Barcelona City Council Research Articles

A methodology for prioritizing sustainable development goals targets at the local level: The case of Barcelona City Council

AbstractThe implementation of the 2030 Agenda relies heavily on the active involvement of local governments. The concept of “Localization”—the process of adapting and customizing the SDGs and translating them into local development plans and strategies—has gained prominence as governments address emerging challenges, necessitating innovative approaches. Practical insights from local governments are essential for guiding others in this process. A key debate focuses on “prioritization,” emphasizing the need to focus on a specific set of SDG targets based on available resources, the local government's experience with sustainable policies or the normative framework in which it operates. Prioritization is crucial to prevent fragmentation of efforts that could hinder the local government's contribution to the 2030 Agenda. This paper aims to introduce a methodology for prioritizing SDG targets within local governments. Using a multicriteria analysis tool, the paper shows the process undertaken by the Barcelona City Council to cluster the SDG targets around four priority groups based on four criteria: (i) distance to the goal, (ii) strategic coverage, (iii) normative competence, and (iv) budgetary effort. The prioritization approach contributes to a better monitoring and evaluation process to assess progress towards the SDGs and enhance collaborative efforts across municipal policy and management levels. The findings provide valuable insights and serve as a reference for other local governments aiming at contributing to the 2030 Agenda. The approach is adaptable and can be applied to different subnational governments by tailoring to their specific scope and requirements of the context of application.

Towards a Retailess City? A Comparative Analysis of the Retail Desertification between a Global and a Local Commercial Strips in Barcelona

The relationships between the circuits of the urban economy and retail desertification are analysed based on two retail strips in Barcelona: Passeig de Gràcia, a central hub with global reach, and the Sants-Creu Coberta strip, which responds to the demand for consumption on a local, everyday scale. The hypothesis is that the relationships between these circuits and retail desertification behave differently depending on their relative position in the city with respect to consumption flows. This is tested with a one-to-one analysis of the uses of ground floor premises in both strips for 2016 and 2021, using data from the Commercial Censuses of the Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Provincial Council, respectively. Each ground floor premises is classified as superior, lower or vacant, which allows the process to be mapped from 2016 to 2021 for each of the premises. The article provides, first and foremost, an original systematisation of the behaviour, relationships, and observed forms between the circuits and desertification, and secondly, it demonstrates the differential behaviour of these relationships and forms through case studies, indicating that retail desertification is the main cause of economic and landscape change.

Application of a new municipal management model of Home Care Service in Barcelona: Assessment of workers' labour conditions, health, and well-being.

In 2018, Barcelona City Council implemented a pilot phase of an organisational change in the municipal home care service (HCS) system. Inspired in the Buurtzorg model, the new model promotes the creation of self-managing teams operating in a restricted community setting. To assess the pilot phase of the new model, focusing on employees' working and employment conditions as well as on their health and well-being outcomes. Mixed-methods impact evaluation. First, a quantitative evaluation was conducted between October 2018 and October 2020, using a pre-post study design with one pretest and two posttest measurements in an intervention and a comparison group. The intervention group was composed of the members of the work teams implemented in the pilot phase from October 2018 onwards (baseline n = 44). The comparison group consisted of workers from the same districts working under the usual HCS system (baseline n = 72). Next, a qualitative study was conducted in workers from the intervention group in winter 2021-2022 (n = 10). The pre-post study results yielded positive changes for the intervention group in social support and autonomy, as well as in many of the employment conditions. This group also experienced increases in psychological demands, painful positions, fatigue and psychological distress. Two main themes affecting workers' well-being emerged from the interviews: factors inherent to the self-management model and external factors. Health and well-being outcomes seem to depend on the balance between job demands, resources, and ways of channelling conflicts within teams.

Sanctuary city success? How attitudes towards irregular migrants and urban policy differ in Barcelona

In 2012, Barcelona City Council introduced a new city agency that would provide housing and resources for migrants and refugees living within their city—irregular migrants. This esteemed sanctuary city policy further integrated irregular migrants into city life; however, how did natives respond to this effort? Through a difference in differences methodological approach and public opinion survey data from 2008 to 2017, I provide evidence of more positive native attitudes towards irregular migrants and immigration policy. I speculate that the increase in positive perceptions occur due to contact theory. While a single-case study, these findings provide hope for how city governments feeling the burden of the ongoing refugee crisis can adequately provide support for their irregular migrant populations without fear of backlash from their citizens.

