Enhancing social justice in actions to adapt to climate change in the city of Barcelona

Barcelona is a densely built city. The city has a surface of over 100 km²  and is inhabited by more than 1.6 million people. The city is the centre of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona) with a population of about 3.3 million. The urban centre of Barcelona has over 1 million inhabitants, and it is the third most densely populated urban agglomeration in Europe. This density amplifies the social impact of the challenges that affect the city.

Barcelona is exposed to several climate change impacts that are common to the whole Mediterranean region, namely, heavy rainfall, droughts and heatwaves, which are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change. The region of Catalonia has already experienced an increase in temperature and is expected to live through a further increase in temperatures. This will especially affect the summer season, increasing the heat stress in the whole region, including the city of Barcelona. The number of heatwaves is expected to multiply by eight by the end of the century: 50 to 80 days with temperatures above 30 degrees C by the end of the century are expected, depending on the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) – 4.5 or 8.5 – used for the projections. The city is also prone to flooding due to heavy rainfall which causes problems for the sewage system. This is mainly expected in the districts of Poblenou and the axis of the Diagonal, Sant Andreu, Sants-Badal and Barrio de Sant Antoni. Other environmental challenges that affect the city are water scarcity, and air and noise pollution. These environmental challenges impact the inhabitants of Barcelona and their quality of life negatively.

Social challenges

Barcelona faces a general shortage of public space, in particular green space. The city’s green infrastructure, which comprises public and private green areas and trees, currently (2024 estimates) covers 35% of the urban area, which represents an average green area per inhabitant significantly below the average of Spanish cities. The situation is even more critical in some districts. For instance, the green space in Sant Antoni’s district was only about 0.87 m² per inhabitant, significantly below the average for the city, and way below the European average (14 m²/inhabitant in 2012). This general lack of green space and the city’s high population density naturally amplifies the effect of heat and air pollution, which are expected to worsen because of climate change.

The case of Sant Antoni’s district and its Superblock programme illustrates how the lack of green spaces in dense Mediterranean cities can be addressed, helping to mitigate climate change impacts on inhabitants of these areas. In 2016, before the implementation of the first projects of the Superblock programme, 79% of the population suffered from a noise level higher than the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, air quality was low, with the population suffering from concentration levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of more than 40 μg/m³. The average levels of Particulate Matter 10 (PM10) in Sant Antoni were 25.6 μg/m³, surpassing the WHO recommended mean values of 20 μg/m³, with peak levels arriving at 36.8 μg/m³. The high population density coupled with the intense traffic flows on the streets that delimit the district were the main drivers of noise and air pollution.

These challenges, which exacerbate the impacts from increasingly intense heat waves, have important negative effects on public health, also because the lack of green spaces limits citizens in engaging in physical activity outdoors. Increased air and noise pollution, heatwaves, and poor access to green space are estimated to cause 3,000 cases of premature deaths per year in Barcelona (Mueller et al., 2017). The living circumstances of the residents were aggravating. In particular, less affluent residents, living often in smaller dwellings, are less equipped to deal with high temperatures; e.g. they often lack air conditioning. For cooling, these citizens depend more on the availability of green spaces.

The City Administration started testing interventions to increase urban greening and improve liveability of streets and spaces with the Superblock programme. The Barcelona Urban Mobility Plan (UMP) from 2013-2018 set the objectives to foster positive social cohesion and public health through a transformation of streets and squares in the neighbourhood of Eixample. This objective was later expanded in the 2019-2024 UMP, with a continued focus on reducing traffic, increasing green spaces, and promoting public transport. These changes support physical and mental well-being by reducing pollution, noise, and accidents while creating more spaces for leisure and social interaction. The first testbeds of this programme, called the Superblock programme, were the Poblenou district in 2016, and the Sant Antoni district in 2018. Between 2019-2023, the city upscaled the programme to the entire district of Eixample. The programme was a central part of the city's climate change adaptation policies, simultaneously supporting the city’s climate change mitigation strategy.

