Classical analyses of constraints and challenges associated with development in middle-income Latin American countries have been performed based on per capita income levels. Since the first decade of the twenty-first century, the structural gap approach has been an alternative criterion to that of per capita income. It identifies areas where there are gaps, such as poverty, inequality and social inclusion, which hinder social and economic development. In the present study, we used hierarchical cluster analysis to assess the socioeconomic development of cities in Ecuador. The goal was to add depth and flexibility to the study in order to assess a more complex reality regarding the development level of the country. This way, the resulting taxonomies of cities could be used to address specific policies to improve quality of life and sustainability of the population.

Keywords: Hierarchical cluster analysis, Latino America, Structural gap theory, Socioeconomic development. 

DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-31776-8.

A B S T R A C T

The vegetation within the urban system provides sheltering and food provisions to birds, influencing their nesting options. This study analyses for the first time in the Mediterranean area how different socio-ecological factors related with public urban green management can influence the nesting of the passerine bird order. It uses a case study in the city of Valls (Catalonia, Spain). First, the public urban green was quantitatively and qualitatively characterised; then the nests from the passerine birds were collected and identified, and finally, potential associations between nests and urban green-related socio-ecological factors such as vegetation type (tree, shrub, herb, liana), plant species, neighbourhood type, pruning type, fruit and seed production, and presence of insect plague were analysed. A total of 300 nests were identified and belonged, mostly, to the family of Fringillidae and Sylviidae, all from Mediterranean agroforestry areas. Passerine birds show preference for the historic centre, being this area the one with highest biodiversity of vegetation in the city, in detriment of surrounding neighbourhoods, which in turn are less biodiverse. Passerine birds do not consider four tree species (Celtis australis, Laurus nobilis, Robinia pseudoacacia and Pinus pinea) suitable for nesting whereas showing preference for two tree species of medium height and size (Hibiscus syriacus and Melia azederach). Also, passerine birds seem to preferably nest in trees that have been pruned intensively. These results suggest that, to strengthen the passerine bird diversity in cities, urban green management should promote certain species of trees of medium size and intensive pruning while supporting the overall biodiversity of the urban green. All these results contribute to inform effective urban planning and management strategies for passerine birds conservation that aim to reconcile urban development and urban biodiversity protection.

Keywords: Ornithofauna, Urban Biodiversity.

The crisis in traditional forest and farming activities that began in the second half of the 20th century has given way to a new territorial structure, characterised by greater forest density and an acceleration of urban sprawl, which has affected the impact of fires on the territory and especially on the inhabitants. The increased vulnerability of homes located at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and the differences in the intensity of fire impact makes it necessary to identify different typologies of WUI zones. Characterization of WUI typologies was based on four forest fires with distinct characteristics, selected from fires that occurred in Catalonia in 2003 and 2012. Based on the different landscape units that have been studied and the dynamics of the changes that have occurred in the study area over the past 15 years, together with the occurrence of fires during this period, identified three major WUI zone typologies: a) metropolitan, b) agroforest and c) mountain agrosilvopastoral. The results, based on Kappa index and Rate of Change, show significant changes in Land Use and Land Cover between 2003 and 2009 in each study area, but the economic and social context in each region generated different territorial dynamics for each typology. This diagnosis contributes to knowledge that expands the available planning and management tools to mitigate the effects of wildfires.

Keywords: Landscape, Kappa index, Rate of change, Wildfire prevention.

Abstract. The chapter aims to provide a contextualisation of the cyberpark concept as this is perceived by a wide range of experts in public space and information technologies. To do so it makes use of a questionnaire survey conducted with the participants of the CyberParks COST Action, which collected their views on a number of aspects concerning both the mediated and the not mediated public open spaces, such as: their elements and qualities, the facilities they should offer, the activities they should facilitate, the type of space and location that are most suitable to accommodate them, their appropriate size and manner for their development, their target user group and other aspects of their configuration. The analysis brings out the commonalities and differences in experts’ views regarding the mediated and the not mediated public open spaces, and, as such, it contributes to specify further the cyberpark concept, mapping out its characteristics and dimensions. This should enrich the ongoing dialogue within the literature and facilitate interactions between relevant, yet fragmented, scientific disciplines in the area to inform the production and appropriation of both mediated and the not mediated public open spaces.

Keywords: experts, views, diversity, survey.