Does urban bus route assignment improve air quality?

Worldwide, one of the most important causes of mortality is air pollution. To solve this problem, governments have implemented policies to reduce on-road and industrial emissions. In this regard, the Barcelona city council and Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) started implementing the Nova Xarxa de Bus (NXB) to redefine the bus network following the criteria of connectivity, efficiency, and rationality. This policy was implemented in seven phases from 2012 to 2018. In this context, this paper analyses the impact of this policy on Barcelona’s air quality using a dataset from 2008 to 2016. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we show that implementing these new routes increased air quality in Barcelona. Additionally, we show that pollution decreased in each phase analysed, especially in the air quality stations near the main roads. From our results, we can infer that an optimal bus route design can improve air quality in urban areas.

Schools as climate shelters: Design, implementation and monitoring methodology based on the Barcelona experience

Densely populated cities tend to significantly affect their inhabitants in warm periods as a result of climate change. With approximately 1.6 million inhabitants, Barcelona serves as an example of a city expected to face the impact of climate change. Projections by 2100, the city will witness an increase of 30 additional warm days per year with temperatures exceeding 30 °C, along with a rise in extreme temperatures from 3.5 °C to 42.8 °C.Schools represent spaces of opportunity to transform cities, due to their great potential to deploy strategies to improve extreme conditions and their possible replicability in other buildings and spaces in the city.This article introduces a novel methodology, characterized by its multi-criteria, multi-scalar, and interdisciplinary approach, which demonstrated its effectiveness in the implementation of measures to transform 11 pilot schools into climate shelters, within the expected deadlines and costs. In addition, the necessary information is provided for its replicability and subsequent monitoring.With a budget close to 4 M€, 4.500 kids will benefit from the pilot investments in their school, 1.350 kids will benefit during summer camps hosted in school's playgrounds, 3.000m2 of schoolyards will be transformed and 4.500m2 of urban green areas will be added.The results indicate that three schools improved by over 40%, four by 25%–40%, and four by 25% or less. The methodology and tools developed have been adopted as tools for other projects that are currently being developed by the Barcelona City Council.

Effect of COVID-19 prevention as part of an urban renewal programme

ObjectivesTo address existing inequalities, the Barcelona City Council launched a Neighbourhood Plan in 2016–2020. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Neighbourhood Plan interventions were intensified. This study aimed to assess the effect of the plan on the incidence of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Barcelona. Study designWe used a quasi-experimental design with 16 intervention neighbourhoods and 17 neighbourhoods in the comparison group with similar socioeconomic characteristics. MethodsWe calculated the cumulative incidence rate (CIR) of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants by sex, age groups, and neighbourhood of residence. Poisson regression models were fitted to estimate the crude relative risk and relative risk adjusted by socioeconomic status (cRR and aRR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). ResultsThe CIR of COVID-19 was lower in the intervention neighbourhoods (CIR: 841 per 100,000 inhabitants) than in the comparison group (CIR: 973 per 100,000 inhabitants). On multivariate analysis, the aRR was 0.77 (CI: 0.70–0.83) for men and 0.89 (CI: 0.83–0.96) for women. Among men older than 75 years (aRR = 0.73; CI: 0.62–0.86), statistically significant differences were found in the intervention neighbourhoods compared to the comparison group. This pattern was not observed in women older than 75 years (aRR = 1.13; CI: 0.99–1.30). ConclusionThis research finds positive short-term effect in the intervention neighbourhoods. We conclude that the COVID-19 control and prevention interventions are likely to explain the better performance in the neighbourhoods included in the Neighbourhood Plan.