The city of Barcelona has a tradition of urban planning initiatives that promote basic services and enhance citizens’ well-being. Since the mid-1800s, socioeconomic studies have informed the design of the city and particularly the Eixample district to optimise mobility while also ensuring sufficient parks, ventilation and green spaces inside each block. However, this ambitious vision was not fully realised, also due to the pressure of real estate developers. This resulted in a denser urban fabric with few green spaces. Currently, the Eixample district has a density of up to 35,644 inhabitants per km² and the green area available is 1.85 m² per capita.  The Superblock programme was developed as a new attempt to execute these old ambitions. It aimed at supporting the implementation of the city’s Plan for Play in Public Spaces and the Let’s Protect the Schools Programme which both seek to ensure the safety of children and protect the use of public space for recreation and for safe commuting to school. This programme was complemented by a set of local political commitments and the allocation of human and financial resources to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and the strengthening of green infrastructure. These greening efforts are streamlined with the goals of other similar municipal projects and plans and are also coordinated with those of other external institutions and organisations to build a shared vision of climate adaptation for Barcelona. This vision has been articulated in the urban Climate plan and Barcelona Nature Plan 2030, with green cover in the city increasing as a result of implementation of the Tree Master Plan 2017 - 37.

Additionally, the municipality passed a set of regulations to protect local businesses, aiming at protecting them from displacement due to gentrification and enabling them to capture economic benefits of the Superblock programme. These regulations aim to preserve local economic diversity while at the same time regulating commercial activities that produce excessive noise in the areas affected by the Superblock programme. To protect neighbours from gentrification, the municipality works towards the goal of having 30% of the buildings developed in the renovated districts dedicated to social housing. It further established the rent index, the adjustments of property taxes, and stopped further transformation of dwellings into tourist accommodation structure introducing, for instance, a licensing moratorium.  In addition to this, Barcelona’s Gender Justice Plan proposed a set of guidelines to ensure that issues such as street design under the Superblock programme would consider factors such as the perception of safety and inclusion. Finally, the Neighbourhood Action Plan identifies priority interventions to reorganise the street network to promote sustainable mobility modes and diverse uses of public spaces in the neighbourhood.

The Superblock programme aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt the neighbourhoods to climate change, while improving environmental conditions to increase well-being in Barcelona. The three main objectives of the programme include the expansion of the green infrastructure, the restriction of private motorised mobility and the embedding of equity considerations into all processes and actions, creating accessible spaces which satisfy specific needs of vulnerable groups within the local communities.

With these three main objectives, the programme aims to mitigate the impact of heat stress by increasing the tree canopy cover and consequently expanding the green infrastructure.

The expansion of green space aims to increase shadows in the city, to increase the reflectivity of street surfaces, and to bring improvements in the water runoff management.

The Superblock programme addresses these environmental objectives while accounting for the needs of vulnerable stakeholders. This is done by integrating issues such as gender, age and disability into the design principles and identifying and tackling sources of vulnerability associated with individual characteristics in the use of urban space, related to specific needs of women, elderly and persons with disabilities.

Superblocks are also critical to support the future ambitions of the city council. For instance, in its climate plan, the city of Barcelona aimed to increase green space per inhabitant by 1 m² from 2016 to 2030. To this end, the city council published the Nature Plan 2021-2030 to regulate the increase of green space with public participation. Expanded green space under the Superblock programme contributes to the achievement of this plan.

Within the city’s climate plan, the Superblock programme represents a critical measure to deliver on the city’s objectives and to effectively increase the green infrastructure in the most densely populated areas. Solutions embraced the (1) expansion of grey infrastructure, (2) the restriction of motorised mobility and (3) various actions to consider the needs of vulnerable groups.

1.      Expansion of green infrastructure

The Superblock programme increased the amount of available green space per inhabitant. This enhanced shadows, leisure spaces, and reduced the temperature of the streets, especially during periods of heat-stress.  In fact, the Barcelona City Council conducted a set of simulations which calculated that the Superblock programme could lead to a 1.2°C drop in ambient temperature on hot days.

The programme also established a network of 360 easy to access climate shelters (refugis climàtics). These climate shelters are spaces which offer shadow, seats, and water fountains specifically designed to be comfortable and safe for vulnerable groups in the event of heatwaves (such as young children, the elderly, and people with health conditions).

