Aim: to create an urban environment that provides the best quality of life
possible for present and future citizens.
Noise and
Air Pollution
Causes of
pollution
Sustainable
Strategies
• Traffic noise and air pollution
• Pedestrianisation schemes
Pedestrian Priority Areas in Central Barcelona -
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• Selective vehicle access control reduces traffic entering central
shopping zones. Access is provided for delivery services only.
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• Vehicle management signs (VMS) reduce the amount of search-parking
• Street loading/unloading improvements reduce illegal and double
parking by delivery services
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• Cycle lanes and cycle parking
• The covering of the Ronda de Mig Ring road. This is the longest
urban tunnel in Europe (2.2 kilometres of new covered ring road), constructed to
protect nearby residents from air and noise pollution.
• Bus lanes, with junction priority
• Modern metro system. There are five mainly radial lines, with a
further line (Line 9) proposed to cross the northern suburbs.
• Modern intercity and inter-regional rail services. A new
High-Speed Train (AVE) line is also being constructed.
• New tramway: 16 km Diagonal-Baix Llobregat tramway, linking the
city centre with the north-western suburbs
• Park and ride schemes at outlying rail stations.
• Integrated fares and ticketing: structure based on
zones and sectors covering the whole of the metropolitan area, provide an
average discount of 17% per journey.
• New noise-reducing road surfaces
• Ronda de Dalt and Ronda Littoral outer ring roads provide a bypass
for through-traffic and reduce cross-city journeys
• Gas-fired heating systems also cause air pollution
• Solar panels. All new
buildings are obliged by law to include solar panels for the production of
domestic hot water. Solar panels will also be added to new schools, hospitals,
sports halls and other buildings that use more than 2,000 litres of water per
day. Although these additions on average increase the price of buildings by 1%,
this additional cost would be paid off within five years as a result of reduced
energy demands
• Tourism
Tourists frequently stay late into the night playing music in the squares.
the Old Town (Ciutat Vella) is particularly badly affected
• Police take responsibility
for controlling anti social behaviour - from litter and noise to dog excreta.
Land-based
Pollution
Causes
Sustainable
Strategies
• Factory closures
• Soil pollution from toxic waste
• Reuse of brownfield sites with mixed developments: new parks
(Diagonal Mar), residential areas (Olympic Village), service industries (22@
High-Tech zone) etc..
• Development of parks on old industrial river-side land sites
(Beṣs riverside park)
• Domestic waste
Street waste storage bins are a characteristic of Barcelona streets. The most
densely populated districts often have refuse spilling from the bins onto the
streets. The inhabitants of Barcelona are producing larger and larger amounts of
waste materials
• Pneumatic refuse collection
system. New street developments are equipped with modern service galleries
which include a pneumatic refuse collection system. This eliminates all the
inconvenience associated with the classical systems, as well as the encumbrance
of bins and skips on the public thoroughfare and the impact of night time
collection.
Along the same lines new dwellings and commercial premises are
fitted with a pneumatic refuse collection system that enables residents to
dispose of their refuse on the landings of their apartment blocks.
• Recycling. A rubbish selective collection system has
been running in Barcelona for some time: a system based on the existence of
specific rubbish dumps to be used by the citizens on a voluntary basis - also
known as "Punts Brossa Neta" (Clean Rubbish Spots), -each of which is
comprised of three igloo-shaped rubbish containers in three different colours :
green for glass, blue for paper and cardboard, and yellow for lightweight
packaging
• Sewer system's capacity can be
surpassed when there is torrential rain
• Flood impact prevention:
retention tanks
Barcelona has a series of underground retention tanks built to prevent
discharges of untreated wastewater from the sewers.