Barcelona City Council in collaboration with Academia Europaea Presentation of the Hypatia European Science Prize, on 27 October 2022, in the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall, to Professor Nancy Cartwright

Barcelona City Council in collaboration with Academia Europaea Presentation of the Hypatia European Science Prize, on 27 October 2022, in the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall, to Professor Nancy Cartwright

Daily Space

Three articles in this issue of Arquitecturas del Sur are dedicated to collective housing, as the housing shortage has led to new and better forms of citizen participation in its solution. The Indigenous Temporary Accommodation in Florianopolis handles an essentially Latin American problem: access for Indigenous people to protected state housing. In this case, the presence of the city’s original inhabitants examines the possibilities of physical and symbolic spaces in the contemporary city and the professional role that looks into the responses. Next, the text on collaborative housing analyzes the case of Spain, and its relationship with public management mechanisms. The case of Gran Canaria looks at mutual aid issues, transfer of use, cooperativism, and citizen participation. In this way, the self-construction system of the Andalusian Junta, a practice that is as effective as it is controversial, and representative of a socialist cooperativism and cohabitation developed by the Barcelona City Council, converge in the debate on cooperative management. The third text looks into one of the latest events disclosed on CORVI’s actions, before its dissolution in 1976. It explores a management model that revealed the role of construction companies as a new player in the habitational process for the case of the Santiago Amengual Neighborhood. A second thematic group in this issue, materialized in its last 3 articles, returns to the structural issues of modern-day architecture, whose presence is diving deeper into the disciplinary debate. The places of memory seem to exceed the margins of an understanding based on heritage discourse. The memory and belonging of daily spaces, turn one to the nodes of memory and collective coherence. This is the case of the Community School – Center of Memory and Integrated Action to Care for the Forest of Galilea and the Territory of Colombia. Likewise, the individual, isolated, and selective expressions examine those unusual experiences where otherness exercises protagonism over experiences in the architecture and city of Santiago de Chile. Finally, revisiting the works of a master like Niemeyer opens the possibility for rereading, through actions based on the Portuguese decisions in two of his works: the urban complex of Pena Furada, in Portugal (1965), and Plaza XV, in Rio de Janeiro (1991).

An urban green space intervention with benefits for mental health: A health impact assessment of the Barcelona “Eixos Verds” Plan

BackgroundMental health disorders account for over 30% of the global burden of disease. There is a positive association between green space exposure and better mental health, and therefore urban greening can be an effective public health tool. Barcelona is a compact city with one of the highest population and traffic densities in Europe, with limited green spaces. Under the umbrella of the Superblock model, the Barcelona City council is implementing the Eixos Verds Plan for extensive street greening. We estimated the potential mental health benefits of this plan. MethodsWe performed a quantitative health impact assessment at the Barcelona grid-cell level (n = 1,096). We compared the baseline green space situation (2015) with the proposed plan and translated the increase in green space into a) percentage of green area (%GA) and b) NDVI. We combined exposure data with Barcelona-specific mental health risk estimates, adult population (n = 1,235,375), and mental health data, and calculated preventable cases. FindingsUnder the Eixos Verds Plan, we estimated an average increase of 5·67 %GA (range: 0·00% − 15·77%) and 0·059 NDVI (range: 0·000 − 0·312). We estimated that with the Eixos Verds Plan implementation, 31,353 (95%CI: 18,126–42,882) cases of self-perceived poor mental health (14·03% of total), 16,800 (95%CI: 6828–25,700) visits to mental health specialists (13·37% of total), 13,375 (95%CI: 6107–19,184) cases of antidepressant use (13·37% of total), and 9476 (95%CI: 802–16,391) cases of tranquilliser/ sedative use (8·11% of total) could be prevented annually, along corresponding to over 45 M € annual savings in mental health costs annually. InterpretationOur results highlight the importance of urban greening as a public health tool to improve mental health in cities. Similar results for green interventions in other cities could be expected.

