Planning strategies for a resilient urban fringe in three medium-sized Spanish cities

ABSTRACT

The fringes between urban areas and their surrounding territory usually concentrate strains of transformation and urban growth. Equally, planning strategies that promote the adaptation of urban development to the identity of territory contribute to the resilience of these urban fringes. This paper aims to illustrate this idea through the analysis of three of Spain’s inland medium-sized cities during the period of intense urban growth that started in the eighties and concluded in 2008. The cases of Vitoria, Zaragoza, and Valladolid clearly show the negative consequences of an expansive urban model in their urban fringes, but also the alternatives that slowly emerged over this period. While the main urban planning tools enabled an unsustainable urban expansion, other planning proposals introduced an alternative approach that mitigated the effects of the real estate boom and have paved the way towards a better future: Vitoria with its green infrastructure, Zaragoza with its integrated development effort that took advantage of an International Exhibition and Valladolid with its coordinated planning. These different tools have a key feature in common: a deep comprehension of their territories as the strongest foundation for conducting urban development in more sustainable ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• urban fringe
• medium-sized cities
• landscape
• contemporary urban history
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Juan Luis de las Rivas Sanz, Architect (1984) and PhD (1988) for the University of Navarra, is Full Professor of Urban Planning in the School of Architecture of the University of Valladolid, where he has been Director of both the Urban Planning Department and the Instituto Universitario de Urbanística (IUU). His research is oriented to the relationship between Nature and Urban Design rooted in the architectural basis of planning. In 2002 his work ‘Land Planning Guidelines for Valladolid and Its Surrounding Area’ obtained the 4th European Urban and Regional Planning Award, from the European Council of Town Planners (ECTP-CEU).

Miguel Fernández Maroto, Architect (2012) and Master of Research in Architecture (2014), is Assistant Lecturer of Urban Planning in the School of Architecture of the University of Valladolid and member of the Instituto Universitario de Urbanística (IUU). His current PhD research project focuses on the study of planning systems in Valladolid and other Spanish cities. He is also contributing to research projects and official commissions supported by the European Commission (Horizon 2020), the Castilla y León Regional Government and the municipality of Valladolid.

ORCID

Juan Luis de las Rivas Sanz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1235-1292

Miguel Fernández-Maroto http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6853-2167

Notes

1 Walker, Salt and Raid, Resilience Thinking, 13.

2 Folke, Carpenter, Walker, Scheffer, Chapin and Rockström, “Resilience Thinking.”

3 Pickett, McGrath and Cadenasso. “The Ecology of the Metacity”, 486.

4 Forman, Urban Ecology. Science of Cities, 75.

5 Ahern, “From fail-safe to safe-to-fail.”

6 A previous version of this study was presented in the 17th IPHS Conference (Delft, 2016).

7 Whitehand, “British Urban Morphology.”

8 Whitehand, “Urban fringe belts.”

9 Vilagrasa, “The fringe-belt concept.”

10 Batty, “Cities as Fractals”, 48–9.

11 Troitiño, “Las áreas urbanas”, 28.

12 González, “Spain”, 485.

13 Naredo, “El modelo inmobiliario español y sus consecuencias.”

14 Romero, Jiménez and Villoria, “(Un)sustainable territories”, 471.

15 Vitoria City Council, “Green Belt of Vitoria.”

16 Grupo de Estudios y Alternativas GEA 21, GEO Vitoria-Gasteiz, 85 (Quotation translated by authors).

17 De las Rivas Sanz, “Urban regeneration”, 75.

18 Monclús, International Exhibitions and Urbanism, 119.

19 Monclús, International Exhibitions and Urbanism, 119–120.

20 De la Cal and Pellicer, Ríos y ciudades.

21 Monclús, International Exhibitions and Urbanism, 129–130.

22 De las Rivas Sanz, “La ordenación de los procesos metropolitanos”, 303 (Quotation translated by authors).

23 De las Rivas Sanz, “La ordenación de los procesos metropolitanos”, 314 (Quotation translated by authors).

24 Ahern, “From fail-safe to safe-to-fail”, 343.

25 Marcucci, “Landscape history as a planning tool.”

26 Portas, “El planeamiento urbano”, 104–5.

27 Méndez Gutiérrez del Valle, “Estrategias de innovación.”