The LET assess the Urban Master Plan for the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona in the framework of LIFE ‘Urban Greening Plans’ project.
In this project, the LET provides advice to the SRPDU for the Strategic Environmental Study of the PDU through the application of the Integrated Socioecological Analysis (SIA) to the planning scenarios that are considered in the process of preparing the PDU, as well as complying to the commitments acquired in the LIFE project ‘Urban Greening Plans’.
In recent years, the Metropolitan Laboratory of Ecology and Territory of Barcelona (LET) has developed a socio-ecological model of open spaces for the Barcelona metropolitan system (SIA), in close collaboration with the Writing Service of the Urban Master Plan (SRPDU). The SIA model accounts for the multiple dimensions of the contribution of green infrastructure to the metropolitan system (metabolic efficiency, biodiversity conservation, landscape functioning, climate change, supporting ecosystem services, regulation and provisioning, social cohesion), allowing the analysis of the interactions between these dimensions according to the planning model decided upon, considering both changes in land use and in the metabolism of the agrarian system and its potential for ecological transition. The object of the model is to evaluate several scenarios with which the PDU is working, in relation to the multiple functionalities that the metropolitan green infrastructure should have.
In 2018, the methodology and application specificities of the model were defined in order to advise the PDU, considering the impact that various theoretical scenarios of changes in land use would have. In 2019, the methodology was adapted to be able to include changes in agricultural metabolism (according to CCPAE criteria). In 2020 two new dimensions were incorporated
relevant for planning: water metabolism and greenhouse gas emissions, preparing the SEA model for the evaluation of PDU scenarios. In 2021, the model was applied to a green infrastructure proposal, prepared jointly with the SRPDU, and the contribution of the different elements of this proposal to the value of the SIA indicators was analyzed. In 2022, the SIA model will be applied in the evaluation of the PDU scenarios and in the Strategic Environmental Study necessary to proceed with its approval process. On the other hand, the European project LIFE ‘Urban Greening Plans’ has been obtained, which commits the AMB and the LET to apply the SIA model in the evaluation of the Plan’s scenarios and support the technical and political commissions of the PDU.
This project will fulfill the tasks undertaken in the LIFE project ‘Urban Greening Plans’, which will result in a quantitative and cartographic evaluation of the scenarios of the
PDU, which will prepare a Report that aims to be useful for the preparation of the Strategic Environmental Study of the Plan, where those elements that allow defining action strategies in the metropolitan green infrastructure will be identified.
