemented in the entire city, the risk of gentrification in the areas with Superblocks, public opposition, and opposition from certain sectors of the business community.
Highlights
Climate change is one of the major challenges faced by today’s societies
The human cause of climate change is global warming produced by the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect emitted by manufacturing, consumption and other activities engaged in by our societies today, compounded by the climate’s natural variability [1]
68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by the year 2050 [7] and the number of cars is predicted to double by 2040 [8]. All of this makes mobility in cities a key issue to consider in the fight against climate change, turning cities into agents for change toward a new mobility model that takes this phenomenon into account
Summary
Climate change is one of the major challenges faced by today’s societies. The human cause of climate change is global warming produced by the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect emitted by manufacturing, consumption and other activities engaged in by our societies today, compounded by the climate’s natural variability [1]. 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by the year 2050 [7] and the number of cars is predicted to double by 2040 [8] All of this makes mobility in cities a key issue to consider in the fight against climate change, turning cities into agents for change toward a new mobility model that takes this phenomenon into account. This paper is placed within this context, analyzing the Superblocks, a proposal for urban physical infrastructure as one of the instruments in the fight against climate change It deals with the concept of the Superblock as a new model of mobility that restructures the typical urban road network, which provides solutions to the main problems of urban mobility and improves both the availability and quality of the public space for pedestrian traffic results in decreased traffic, and as such lower emissions of greenhouse gases. The analysis is aimed at critically identifying the barriers and opportunities arising from the implementation of the Superblocks as urban infrastructures that can be used by cities to fight against climate change
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