Abstract. User-generated content (UGC) provides useful resources for academics, technicians and policymakers to obtain and analyse results in order to improve lives of individuals in urban settings. User-generated content comes from people who voluntarily contribute data, information, or media that then appears in a way which can be viewed by others; usually on the Web. However, to date little is known about how complex methodologies for getting results are subject to methodology-formation errors, personal data protection, and reliability of outcomes. Different researches have been approaching to inquire big data methods for a better understanding of social groups for planners and economic needs. In this chapter, through UGC from Tweets of users located in Barcelona, we present different research experiments. Data collection is based on the use of REST API; while analysis and representation of UGC follow different ways of processing and providing a plurality of information. The first objective is to study the results at a different geographical scale, Barcelona’s Metropolitan Area and at two Public Open Spaces (POS) in Barcelona, Enric Granados Street and the area around the Fòrum de les Cultures; during similar days in two periods of time - in January of 2015 and 2017. The second objective is intended to better understand how different types of POS’ Twitter-users draw urban patterns. The Origin-Destination patterns generated illustrate new social behaviours, addressed to multifunctional uses. This chapter aims to be influential in the use of UGC analysis for planning purposes and to increase quality of life.

Those who lose their origins lose their identity! Cultural heritage incorporates many elements, but its material and immaterial assets are rooted in history, cultivated in tradition and embody a shared memory, as Manero Miguel and García Cuesta point out in the introduction of the book. Cultural heritage assets also bring identity to a territory and society. In the twenty-first century, differentiation represents an important asset, hence heritage’s relevance is revealed when territories become differentiated owing to their heritage assets in this globalized world. Differentiation, moreover, is the nature of territorial competitiveness. The main goal of this book is to vindicate the role of the cultural landscape as a motor for sustainable development and as a factor behind territorial competitiveness. This book is important in many ways. Besides its obvious roles in research and policymaking, in such a period of political turmoil even world heritage has become a bargaining chip, as in the case of negotiations between the Trump administration in the United States of America and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In October 2017, the Trump administration declared that the USA would withdraw from UNESCO, claiming that the latter’s member nations have an anti-Israel bias. Thus, in the political complexity of nonsenses, cultural heritage must be vindicated because it has many functions: it is an incentive to preserve historic monuments, to develop new economic activities (and therefore create jobs and revenue), and to inculcate pride and identity in cultural heritage amongst inhabitants.

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Taula normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

This paper discusses how historically the accumulation of symbolic power by men produced a glass ceiling for women in the Catalan Pyrenees and how women have overcome this constraint by engaging in male-led networks, founding gender balanced networks and developing women-nurtured networks. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews and ethnographic work, the paper investigates the strategies women employed to maintain their involvement in networking activities over a 10-year period, and identifies the importance of being connected with horizontal organizations and the empowerment of sharing experiences provided by social bridge agents. The results of this research make a strong case for more inclusive and gender-aware policies in rural areas as a means to promote economic and social viability while empowering women.

Keywords

Gender inequality, rural areas, social bridge agents, social capital, social networks, symbolic power

DOI: 10.1177/0969776417730864

Compact cities increase their temperature under the effects of heat island and global climate change. Important literature addressed passive energy cooling and solar urban planning. However, to date little is known about the relevant planning variables for getting insolation and natural ventilation. Failures in planning have caused important overuse of air conditioning and, in lower income areas, high temperatures put serious risk on their population. This paper addresses this important topic grounded on the Barcelona’s urbanization theory of Cerdà (1860); who already based his planning under both, insolation and wind flow of the urban fabric. In this research we concentrate to analyse the consistency in his pattern of orienting the urban grid for getting better insolation and wind-flow. Methodologically, to study the urban grid orientation consistency with winds and solar radiation, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology and wind data are used to obtain digital elevation surface and to calculate insolation and wind flow in the streets in the summer solstice (21^st of June) and the winter solstice (21^st of December). The results were contrasted by rotating the street grid 90 degrees north. We expect to confirm the following hypothesis. Firstly, streets are differently insolated depending on street grid orientation. Secondly, the height of the buildings project patterns of shadows in streets subject to the grid orientation. Thirdly, the direction of wind flow would enter differently to the city, depending on orientation of the urban solid. Finally, insolation and natural ventilation influence population comfort, health and decrease energy consumption creating a more sustainable urban environment, and improving quality of life.

Key words: Insolation, natural ventilation, Cerdà, Barcelona, compact city, LiDAR.

