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Urban planification

Sustainable Design, Construction and Maintenance of Buildings and Urban Developments

CONTEXT

© korkeng / Shutterstock.com

The temperature of urban areas is higher than the temperature of the surrounding areas (suburban and rural areas). In big cities like Barcelona, this could vary from 2 to 4 degrees during the day and up to 10 degrees at night. But this phenomenon, called the “urban heat island”, is also present in smaller cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The main causes of the increase in temperature in urban areas are the types and construction materials of the buildings and paved surfaces, urban morphology and a lack of plant life.

Exposure to high temperatures may produce adverse health effects ranging from an increase in the complications of people with chronic diseases to death, mainly due to respiratory and cardiovascular causes.

Building and urban planning should be based on architecture adapted to the environment, be sensitive to impacts on nature, and minimise energy consumption and environmental contamination, with all the health benefits that this entails.

 

OBJECTIVE

Foster sustainability, eco-efficiency and building and paving techniques that facilitate the reduction of waste, energy consumption and heat absorption.

PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

More sustainable consturction techniques 

  • Reuse urban infrastructure (road network, service network, etc.) for new uses and a variety of activities.
  • Convert paved areas into green cover to generate spaces for a variety of uses.
  • Improve the details and materials of the built environment. Incorporate details, craftsmanship, textures, colours, durable materials that are sustainable, comfortable, safe, visually attractive, environmentally friendly, energy efficient and easy to maintain. Select the details and materials in accordance with the form and proportion of the built environment to define the desired appearance and environment.
  • Instead of using straight concrete pavements and high railings to separate people from the water, strengthen people’s visual and physical connection to water in green and blue areas.
  • Improve public spaces by incorporating areas for a variety of activities, spaces that are flexible and adaptable, comfortable, safe and aesthetically pleasing; spaces that contribute to the creation of an identity for the site, differentiation and historical memory; spaces that incorporate art.
  • Improve the facades of buildings. Ensure that the walls are white on the ground floor level. Generally improve the associated visual contact elements (fences, walls, landscape architecture, etc.) to strengthen the differentiating character of these spaces.
  • Improve parks: include enough lighting in pedestrian areas, suitable urban furniture, equipment for physical exercise and safe play facilities.
  • Make improvements to the infrastructure of public spaces by developing safe walkways, increasing lighting and repairing areas for pedestrians and/or replacing pavements.
  • Ensure that the design of new builds minimises the harmful effects of flooding caused by rain and the increase in the level of seas, lakes and waterways.


More sustainable use of built heritage

  • Adopt a green-building design in new public building projects and prioritise these improvements as a basic requirement in public rental housing.
  • Plant trees along roads and pavements to act as landscape connectors.
  • Create a people-oriented urban landscape that provides a pleasant walking experience, with streets full of trees, spaces to shelter from the rain, railings on stairways, fewer obstacles and less cement.
  • Improve the appearance of the neighbourhoods by taking into consideration the height and form of the buildings, density, surface area, and relationships with the surrounding buildings, urban landscape and forms. Incorporate space between buildings, cover, solar access and orientation, privacy, quality, facility of internal and external use of the spaces.
  • Guarantee that there are permanent metro stations with air quality systems within the city limits.
  • Improve the design of the streets to shorten distances to points of interest.
  • Improve sustainable growth by taking into account the city’s central ecological areas, borders and divergent habitats. Value the functions of these areas and take into account their development and the maintenance of the spaces.


