Spatial and Socio-environmental Dynamics of Catalan Regional Planning from a Multivariate Statistical Analysis Using 1980s and 2000s Data

Abstract

This article summarizes the protocol applied to analyse the spatial consequences of diverse regional plans included in the General Spatial Planning of Catalonia (GSPC) municipalities since 1985. The main aims of the GSPC were to achieve a more balanced distribution of population, avoiding Barcelona metropolitan region congestion, coastal overcrowding and mountain areas depopulation, and to improve mobility infrastructures and social welfare. The methodology used was based on factor analysis that reduced 30 socioeconomic and geographic variables provided by different sources into a smaller number of common factors. Afterwards a non-hierarchical clustering was employed to simplify the analysis of dynamics. The six first common factors retained in the model explained the 82.6% of total variance. After labelling them, six clusters were mapped to describe the most important dynamics: urban sprawl, urbanalization, depopulation, reterritorialization and coastalization. Finally, some socio-environmental consequences of such dynamics are discussed.

Acknowledgements

This research has been developed within the framework of two projects funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya: Applied Geography Research Group (2009SGR106) and GRUMETS Research Group (2009SGR1511). The authors would like to thank Cristina Calvo and the Servei d'Estadística Aplicada from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona for their support and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.