El Distrito Textil de Trafalgar (DTT) es un espacio económico urbano localizado en la Dreta del Eixample de Barcelona y especializado desde principios del siglo XX en actividades relacionadas con el textil. Las empresas que tradicionalmente se han localizado en el distrito han sido las sedes sociales de la manufactura textil, el comercio mayorista textil y de ropa y, en menor medida, la manufactura de la confección formando un clúster urbano. Actualmente, dicha especialización se ha difuminado casi por completo permaneciendo alrededor de un centenar de empresas mayorista y talleres de confección.

La comunicación tiene un doble objetivo. En primer lugar, detectar y analizar la localización de clústeres mayoristas y de confección en Barcelona en el 2016. En segundo lugar, analizar la consistencia del Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibéricos (SABI) como fuente de información en el estudio de las tipologías de espacios económicos textiles.

Title: Digital Tools for Capturing User’s Needs on Urban Open Spaces: Drawing Lessons from Cyberparks Project

ABSTRACT

The aim of the paper is to identify and analyze, through spatial statistics, the Barcelona´s Trafalgar Garment District (TGD) as an economic space related to the textile industry in the first half of the 20^th century. Since the 19^th century, Barcelona has been a powerful textile industrial city. In the first half of the 19^th century, the location of the industry concentrated in the walled city. Since the second half of the 19^th century, due to both the demolition of the walls (1857) and the construction of the Eixample by the Plà Cerdà (1859), the textile industry experienced new location spatial patterns. Not only moved the manufacture side of the textile firm towards different zones of the new city, but also its headquarters and storages. The new location was in the Dreta del Eixample neighborhood and, specifically, in TGD. The TGD played as the textile industry’s decision-making center since at the beginnings of the 20^th century. Nowadays, the presence of headquarters and storages of textile industrial firms is residual. They have been replacing by higher value-added economic activities. The extension of this old economic spaces is analyzed through Global Moran´s I and Local Moran´s indexes.

Keywords: textile industry, Trafalgar Garment District, Eixample, Barcelona, spatial analysis, statistical analysis

ABSTRACT: In the second decade of the twenty‐first century, projects of community development and social and
economic revival emerge in Barcelona from the social economy. The research is based on finding out why in one
territory there are factors driving this type of initiatives, and in others not. The working hypothesis is that in urban
environments with an associative and working tradition, a social, cultural and economic fabric has been developed. In
order to study new urban productive spaces, the research analyzes the innovative initiatives of Can Batlló case in
Sants/La Bordeta, Barcelona. In Can Batlló – a central urban land encompassing a working class neighborhood and
historical industrial premises – the community have been locked in a struggle between community groups and
developers for 20 years. The purpose of this paper is to examine the trend for repurposing traditional industry sites as
new working environments using innovative economic models which emphasize collaboration rather than focusing
solely on profit (2008‐2016). The work methodology is based on in‐depth interviews, the collection of statistical data
and non‐direct participant observation. The results obtained can contribute to the study of the reconceptualization of
the economic urban landscape and to the valorization of the role of the social economy in the territorial development
of Barcelona.
1 Esta investigación se realiza con el apoyo de los proyectos CSO2016‐74888‐C4‐2‐R, CSO2016‐81718‐REDT, y 2014 SGR
1090.
2
Key words: Barcelona, Social Economy, local development, economic activity spaces.

RESUMEN: En la segunda década del siglo XXI surgen en Barcelona proyectos de desarrollo comunitario y de reactivación social y económica a partir de la economía social. La investigación se fundamenta en averiguar porque en un determinado territorio existen factores impulsores de este tipo de iniciativas y en otros no. La hipótesis de trabajo es que en entornos urbanos con tradición asociativa y obrera se ha desarrollado un tejido social, cultural y económico que es la base de la economía social. El objetivo de la investigación es la identificación de los agentes, la caracterización de las acciones y la valoración económica y social en los procesos bottom-up que surgen en el contexto de la ciudad post-crisis (2008-2016). Para valorar la reconfiguración espacial del trabajo en la ciudad y el dibujo de los nuevos espacios productivos urbanos la investigación analiza las iniciativas emprendedoras e innovadoras del caso de Can Batlló en Sants/La Bordeta. Los barrios de Sants y La Bordeta tienen una larga tradición industrial y del movimiento obrero. La metodología de trabajo se basa en la realización de entrevistas en profundidad, la recopilación de datos estadísticos y la observación participante no directa. Los resultados obtenidos pueden contribuir al estudio de la reconceptualización del paisaje urbano económico y a la valorización del papel de la economía social en el desarrollo territorial de Barcelona.

