Regional Planning
Code: 42513 ECTS Credits: 9| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4313300 Regional and Population Studies | OT | 0 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Oriol Nel·lo Colom
- Email:
- Oriol.Nello@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
Teachers
- Oriol Nel·lo Colom
- Juan López Redondo
- Maria Buhigas San Jose
Prerequisites
The requirements for taking the Module are of three types:
Formative. You need to have a certain background in the field of territorial studies (degree in geography, environmental sciences, engineering, architecture, urban planning, economics, legal sciences). The other cases will be studied individually.
Instrumental. It is necessary to have a certain ability to use (at the user level) statistical and cartographic applications, as well as the ability to interpret technical and legal literature in terms of land planning.
Administrative. The "Advanced Themes", "Geographic Information Systems and Landscape" and "City and metropolitan regions" modules must be taken simultaneously, which, together with this one of "Territorial Planning", integrate the core program in which it articulates the Territorial Planning route of the master's degree during the first semester.
Instruments and materials for self-learning
At the beginning of the course, different materials and training resources will be available to those students who, due to the specialization of their previous training or their origin, consider that they need an additional work to adapt its level of training in the area of urban planning and land planning.
These materials will include self-evaluation mechanisms, but their content will not be evaluated separately within the framework of the module.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The Master's Degree in Territorial Studies and Population of the Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Barcelona aims to train professionals in the analysis and management of the territory. This year will dedicate its core program to the study and elaboration of proposals for the planning and management of public spaces in the city of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The complete program, which can be consulted in the 'Quadern de Troncal', is made up of four modules -Advanced Themes, Land Use Planning, Geographic Information Systems and Landscape, City and metropolitan areas-, conference cycles in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Bellaterra and the field work. Below you will find the content of the Territorial Planning module.
The planning of the territory: professional technique, administrative instrument and political design
The processes of transformation of the territory into contemporary societies are characterized by their speed and depth. The integration of space on a planetary scale and the progress of the urbanization process entail radical changes both in the structuring of urban systems, as in the occupation of the territory, the use of resources and the configuration of the landscape. Changes that are both the cause and effect of demographic dynamics, the organization of productive processes, the circulation of factors (capital, goods, information, labor power), social structure and the distribution of wealth.
At the regional level, in the European Mediterranean regions, the integration of the territory and the progress of the urbanization process during the last half century have been closely related to economic development, the diminution of territorial inequalities, the unification of labor markets and the greater accessibility to the services. However, the concretion of territorial transformations has also led to the emergence or worsening of various problems, linked to factors such as accelerated land use, dispersion ofurbanization, functional specialization of sites, increasing the cost of services, increasing mobility needs, wasting natural resources or the risks of social segregation.
In this context, in other words, in view of the potentialities and problems that arise from contemporary territorial transformations, the capacity of the public authorities to order the territory to the benefit of the community becomes increasingly important. For that reason it is necessary to equip itself with diagnosis, instruments and regulations able to orient, improve and, where appropriate, correct, the territorial dynamics in course. This is the field of territorial planning as a professional technique, as an administrative action and as a political design.
Objectives of the module: the knowledge of the instruments and the learning of the techniques
The module is included in the core programming of METIP 2020-2021, whose main purpose is to offer students the possibility to participate in the preparation, for didactic purposes, of an instrument for ordering the territory. For these purposes, all the modules of the first semester of the Master are integrated into a single program, configured, besides the didactic sessions, for an intensive field work exercise, two conference cycles and three weeks of workshops. The exercise proposed for this year is the preparation of a document on The planning and management of public spaces in the city of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and its surroundings.
In this context, the Territorial Planning module of the Master's Degree in Territorial and Population Studies is precisely aimed at improving the ability of students to intervene professionally in the planning of the territory. To do this, it will consist of three types of contents:
a) First of all, the various instruments available for the planning andmanagement of the territory will be studied.It will be based on the Catalan experience of the last decades in this field and, basedon the study of its achievements,with its potential andits limitations, will move towards acquiring knowledge and techniques of character general
b) Secondly, the specific problems of the planning and management of public spaces in urban environments will be analyzed, in a context characterized, on the one hand, by the presence of urban transformations - economic, social, physical - Particularly fast and, on the other, by an aggravation of the environmental problems - climate and resources.
c) Finally, various tendencies that are now being addressed in the field of urban and territorial planning will be presented and discussed, through formulas such as smart cities, cimate-proof planning, low-carbon city and green infrastructures.
Competences
- Apply the different methodologies of geographic and demographic analysis at different territorial levels and population sizes
- Assess the impact of the framework laws, economic, political and social in the demographic and territorial dynamics.
- Design projects of urban and regional planning using figures and methodologies appropriate territorial scales
- Detect the complexity of territorial and demographic dynamics and recognize the most efficient management mechanisms, particularly in conflict situations
- Promote the implementation and advancement of the principles of ecological, social and economic sustainability.
- Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply the rules of the territorial planning.