By way of example, the city council calculated that with the expansion of the superblock projects to the entire Eixample district, shadow cover would increase from 60% to 80% of the urban surface, and that shadow cover would increase from 25% to 70% in squares and intersections (such as the Enric Granados and Consell de Cent streets). Reflectivity is also expected to increase, as most streets are expected to substitute asphalt (with a solar reflectance index (SRI) below 10) with materials such as street tiles and granite (with an SRI above 70). Finally, the plan to upscale the superblock projects foresees the creation of green corridors through the city centre where streets are organised in a hierarchy to segregate road traffic from green streets. This action is expected to increase the permeable surface in the superblock areas from the current 1% to up to 12% of the overall surface, allowing the absorption of water runoff and mitigating the flooding hazard derived from heavy precipitation events

2.     Restriction of motorised mobility

The Superblock programme contributed to the ambitions of the Urban Mobility Plan for 2024 by improving accessibility and safety of pedestrian spaces, and by expanding the bicycle networks. The city council reported a decrease of 20% in the use of cars in the neighbourhood of Sant Antoni over the period 2020-2021 after the implementation of the superblock programme, resulting in a 25% reduction of NO2 and 17% reduction in PM10 in the neighbourhood. To achieve this, the programme significantly restricted space dedicated to car mobility in the city and created single-platform streets (eliminating the segregation between the zones devoted to car mobility and pedestrian use) where pedestrians are prioritised and the right of all street users is respected, reducing car dominance of previous street designs.

3.     Actions to consider the needs of vulnerable groups

Finally, the Superblock programme also builds fairness and equality among citizens by supporting the implementation of Barcelona’s Gender Justice Plan (II Pla per la justícia de gènere 2021-2025). Just adaptation requires that basic equality measures are considered, such as gender-sensitive criteria in urban planning, which translated into the ambition to create street safety specifically for women, laid down in specific urban planning principles to promote a diversity of uses in public spaces connected to the daily life of all inhabitants, including care-giving activities that are often not given sufficient consideration in traditional planning approaches. These measures on street safety also benefit a broad spectrum of vulnerable societal groups, such as children, elderly, or people with disabilities, as they are enabled to safely commute and enjoy public spaces.

A specific example is the programme’s gender-inclusive design that recognises that women tend to use public spaces differently, especially due to caregiving responsibilities. It also focuses on making streets more walkable, safer, and accessible for children, caregivers, and women who typically rely more on public spaces​ The programme also pays attention to its effects on the local economy to prevent displacing residents and local commercial activities because of gentrification.

Monitoring

The city council also developed a monitoring plan as part of the Superblock programme, aiming at gathering empirical evidence on relevant vulnerability factors in project areas and assessing the benefits over time. The monitoring plan included a set of 36 indicators for which data is collected regularly by the city council, in collaboration with the health authorities i.e. Institut Català de la Salut. The monitoring plan assesses benefits across four areas: (i) public spaces; (ii) mobility; (iii) environmental quality; and (iv) socio-economic dynamics. With regards to socio-economic dynamics, the plan monitors the following indicators:

• Number of people and organisations that participated in the project
• Ageing index (ratio of population older than 65 and younger than 14)
• Percentage of foreign population
• Family disposable income
• Density of street-level shops (number of shops/ 100 m)
• Average purchase housing prices (€/m²)
• Average rental housing prices (€/m²)

Quantitative information on the different indicators is collected regularly, and annual monitoring reports will be published. Qualitative information will also be collected every two years through fieldwork and interviews.

Future prospects

The ambition of the city of Barcelona during the previous political mandate was to scale up the Superblock programme to the whole city in the future. These ambitions were reflected in the city’s urban regeneration strategy Superilla Barcelona. It aimed at promoting more equitable urban development while mitigating and adapting the city to climate change. Under the current political mandate a complementary strategy called the Local and Interior Spaces Programme (PEPI) is now guiding implementation efforts, with the goal of renewing unused spaces in all city neighbourhoods to add greenery and benefit local people’s health.

Vulnerable or hard-to-reach stakeholder groups were identified by the municipality and included in the established participation mechanisms.

Associations representing different groups were proactively invited to participate in the leading local stakeholder group, including the Spanish organisation promoting the integration of people with visual impairments in society (ONCE), the Sant Antoni Neighbourhood Association, the Sant Antonì Commerce Association, Barcelona’s LGBTI Centre, and parents’ associations.