Palabras-clave: Barcelona, Economía Social, Desarrollo comunitario, Espacio productivo

Moving towards a new paradigm of work-practices brought up by new communication and information technologies embedded in the production system, particular places in the city have experienced interesting new functions; old fashioned traditional industry buildings are fractioned in medium to tiny spaces used by very small one to two-person firms in a multiple sector start-ups of collaborative economy. But the most interesting element in this process is that firms are out of the market in the classical sense; they belong from the social economy. Firms mostly started coming out from urban social groups fighting to gain managing power over spaces in the city, asking to get social public services by saving industrial heritage and getting mutual collaboration, a bottom-up local adaptation of former working spaces to a more social and collaborative functions. This is the case of Can Batlló in the neighborhood of Sants in Barcelona the process started by social movements to prevent the old huge factory premises to be turned down and to follow a process of private housing development. Eight hectares of central city land in a working class neighborhood with industrial heritage premises have been in struggle for twenty years and finally the agreement has been set in a cooperative form managing the premises, the social activities program and the space devoted to economic activities. The purpose of this paper is to study both the taking over traditional industry spaces and reconceptualizing them into new work places by economic activities which their primary focus are not the pure economic profit.

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26119.19368

The globalization of the economy has direct consequences in the transformation of inner urban spaces. The competition between higher and lower value-added activities for locating in central urban spaces causes the displacement or the disappearance of the latter. Thus, inner urban spaces are accommodating new economic activities related to culture, creativity, knowledge, with massive use of ICTs, and tourism, to the detriment of traditional activities. The Trafalgar Garment District (TGD), located in downtown Barcelona, is an economic urban space historically devoted to the garment wholesaling trade. External and internal shocks to the textile industry in the last 50 years caused, firstly, the disintegration of the Catalonian garment regional cluster which supplied textile goods to wholesale firms in TGD. Secondly, they also caused either the disappearance or the relocation of wholesale firms to the metropolitan area. As a result, the TGD`s empty spaces have become occupied with firms related to the lodging industry and to the new economy. In the case of the lodging industry, TGD has become a hot spot reflecting in the building of new hotels. Regarding new economy firms, they are microbusinesses concentrating in co-workings and fab labs. The consequence of the increase of higher value-added firms in the TGD is the bloom of businesses which satisfied higher-skilled worker`s demands as fancy restaurants, art galleries and other cultural amenities. In spite of this fact, some wholesale firms still remain. They are adopting new management strategies, upgrading their products and restructuring their internal organization to become more competitive.
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15738.29128

Classical analysis of constraints and challenges associated with development in Latin American middle-income countries were done based on countries' per capita income levels. Since the first decade of the twenty-one century (CEPAL, 2012) the structural gap approach is an alternative criterion to that of per capita income. It identifies key areas where there are "gaps" that hamper their social and economic development (OECD, 2014); such as poverty, inequality, and social inclusion. In this article, we use hierarchical cluster analysis methods to study the socio-economic development of cities in Ecuador. The aim is to add depth and flexibility to study a more complex reality on the level of development inside a country. Therefore, from the resulting city taxonomy specific policies could be addressed to improve quality of live and sustainability of population.

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.18254.87362

RESUMEN: En la segunda década del siglo XXI, el resurgimiento de la ciudad post-crisis ha dibujado espacios económicos emergentes en Barcelona a partir de la economía social. La investigación se fundamenta en averiguar porque en un determinado territorio existen factores impulsores de este tipo de iniciativas y en otros no. La hipótesis de trabajo es que en territorios con tradición asociativa se ha desarrollado un tejido donde el apoyo mutuo y la cooperación ha sido la base de la economía social. El objetivo de la investigación es la identificación de los agentes, la caracterización de las acciones y la valoración económica y social en los procesos bottom-up que surgen en el periodo 2008-2015. Los casos de estudio se centran en las iniciativas emprendedoras e innovadoras de dos barrios con larga tradición industrial y movimiento obrero: El Poblenou y Sants. La metodología está basada en la realización de entrevistas en profundidad, la recopilación de datos estadísticos y la observación participante no directa. Los resultados obtenidos pueden contribuir a valorar el papel de la economía social en el desarrollo territorial y su contribución al modelo de desarrollo económico y urbano de Barcelona.

Palabras-clave: Barcelona, Economía Social, Ciudad emprendedora, Espacio productivo.