Barcelona gives way to green infrastructure : Les Glòries urban transformation as a case study of citizen participation

Abstract: Nowadays, there are more population concentrated in urban areas rather than in rural areas. This process of urbanization has altered natural processes in addition to landscape modification. The green in cities has become more and more fragmented, leading to the degradation and loss of many ecosystem services. The big expansion of Barcelona happened during the Cerdàs Plan in the middle of the 19th century. Cerdà designed Barcelona as a grid of blocks where people could walk through its streets and rest in big green areas, but, left some parts of the city like Les Glòries without any planning due to its complexity. In the years thereafter, the city of Barcelona has become a compact city, densely populated, with scare and isolated green spaces while the public space becomes mainly dominated by the car. In order to face the current issues of Barcelona, its City Council has implemented several measures like the green infrastructure strategic policy and planning. Although they have not been done with citizen participation, this supposed a paradigm shift on the municipal city planning, as well as, a paradigm shift on Barcelona’s city model where green infrastructure is being used as an adaptation measure to mitigate the effects of climate change and as a strategic planning tool for reducing car traffic. The project of Les Glòries is a landmark of how a place planned as car-based could become pedestrian-based, in addition to the second biggest green space of the city of Barcelona. Becoming a reference for the new city council policies and measures for a more sustainable and participative Barcelona. Les Glòries project is also a referent of citizen participation due to the citizens and neighbourhood associations were from the very beginning in the planning and design of this space together with the city council technicians.