Adapt urban morphology to bioclimatic conditions 

  • Improve the biodiversity of the green and blue system.
  • Create or improve urban forests. Plant good-quality trees that have a healthy appearance, age and size.
  • Improve the local plant life of parks. Expand biodiversity with native species to provide shade and habitat, and specific plants for wetlands for aquatic and land habitats.
  • Improve the countryside infrastructure, considering gardening, microclimate, land, plant life and the environment.
  • Adapt the various spaces of the urban areas and the built environment so they are more resistant to the impacts of climate change. Include the design and planning of green infrastructure and building exteriors.
  • Improve the ecological resilience of the green network. Conserve the indigenous plants and natural habitats of the local biodiversity, both in the city centre and in the outskirts. Allocate spaces to cultivate food crops.
  • Improve watercourses and green corridors. Protect watercourses and urban biodiversity: use local species, expand green cover to reduce and treat water flows, disconnect rainwater pipes from the river network and foster infiltration and shallow flows, plant trees that provide stability, shade and wood waste to contribute to improving habitats, create corridors connected to mixed structures that provide natural habitats.
  • Foster the planting of trees outside of central areas to increase their expanse. Expand urban forests.
  • Increase the number of trees on streets and incorporate passive irrigation systems.
  • Support urban biodiversity. Select suitable local species that provide diversity and complement the local ecosystems. Use a wide range of species to construct biodiversity and resistance. Provide food and habitats for indigenous fauna. Use the ruins of structures to build connections that link various habitats.
  • Adapt infrastructure, new builds and rehabilitated buildings to treat storm water in a sustainable manner. Adapt land and water infrastructure to climate change.
  • Dimension new rainwater systems in such a way that the current safety level is maintained to deal with the increasingly intense precipitations expected to accompany climate change. Specifically identify areas sensitive to flooding in the city and adopt suitable measures. Increase green cover.
  • Review and update the maintenance of rainwater facilities to ensure they are in good working order.
  • Adapt the natural landscape to the sustainable use of land and water (ecological structure and biological diversity). Adopt suitable protection and maintenance measures to guarantee the sustainability of water and land.
  • Guarantee local access to parks and nature.
  • In the improvement of parks and natural spaces conserve threatened and rare species.

REFERENCE EXPERIENCES

Information only available in Catalan

 

 

  • Viena. Algunes de les mesures per reforçar els espais verds, i al mateix temps lluitar contra el canvi climàtic i contra les illes de calor, desenvolupades a la ciutat són: instal·lar vegetació al costat de les carreteres i carrers, als espais verds i a les illes interiors i frontals dels edificis; enllaçar els espais verds de la ciutat, permetre el creixement espontani de la vegetació en àrees amb poc o gens d’ús, generar noves àrees d’arbres plantant-ne de nous, conservar i incrementar el nombre d’arbres, seleccionar les espècies adequades que millor s’adaptin al canvi climàtic. 
    Sistemàticament des de 1991 fotografien (bio-monitoritzen) des de l’aire la ciutat per determinar la ‘quantitat de verd’ que té la ciutat, i determinar els canvis que s’hi produeixen.
    Per reforçar la presència de les àrees blaves a la ciutat: augmentar la quantitat d’aigua (la permanent i la que es va renovant, així com instal·lacions d’aigua), augmentar els espais relacionats amb l’aigua adreçats als nens; augmentar les possibilitats d’accés a l’aigua que passa per la ciutat, i augmentar la presència les fonts d’aigua potable arreu de la ciutat.
  • Dunkerque. Dunkerque ha realizat grans esforços per fer de la seva façana marítima un dels seus principals actius: combinant-hi un port marítim i l’activitat turística, energia verda i transport, esdeveniments culturals... Dunkerque disposa d’una gran superfície natural protegida, amb 15 quilòmetres de platges i dunes de sorra.
    El port de Dunkerque. Des de 2014 ha aprovat un Sustainable Development and Action Plan (PA2D), que ha propiciat la implementació de 26 mesures operatives basades en cinc diverses línies estratègiques: 
    • L’establiment d’una responsabilitat verda i social per part del port. Fent el port més atractiu, augmentant el control dels riscos, i seguint els principis de la indústria verda.
    • Adaptant el port al canvi climàtic i contribuint a la reducció de les emissions industrials.
    • Implementant una estratègia per fer el port més sostenible: millorant la xarxa de tren que el connecta amb la resta de territori, reestructurant la xarxa de circulació de l’aigua i altres accions. 
    • Preservant l’entorn natural i els paisatges que l’envolten. Impulsant el Port’s Natural Heritage Master Plan (SDPN) i el Natural Environment Master Plan (PGEN) i protegint els valors del paisatge de l`àrea industrial.
    Per aquestes i altres accions la ciutat fou guardonada amb el premi 2014 European label Cit’ergies gold.

 

LEGISLATION

STUDIES AND TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION

Technical documents:

More information about addressing the Public Health Service: entornurbasalut@diba.cat

Date of last update:
ds., 08 de maig 2021 18:57:02 +0000