The policy and political consequences of the B-Mincome pilot project

The idea of universal basic income is recieving increasing attention in the political, media and public agendas. This policy proposal constitutes a radical departure from the orthodox welfare rationale of giving to those in need, or attaching conditions to welfare support. Given the permutation that a UBI presents, many pilot projects and field experiments are being carried out globally to test the effects of this novel policy idea. Key questions arise from these developments: are the lessons learned from these experiments being fed back into the policy process? Are the pilot project results guiding and informing policymakers? Overall, can we observe any political effects of such scientific efforts? I address these questions through a qualitative case study analysis of the B-Mincome project. Through an in-depth analysis of this pilot, some of the key factors influencing the (limited) policy and political effects of the pilot project have been identified. The B-Mincome case study shows that the barriers to policy change were in place well before the pilot, and evidently, remained unaltered by it. The political landscape in Barcelona's City Council, its economic powers and institutional context were unchanged by the pilot, and in fact shaped the pilot design, moving it away from the UBI proposal. The B-Mincome experience illustrates the need to accommodate the pilot design to the politics and economics of the experiment, and shows the unintended consequences that such an adaptation of the pilot design may have in relation to its original objectives. In the case of Barcelona, this has meant a move away from a UBI-style pilot design, resulting in very limited effects on the debate or policy design of cash transfers, having a greater policy impact on active polices instead. However, by taking a broader look at Spanish and Catalan politics, our analysis has shown that unexpected factors may end up triggering a debate much more effectively than a pilot project.

Use of Fertility Control (Nicarbazin) in Barcelona: An Effective yet Respectful Method towards Animal Welfare for the Management of Conflictive Feral Pigeon Colonies.

Simple SummaryFeral pigeon is one of the most common urban species worldwide. Living free in urban areas, pigeons have found a favorable environment with the conditions to have a high fertility, thus leading to overcrowding, which causes thousands of millions in damages yearly. The management of overpopulated pigeon colonies presents numerous challenges, and several methods have been proposed and used. In recent decades, the concern in the society about animal welfare has grown, and now demands non-lethal methods in the management of wildlife, especially in cities. The management of feral pigeons in Barcelona, Spain, used to be carried out, like in many cities, by capture and elimination. However, as this method has been proven to be ineffective and the public concern about animal welfare has increased, in 2016, the Barcelona City Council decided to change the management towards a fertility control method. This study describes and evaluates, during three years, an efficient fertility control protocol that is able to reduce the number of pigeons in the treated colonies by 55.26% at the end of the study. The results of this study provide animal management administrations and companies with a non-lethal protocol to control pigeon populations while respecting animal welfare.This study describes a three-year evaluation (2017–2019) of a fertility control protocol using nicarbazin (Ovistop®) to reduce the abundance of the most conflictive colonies of feral pigeon, Columba livia var. domestica, in Barcelona, Spain, as a long-term strategy based on animal welfare. The treatment was supplied to 34 pigeon colonies by automatic hopper feeders installed in public areas. A superiority study and a population monitoring study were carried out to evaluate differences in the abundance of the colonies, as well as the proportion of juveniles, the possible intake of nicarbazin by non-target species and the movement of individuals among colonies. The results showed statistical differences in the population trends between the test (−22.03%) and control (+12.86%) groups, and a significant steady decreasing trend in the pigeon abundance (−55.26%) was registered until the end of 2019. The proportion of juveniles was significatively lower in the test colonies, and a non-target species (Eurasian collared doves, Streptopelia decaocto) was observed consuming in a residual form. The protocol using nicarbazin is able to both control the abundance of pigeons, with no impact over non-target species, and respond to the public interest about animal welfare by providing an ethical method to manage overabundant and/or conflictive populations.

Changing the Landscape of the City Outskirts. Bon Pastor (Barcelona)

The paper presents the territorial and axiological context and the peculiarities of the participatory project developed by the Polis Research Centre and the Bon Pastor Neighbourhood Association, as well as the first steps in the design of two interventions. The first intervention, the Wall and Party Walls in Rodriguez de la Fuente Square, is proposed within the framework of the sustainable development strategies of Barcelona City Council. Its main objective is to achieve thermal insula­tion of the affected dwellings, thus contributing to the well being of the residents and to the reduc­tion of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Besides, it is aimed to solve landscape discontinuity. In the lower part of the party walls, there is a wall, a kind of plinth that the residents have chosen as a site for the expansion of the work on the civic remembrance of the neighbourhood. There, the “Living Memory” space will be set up, reserved for interventions by children from the quarter’s schools through a work programme run in cooperation with them. The second intervention is the case of the centennial Mulberry Tree classified as a tree of local interest. In 2018, the mulberry tree suffered some damage from thugs who threw firecrackers inside. Therefore, the need was pointed out to reorganise the space around the tree in order to create dissuasive effects and preserve its integrity. These are preliminary studies to be discussed by the agents involved in the project: the Sant Andreu District, the IMPUQV (Institut Municipal del Paisatge Urbài la Qualitat de Vida), and the Bon Pastor Neighbourhood Association.