The development of the Superblock programme is based on a highly inclusive participatory planning process that builds on previous experiences in the Poblenou and Sant Antoni neighbourhoods. This approach builds trust and secures the support from community members, creating a safe space where community groups discuss and reconcile different interests for the use of public spaces. For this purpose, the city also developed an online citizen participation portal to ensure the engagement of stakeholders.

The public participation process was structured in three phases: (i) the participatory planning process, which led to the approval of the Neighbourhood Action Plan in December 2017; (ii) the participatory implementation of projects carried out under each specific Superblock programme; and (iii) the participatory monitoring after projects were implemented. This organisation of public participation ensured that citizens were able to influence public policies throughout the whole decision-making process. In some cases, the citizen engagement led to significant changes in the initial projects, making plans more tailored to local needs.

Besides group meetings, the participatory program includes other activities such as the re-design of street spaces and squares, diagnostic actions in public space, street events, exploratory walks, surveys, proposal sessions, etc.

Participation has improved the acceptability of the project

The successful implementation of the Superblocks programme is the result of a long-standing planning tradition in the city of Barcelona to enhance the quality of public space for its citizens and enhance their access to green spaces.. The first implementation projects were strategically located in city districts where these proposals could maximise their feasibility and acceptability. For instance, the Poblenou neighbourhood, the first area where the Superblock programme was implemented, already had a relatively low level of car traffic, which was expected to make motorised mobility restrictions more acceptable to residents. Also, the Poblenou neighbourhood was already the centre of a broader transformation with the development of the 22@ Innovation District, an urban renewal project that aimed to transform the district from an old industrial area to a research and innovation hub. Nevertheless, in this neighbourhood , residents initially showed resistance, mainly because they were not familiar with the underlying concept of superblocks. In line with the participatory planning process of the programme, staff from the municipality took time to reply to the concerns and to clarify questions and doubts related to the Superblock concept and the project for Poblenu. This citizen engagement led to significant changes in the project, such as the decision to ease motorised transport restrictions in the neighbourhood.

Integrative governance and diversified funding

The governance approach used of the Superblock programme was a major enabler of its success. One aspect of this was the creation of a Superblock office in 2020, a new transversal department hosted within the municipality made up of representatives of different city departments working on the areas of urban strategy, communication, participation, international tasks, architecture and design, mobility, green areas and others, transport, and the environment. The office was formally in charge of enabling the active collaboration between the different city departments to develop the Superblock programme and implement the single projects. Another important success factor was that the programme diversified its resources by combining funds from the city public budget, the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

In contrast, the transformations of large parts of the city raised political pressure and contestation from different interest groups who were challenging, for instance, the limitations to individual transport foreseen in the Superblock programme. Pressure groups were legally challenging the project, and competing political coalitions were trying to oblige the city authority to reverse the transformations already made.

Collaboration with scientific organisations

The collaboration with researchers was another success factor, as their expertise provided important contributions to the project and ensure an evidence-based approach. The city of Barcelona is and has been an active collaborator in many EU-funded projects including OpenNESS (2013-2017) Naturvation (2017-2021) or GreenLULUs (2016-2022). The extensive collaborations with researchers helped to pilot and test different adaptation and greening measures but also to create knowledge on social issues, such as racial and social impact of urban greening. Specialised research organisations, such as the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability supported the city’s efforts to mitigate gentrification by providing evidence on gentrification trends as well as potential solutions to deal with these developments.

Costs

As the areas affected by the single Superblock projects are different, costs vary according to the type of elements included in each project. The single Superblock interventions consist of a set of structural, tactical and governance elements. Structural elements require more resources to implement than tactical (e.g. the painting of car lanes to expand the pedestrian area) and governance interventions (e.g. regulations to make social housing obligatory).

For the Sant Antoni neighbourhood, the second district where the programme was implemented, the transformations required a total investment budget of 7.5 million EUR, equivalent to a cost of about 197 EUR per resident over the period 2017-2019. These costs consisted of a first phase of structural interventions, which required an investment of 3.6 million EUR, and a second phase that comprised a combination of tactical and structural interventions, with a cost  3.9 million EUR. Other complementary programmes and projects had also a limited cost. For instance, Climate Shelter in 11 schools had a total budget of 5 million EUR, funded jointly by the Barcelona City Council ( 1 million EUR) and the EU programme Urban Innovation Action (UIA) ( 4 million EUR).

