General objectives

The PDU represents an opportunity to respond to the specific principles and values of a society that aspires to enjoy a healthy, democratic, equitable, socially just, sustainable and resilient metropolitan area.

• 1. REINFORCE METROPOLITAN SOLIDARITY
  

  
  As many of the problems go beyond the municipal area, they must be addressed from a metropolitan perspective that ensures that common interests are maintained and safeguards the public interest of the entire area, without losing sight of the each municipality's distinctive personality. 
  
  The PDU is an instrument of solidarity thanks to its ability to adapt its stipulations to the different municipal scenarios, while protecting and reinforcing the interests of the area as a whole.
• 2. ENHANCE THE METROPOLITAN CAPITAL STATUS
  

  
  The strategic location of the city of Barcelona has historically given it a leading role in the territory of Catalonia. The territorial dynamics of growth have established new links that require this capital status to encompass the municipalities of the surrounding area which today make up the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
  
  The PDU must reinforce this metropolitan capital status by strengthening the role historically played by the Barcelona area as the backbone of the metropolitan region and the capital of Catalonia, and extend it into the international system of cities based on its characteristics and values as a Mediterranean metropolis.
• 3. NATURALISE THE TERRITORY BY FOSTERING THE VALUES OF THE BIOPHYSICAL MATRIX
  

  
  Although turning the majority of the urban parks into public land has represented a significant environmental improvement, other areas of opportunity should also be subject to this systematic consideration with a view to increasing and enhancing those that already exist.<
  
  The PDU must overcome the current paradigm by adopting an approach in which green spaces and tree-lined areas are capable of providing culture and leisure, environmental regulation, and provisioning services. It must enable the organisation of spaces that strengthen ecosystem functions and areas for public use and enjoyment.
• 4. IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE URBAN METABOLISM AND MINIMISE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
  

  
  The self-sufficiency of the metropolitan territory is limited inasmuch as it depends on external resources for energy, water, etc. However, it has great potential to reduce consumption levels and, therefore, global environmental impacts, which are largely generated in cities.
  
  The PDU must foster the consumption of resources in accordance with their availability: energy from renewable sources, more local and efficient sources of water and food, and the possibilities of reuse and recycling. Good planning and management in the territorial area are necessary to improve efficiency in the use of resources.
• 5. ARTICULATE THE TERRITORY BASED ON A POLYCENTRIC STRUCTURE
  

  
  Metropolitan urban development has been determined by many pressures and demands, in which the urban fabrics and the infrastructure network have not always been in line with a metropolitan approach. Consequently, some urban areas are fragmented by infrastructures like motorways and railway lines or lack a central space for public gatherings.
  
  The PDU must increase the connectivity of the territory by redesigning the functions of its mobility infrastructure and equipping the metropolitan area with a structure made up of a plethora of different centres that guarantees access to basic services and facilities.
• 6. PROMOTE ACTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY BY RETHINKING METROPOLITAN INFRASTRUCTURE
  

  
  While there has been significant improvement in the metropolitan public transport network in recent decades, the widespread use of cars still has a major physical, functional and environmental impact on the metropolitan area and its population.
  
  The PDU must promote active and sustainable mobility that takes full advantage of technological and information innovations to create an increasingly accessible, healthy and inclusive city, in which metropolitan continuities and recovering public space for the public are priorities. To respond to this new mobility model, the PDU must assess the existing infrastructure and detect the necessary transformation possibilities, incorporate new actions and take into account existing projects.
• 7. PROMOTE SOCIAL COHESION THROUGH HOUSING, THE PUBLIC SPACE, FACILITIES AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT
  

  
  The most recent economic recession reversed a long process of social cohesion, and has led to the emergence of worrying signs of segregation in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, as is the case in many Western societies. Urban planning may reduce inequality by making the characteristics of the environment meet the majority of needs oriented towards improving people's quality of life.
  
  The PDU must contribute to reducing social segregation in four vectors that will improve citizens' quality of life: housing, facilities and services, open spaces, and public transport.
• 8. RESTORE AND RECYCLE URBAN FABRICS
  

  
  The area devoted to urban land has tripled in 50 years, and has often followed a land-use model based on dispersion. This model endangers the ecological functions of open spaces and the sustainability of the entire metropolis.
  
  The PDU must consider land as an asset that is scarce and valuable, and work primarily with the existing urban fabrics to increase their quality and energy efficiency and enhance their urban heritage through restoration and recycling.
• 9. INCREASE URBAN COMPLEXITY AND HABITABILITY
  

  
  Many of the trips made on a daily basis by the population are due to the functional specialisation of the land, that is, increasingly long distances are generated between where we live and where we work. The infrastructure necessary to sustain this mobility has consequently occupied an increasing amount of space and has reduced the habitability of cities to the detriment of collective uses, green spaces and pedestrian areas.
  
  The PDU must guarantee complexity, that is, the diversity of uses and habitability of the fabrics with a view to balancing the proportion between residence and activity. Increasing complexity is an opportunity to promote urban green spaces, the production of energy and other resources, and the harmonious coexistence of residential uses and economic activity.
• 10. PROMOTE THE COMPETITIVENESS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE METROPOLITAN ECONOMY
  

  The constant process of internationalisation and the increasingly rapid nature of processes for exchanging information have forced production and service activities to engage in restructuring and become more flexible in order to remain competitive. At the same time, specific local characteristics are increasingly important in this scenario of internationalisation, which tends to make places uniform.
  
  The PDU must ensure the conditions necessary for the development of diverse economic activities that are capable of adapting over time, but also urban and social environments that can take advantage of synergies, the personality of local products, the solidity of local networks and the benefits of neighbourhoods.