Governmentality, the Local State, and the Commons: An Analysis of Civic Management Facilities in Barcelona

This article deploys the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to study the political tensions that may unfold when commons are enacted through hybrid institutional configurations. We focus on civic management facilities (CMFs) that are located in the city of Barcelona. These are facilities owned by Barcelona City Council which, responding to organised citizens’ demands, are transferred to them so that they can develop their own transformative projects for the community. The hybrid institutional nature of these CMFs makes it impossible for them to avoid maintaining a relationship with the local state. Based on a survey to 51 CMFs, semi‐structured interviews with 41 grassroots members of CMFs and seven semi‐structured interviews with public employees and politicians, we argue that hybrid forms of commons lead to the development of political tensions. On the one hand, we show how the local state’s administrative procedures—to do with accountability and the use of public space—reshape the activities of the CMFs, leading to the depoliticisation of their transformative projects. On the other hand, the analysis also presents the strategies of resistance articulated by the facilities, which enable members to work towards the development of their transformative aims. We conclude that such political tensions cannot be resolved but must be properly governed in order to make the commons’ transformative project an enduring one.

Residential Vulnerability of Barcelona: Methodology Integrating Multi-Criteria Evaluation Systems and Geographic Information Systems

This article presents the methodology and results of a pioneering investigation in the determination and mapping of socio-residential vulnerability in the city of Barcelona according to a multi-criteria synthetic analysis. The methodology followed is based on a system of indicators elaborated from the exploitation of habitual statistical Open Data complemented with specific unprecedented data elaborated and supplied by the Barcelona City Council. The analysis is based on secondary data and it is structured in georeferenced axes, components, and indicators, which allow determination of the sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and urban and residential space characteristics at neighborhood, population census unit, and urban block level. The objective of the research was to detect, determine, and establish a measure of differentiation relative to the degree of residential vulnerability of some neighborhoods with respect to others, in order to seek prioritization measures for action in the most vulnerable areas. The results of the research provide a series of maps that allow us to define the areas where the highest levels of vulnerability indicators coincide according to a synthetic multi-criteria analysis.

Participation and deliberation in language policy: the case of gender-neutral language

ABSTRACT This paper investigates language policy formation through participatory and deliberative methods and, more concretely, the regulation of gender-neutral language in Barcelona City Council (Spain). Through an argumentative approach to policy, the paper examines a specific language policy idea, process and solution, and the accompanying discursive argumentation used by decision-makers. The paper (a) shows that linguistic preconceptions and power relations may constitute a potential barrier to effective deliberation on language, and (b) argues that if local modes of governance (as opposed to the centralised role assigned to language academies) are going to be used to prescribe language practices in institutional contexts, arrangements should be put in place to provide access to a full range of views about language, generate reflective judgments and promote a public exchange of arguments. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of this study for the inclusion of deliberation in language policy-making.

When policy and opportunity meet: Barcelona's first gender responsive shelter for homeless drug users

Issue/problemDrug policies in Barcelona have been guided by the Barcelona City Drug Action Plan (PADB). This four-year plan aims to prioritise and evaluate drug policies. The need to have a low-threshold residential resource for homeless people using drugs (HPWUD) is an objective that had been present in successive plans, but unfortunately could not be realised so far. In Spain, the covid-19 pandemic led to a total country lockdown. A great intersectoral coordination effort involving Barcelona City Council and the Public Health Agency of Barcelona together with third sector organisations resulted in the opening of the first gender responsive low-threshold residential resource for HPWUD in Barcelona.Description of the problemPending a broader evaluation, quantitative indicators are available for 6 months (3 April to 3 October 2021), informing about: How many people were accommodated? What are their profiles? What drugs do they use? How many overdoses were reverted? How many successful discharges? How many people confined/isolated due to covid-19? What are the challenges?ResultsPreliminary results showed that during first 6 months, 120 people (74 men, 42 women and 4 non-binary) were accommodated. All places reserved for women were covered. About 44% were Spaniards; being opioids and alcohol, the main used in the HPWUD. Thirty overdoses reverted (60% due to stimulants). There were 39 people confined and 2 residents isolated due to covid-19. The challenges are to continue to improve the new alcohol harm reduction program, work on adherence and mainstreaming gender.LessonsBarcelona PADB is instrumental to guide evidence-based interventions to reduce health and social inequalities in highly vulnerable and underserved population. This new gender-responsive residential setting for HPWUD with a comprehensive harm reduction program together with health and social care is unique in Barcelona.Key messages Drug policy to guide evidence-based interventions to reduce health and social inequalities in highly vulnerable and underserved population.First low-threshold gender responsive residential resource for homeless people using drugs has opened in Barcelona.