Maintenance costs of the green infrastructure are also an important consideration. Green infrastructure requires a certain maintenance and management costs over time, to avoid possible risks of falling trees or branches, tree pests or diseases, defoliation, and water stress. An estimation of these costs was not available.

The implementation of measures to mitigate gentrification were not very costly because they were mostly related to regulations. Most of the associated costs were related to the establishment of subsidy programmes, the expropriation of a small number of buildings by the City Council and the small loss of public income due to the reduction of property taxes of some households.

The monitoring budget for the Superblock programme over a period of ten years was estimated at about 750,000 EUR, and it included the cost of the equipment (such as cameras, air quality and noise sensors) for monitoring mobility flows and air and noise contamination levels in project areas.

Significant time and resources were also allocated to the participatory process, but an estimation of these costs was not available.

Benefits

By reducing motorised traffic and accompanying emissions and by enhancing walkability of streets, the Superblock programme contributes furthermore to climate change mitigation. The improved liveability of the streets resulting from this increased walkability was particularly beneficial during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the Spanish government introduced movement restrictions and lockdowns.

Public health

The programme contributes to the reduction in air and noise pollution and fosters more active lifestyles, which is expected to improve the health of the district residents. Increasing urban green areas and creating a network of cooling places is furthermore expected to contribute to reducing the negative health impacts and mortality related to heat waves, in particular for vulnerable groups such as the elderly. Additionally, the programme improved the safety for urban commuters, as the risks of car accidents dramatically decreased in the areas where the Superblock was implemented.

Other Social benefits

The transformation of public spaces and reduction of car traffic created more safe space for walking, cycling and for social interaction. For the first year after the implementation of the Superblock programme in the Sant Antoni district, the City Council reported the emergence of multiple uses of public spaces, including activities such as resting, talking, shopping, walking, playing and exercising. As a result, residents experienced the area as more welcoming, which potentially contributes to improving their psychosocial wellbeing. Additionally, the increased walkability further improved the attractiveness of the areas with positive impacts on the quality of life for residents.

Economic benefits

Following the implementation of the Superblock programme in the district and the inauguration of the restored district market, the Sant Antoni Commerce Association registered an increased number of visitors. Such increase in the number of visitors has benefited local businesses, as a local survey found that 83% of the merchants noted an improvement in comfort in walking in the neighbourhood, and 69% noted an increase in the passage of people. The data on private expenditure collected by Barcelona’s Municipal Data Office (Oficina Municipal de Dades, OMD) also confirm the increased benefits within the district businesses after the enactment of the superblock, which also contributed to a faster economic recovery after the COVID-19 lockdown.

The first pilots of the Barcelona Superblock programme started in 2016 in the Poblenou neighbourhood. As a result of this positive experience, the City Council decided to promote a Superblock in the Sant Antoni district in February 2017, where the project run over the period 2017-2019. The first phase of the Sant Antoni’s Superblock started in November 2017 and was completed in May 2018. In 2023, the city was planning scaling up the Superblock concept to the whole Eixample district. The implementation time of interventions depends on their typology. Structural interventions take more time to implement than tactical interventions. The latter can be implemented quickly to test new ideas and can easily be scaled or reversed.

The first pilots of the Barcelona Superblock programme started in 2016 in the Poblenou neighbourhood. As a result of this positive experience, the City Council decided to promote a Superblock in the Sant Antoni district in February 2017, where the project run over the period 2017-2019. The first phase of the Sant Antoni’s Superblock started in November 2017 and was completed in May 2018. In 2023, the city was planning scaling up the Superblock concept to the whole Eixample district. The implementation time of interventions depends on their typology. Structural interventions take more time to implement than tactical interventions. The latter can be implemented quickly to test new ideas and can easily be scaled or reversed.

Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability
Carrer del Dr. Aiguader, 88
08003 Barcelona, Spain
Email: ana@bcnuej.org

Coloma Rull
Barcelona City Council
Biodiversity Programme
Torrent de l’Olla 218-220, Barcelona
E-mail: crull@bcn.cat


Toni Pujol Vidal
Barcelona City Council
Ecology, Urban Planning & Mobility Strategy Department
Diagonal 240, 4th floor
E-mail: tpujol@bcn.cat

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