- Assess the implementation of laws and regulations of territorial planning, prepared at various administrative levels.
- Establish purposeful conclusions for territorial and population management.
- Evaluate the processes of territorial transformation and population using methodologies and tools related to theories of reference, able to measure the mechanisms of action and results.
- Know the main laws and of urban planning and land development
- Knowing the basics of Advanced Planning and territorial planning models.
- Knowing the different methodologies of analysis scale, applying knowledge in case studies.
- Promote the implementation and advancement of the principles of ecological, social and economic sustainability.
- Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
Content
In this context, the Territorial Planning module of the Master's Degree in Territorial and Population Studies is precisely aimed at improving the ability of students to intervene professionally in the planning of the territory. To do this, it will consist of three types of contents:
a) First of all, the various instruments available for the planning and management of the territory will be studied.It will be based on the Catalan experience of the last decades in this field and, basedon the study of its achievements,with its potential andits limitations, will move towards acquiring knowledge and techniques of character general
b) Secondly, the specific problems of the planning and management of public spaces in urban environments will be analyzed, in a context characterized, on the one hand, by the presence of urban transformations - economic, social, physical - Particularly fast and, on the other, by an aggravation of the environmental problems - climate and resources.
c) Finally, various tendencies that are now being addressed in the field of urban and territorial planning will be presented and discussed, through formulas such as smart cities, cimate-proof planning, low-carbon city and green infrastructures.
The final program of the Module will be the one that will appear in the 'Quadern de Bloc', where you will be able to consult the detailed calendar of each session, integrated with the subjects Geographic Information Systems and Landscape, City and Metropolitan Spaces and Advanced Themes.
Methodology
Course work and evaluation: the hands-on elaboration of a territorial planning tool
As mentioned, the module is part of the core program of METIP 2020-2021, a program whose main objective is to improve the students' ability to intervene directly as future professionals in the development and management of territory ordering instruments.
The objective of the core lessons of the first semester will be to provide students with conceptual and practical skills for the design and writing of urban planning instruments.
Thus, the module's program has been developed in a coordinated way with the rest of the modules of the semester, so that, in addition to the conceptual and instrumental contents, the necessary time is available so that the students can elaborate, for didactic purposes, a planning tool with all its elements.
The process will be structured in five stages:
a) Territorial recognition. Content: Explanatory report on the dynamics of urban transformation in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
b) Analysis of the public space of the municipality of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Content: Study of the public spaces and the urban voids of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
c) Identification of potentialities and risks. Content: elaboration of SWOT tables.
d) Establishment of criteria and objectives. Content: concept, criteria and proposal of specific objectives to be achieved in the planning exercise (for these purposes, objectives will be suggested contrasted with the various groups in order to make it evident the various possibilities of using planning).
e) Preparation of the projects and proposals for intervention. Content: proposals for the allocation and management of public spaces in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The activities that could not be done onsite will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools. Exercises, projects and lectures will be carried out using virtual tools such as tutorials, videos, Teams sessions, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Classroom sessions | 36 | 1.44 | 6, 5, 3 |
| Five days of fieldwork | 100 | 4 | 4, 7, 9 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Workshop sessions | 18 | 0.72 | 1, 8, 9 |
Assessment
The evaluation of the specific content of the module will consist of two parts:
a) 40% of the note will correspond to the first part and will be evaluated through an exam that will be carried out during the first fortnight of December.
b) The final grade of the module, as in the rest of the subjects comprising the core work, will be integrated 25% in relation to the results of the specific assessment, 65% in relation to the general group work and 10% in relation to the intervention of the student in the general progress of the exercise. The characteristics of the continuous assessment of the group work are common to all the modules that make up the core program and correspond to the following sections and relative weights:
1. Elaboration of territorial diagnosis (15%)
2. Development, debate and presentation of SWOT and the criteria (15%)
3. Development of proposals and projects (15%)
4. Final presentation of the proposals and projects (20%)
There will be the possibility of recovering the module's specific exam. Core work is not subject to re-evaluation.
VERY IMPORTANT: Total or partial plagiary of any of the exercises will automatically be considered “fail” (0) for the plagiarized item. Plagiary is copying one or more sentences from unidentified sources, presenting it as original work (THIS INCLUDES COPYING PHRASES OR FRAGMENTS FROM THE INTERNET AND ADDING THEM WITHOUT MODIFICATION TO A TEXT WHICH IS PRESENTED AS ORIGINAL). Plagiarism is a serious offense. Students must learn to respect the intellectual property of others, identifying any source they may use, and take responsibility for the originality and authenticity of the texts they produce.
In the event that assessment activities cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General group work | 65% | 40 | 1.6 | 7, 5, 3, 8, 9 |
| Participation of the student in debates, workshops and group work | 10% | 28 | 1.12 | 4, 3 |
| Specific content of the module | 25% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 4, 2, 6, 7, 5, 3, 9 |
Bibliography
The complete bibliography of the module is part of the 'Quadern de troncal'.