Bolstering community ties as a mean of reducing crime

Recent evidence indicates that alternative policies based on building community can reduce crime, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In this paper we study the effects on local crime rates of bolstering community ties. We take advantage of the quasi-random deployment of a community health policy (Barcelona Salut als Barris, BSaB) that aims to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods through community-based initiatives. To test whether BSaB reduces crime, we follow a difference-in-differences approach and make use of detailed data from local police and Barcelona City Council administrative records. We find that BSaB significantly reduces a category we term “intimate crimes” in the short term and drug crimes in the long term. The young offender crime rate is also lowered. Evidence suggests that this is due to tighter-knit communities. These results provide evidence in favor of non-traditional crime prevention policies.

Cluster Analysis of Urban Acoustic Environments on Barcelona Sensor Network Data.

As cities grow in size and number of inhabitants, continuous monitoring of the environmental impact of sound sources becomes essential for the assessment of the urban acoustic environments. This requires the use of management systems that should be fed with large amounts of data captured by acoustic sensors, mostly remote nodes that belong to a wireless acoustic sensor network. These systems help city managers to conduct data-driven analysis and propose action plans in different areas of the city, for instance, to reduce citizens’ exposure to noise. In this paper, unsupervised learning techniques are applied to discover different behavior patterns, both time and space, of sound pressure levels captured by acoustic sensors and to cluster them allowing the identification of various urban acoustic environments. In this approach, the categorization of urban acoustic environments is based on a clustering algorithm using yearly acoustic indexes, such as , , and standard deviation of . Data collected over three years by a network of acoustic sensors deployed in the city of Barcelona, Spain, are used to train several clustering methods. Comparison between methods concludes that the k-means algorithm has the best performance for these data. After an analysis of several solutions, an optimal clustering of four groups of nodes is chosen. Geographical analysis of the clusters shows insights about the relation between nodes and areas of the city, detecting clusters that are close to urban roads, residential areas and leisure areas mostly. Moreover, temporal analysis of the clusters gives information about their stability. Using one-year size of the sliding window, changes in the membership of nodes in the clusters regarding tendency of the acoustic environments are discovered. In contrast, using one-month windowing, changes due to seasonality and special events, such as COVID-19 lockdown, are recognized. Finally, the sensor clusters obtained by the algorithm are compared with the areas defined in the strategic noise map, previously created by the Barcelona city council. The developed k-means model identified most of the locations found on the overcoming map and also discovered a new area.

When a Movement Becomes a Party: Computational Assessment of New Forms of Political Organization in Social Media

Social media has become a key mechanism for the organization of grassroots movements. In the 2015 Barcelona City Council election, Barcelona en Comú, an emerging grassroots party, was the most voted one. This candidacy was devised by activists involved in the Spanish 15M movement in order to turn citizen outrage into political change. On the one hand, the 15M movement is based on a decentralized structure. On the other hand, political science literature postulates that parties historically develop oligarchical leadership structures. This tension motivates us to examine whether Barcelona en Comú preserved a decentralized structure or adopted a conventional centralized organization. In this article we propose a computational framework to analyze the Twitter networks of the parties that ran for this election by measuring their hierarchical structure, small-world phenomenon and coreness. The results of our assessment show that in Barcelona en Comú two well-defined groups co-exist: a cluster dominated by the party leader and the collective accounts, and another cluster formed by the movement activists. While the former group is highly centralized like traditional parties, the latter one stands out for its decentralized, cohesive and resilient structure.