ABSTRACT

Well-being, biodiversity and urban planning in Barcelona

Montserrat Pallares-Barbera[1], Antònia Casellas, Sònia Sànchez-Mateo, Martí Boada, Jaume Marlès-Magre

The aim of this paper is to study well-being of urban population, based on two pillars: the proximity to services to the population and the role played by urban biodiversity.

The structural question is how urban biodiversity and provision of services to population in cities contribute to population well-being; and how the lack of these diminishes quality of life and determines areas at risk of socio-territorial exclusion. The case study is the city of Barcelona. Quality of life is identified as the satisfaction of desires associated with human needs and wants; and well-being as a general state of wellness. Variables to analyze these two concepts in Barcelona are population covered by services and proximity to facilities as well as the biotopes available and the level of biodiversity in a given section of the city. A final objective is to design an educational model, defined as a set of actions and instruments, institutions and actors that aim to educate trained citizens to identify well-being in the territory that surrounds them and to help them to transform it; and to stimulate individual values and groups to interact more with the territory and retroactively increase their capacity of building on well-being (Amartya Sen, 2012).

The results of this study meant to be tools for policy making and urban planning. Analysis of urban biodiversity and service provision will be done using GIS for conveying knowledge on urban well-being to population.

KEYWORDS: well-being, urban planning, urban biodiversity, provision of services to population, GIS.