Elements of Urban Sustainability (2500045) – Course 2025/26 PDF
Contents
The elements of urbanization Graduality and survival in the construction of networks Reference levels of urbanization Towards a sustainable territorial vision Functionalist approach of networks versus complementarity of services
Specific Objectives
Introduce the student to an evolutionary vision of urbanization. Highlight the contradiction between a compartmentalized normative vision for each service and maximalist in the demands of each element of urbanization; and the need for complementarity between services.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyApproach from urban ecology to urban management. The city as an ecosystem. Urban metabolism: The consumption of energy and resources (water, soil, etc.). Environmental issues. Management strategies: The compact, complex, diverse and efficient city. The BCN Ecology Model.
Specific Objectives
Introduce the student to ecosystem thinking and the perspective of urban metabolism for urban management. Understand and apply desirable criteria in sustainable urban models.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyElements of sustainability in urban legislation Environmental assessment in urban planning The measure of sustainability and environmental indicators. Applications of indicators in urban context.
Specific Objectives
Recognize the legal instruments applicable to urban planning practice to assess their environmental impact and improve their sustainability. Learn to use indicators in the analysis of urban sustainability. .
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyConcept of Eco-neighborhood Environmental, social and economic elements of an eco-neighborhood Analysis of experiences of reference eco-neighborhoods (Vauban (Freiburg)) Potentialities and Limits of eco-neighborhoods Comparison between the Vauban Eco-neighborhood and other European neighborhoods
Specific Objectives
Introduce the environmental, social and economic aspects to the concept of eco-neighborhood. Compare experiences in order to assess the degree of change towards an ecological urbanization model that an eco-neighborhood can represent.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyIntroduce the environmental, social and economic aspects to the concept of eco-neighborhood. Compare experiences in order to assess the degree of change towards an ecological urbanization model that an eco-neighborhood can represent.
Specific Objectives
Understand the water cycle and the possibility of reusing water with elements of urbanization
Dedication
2h Medium group + 2h 48m Self StudyThe cycle of materials and their impacts on urban planning. Principles of sufficiency, proximity and the polluter pays. Urban waste collection technologies and systems. Municipal collection and management experiences.
Specific Objectives
Understand the cycle of materials and waste management in the urban environment. Assess the urban repercussions of existing collection models.
Dedication
2h Medium group + 2h 48m Self StudySustainable mobility Criteria for sustainable mobility Law of Sustainable Mobility Studies of generated mobility Assessment of energy consumption, pollution generation, noise generation Experiences of rearrangement of transport and mobility associated with public transport Experiences of rearrangement of transport associated with pedestrian axles and bicycles
Specific Objectives
Introduce the student to the analysis of the close correlation between mobility model and sustainable energy model. Introduce the student to the uses of the key indicators for evaluating the energy and mobility model.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyNoise management: Regulatory framework and acoustic planning. Sound maps and acoustic capacity. Air quality management: Regulatory framework and strategies for planning and managing air pollution. Plans to improve Air Quality in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region
Specific Objectives
Know the management strategies and planning tools for atmospheric problems such as noise and air pollution.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyQuality of public spaces, uses, activities and design. Urban parks and green corridors The management and arrangement of urban beaches.
Specific Objectives
Provide the student with criteria for assessing the quality of public spaces. Be able to make proposals for the arrangement and management of public spaces.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyUrban infrastructures for energy efficiency and local use of renewable energy resources. The elements of urbanization and management favorable to renewable energy resources. Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) Evaluation of the most effective actions to reduce CO2 generation.
Specific Objectives
Understand the energy cycle and the management of the implementation of renewable energy resources in the urban environment. Assess the urban repercussions of the models of the energy cycle and the actions of the Sustainable Energy Plans.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyCauses and trends of scattered urbanization in the RMB Economic, social and environmental costs of low-density urbanization. Policies and forms of intervention and urban management.
Specific Objectives
Causes and trends of scattered urbanization in the RMB Economic, social and environmental costs of low-density urbanization. Policies and forms of intervention and urban management.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudySocial segregation processes in access to infrastructure. Urban regeneration: Diversity and social stability.
Specific Objectives
Understand the processes of social segregation caused by unequal access to communication infrastructures and urban services. Provide analytical capacity to the student to assess proposals for urban regeneration that improve social inequities.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyAgendas 21 and citizen participation. The agreement and the participatory processes in the urban intervention. Participatory experiences in Catalonia.
Specific Objectives
To know the antecedents of the citizen participation in the environmental management of the city. Know and analyze participatory experiences that improve urban practice.
Dedication
2h Large group + 2h 48m Self StudyPresentation of the Practices consisting of 4 Workshops with their corresponding exercises. The student carries out a set of 4 Workshops on different elements of urbanization associated with the infrastructures of urban services and of transport and his relation with the urban territory and his management from a perspective of sustainability of the urban environingingment. All 4 Workshops are held in the same municipality or neighborhood (in case of analyzing an exceptionally complex municipality) to be freely chosen by the student. Work 1: Territorial fit of the chosen field of study in relation to the infrastructure networks Workshop 2: Graphic representation of the sanitation network in relation to the topography. Proposal for the implementation of a wastewater quality improvement system using an alternative lagoon-type system. Exercise 2.2: * Identification of a residential area likely to support a system of lacunage and graphic representation of the solution adopted in relation to the chosen residential fabric * Preparation of a brief supporting report Workshop 3: Identification and delimitation of a sector susceptible to transformation into an environmental area of coexistence with a sustainable mobility system. Exercise 3.3: * Proposal for the transformation of the environmental area with a new system for offering sustainable mobility * Preparation of a brief explanatory report Presentation of Workshop 4: Proposal for the transformation of an element of the unique road network including elements of sustainable urbanization for the water cycle and for sustainable mobility. Workshop 4: Proposal for the transformation of a unique road network element with the inclusion of sustainable urbanization elements for the water cycle and sustainable mobility Exercise 4.2: * Representation of the plant, cross sections and details of the current state * Representation of the plant, cross-sections and construction details of the proposed state * Preparation of a brief justification report
Specific Objectives
Plantear los 4 Talleres como oportunidad de aplicar gradualmente los conocimientos adquiridos en las clases teóricas en un contexto conocido por el alumno. Learn to place a given field of study in a broader context from a graphical representation of synthesis capable of intentionally characterizing the territory. Learn to analyze the urban fabric to propose projects to improve the sanitation network as instruments of urban planning. Learn to reorganize the mobility of the city with sustainability criteria as a project tool for public space. Introduce the proposal for the transformation of an element of the road network with sustainability criteria as a construction project for the urban landscape. Learn basic criteria for designing public space. Learn to adequately represent the proposals for the transformation of elements of the road network.
Dedication
19h Medium group + 26h 36m Self Study