Open Data from Spain’s Urban Analyses of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods between 1991 and 2011
Spain’s Urban Analyses of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods have examined urban vulnerability in its 147 largest cities through expressly elaborated neighbourhood-scale delimitations. The open data project developed here is based on these analyses and makes them available to the public on the e-ScienceData portal. The analyses are part of the Observatory of Urban Vulnerability of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and serve as a starting point for the design of urban public policies.
National
Spain
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-02-01
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: José Manuel Last name: Gómez Giménez Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Travesía de Téllez, 2, 5ºF Town: Madrid Postal code: 28007 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 636 83 23 45 E-mail:jm.gomez@upm.es Website:http://vps181.cesvima.upm.es/quienes-somos/
First name: Iván Last name: Rodríguez Suárez Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Calle Santa Julia, 38, 4ºB Town: Madrid Postal code: 28053 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 637 72 18 66 E-mail:jm.gomez@upm.es Website:http://vps181.cesvima.upm.es/quienes-somos/
First name: Agustín Last name: Hernández Aja Gender: Male Nationality: Spain Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Calle Wad-Ras, 19, 2ºC Town: Madrid Postal code: 28039 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 648 60 52 55 E-mail:agustin.hernandez@upm.es Website:http://vps181.cesvima.upm.es/quienes-somos/
After more than two decades of work, architects and researchers from the Technical University of Madrid and the Research Group on Architecture, Urbanism and Sustainability have made the data from the Spain’s Urban Analyses of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods available in open access on the on-line portal e-cienciaDatos.
These data examine the evolution between 1991 and 2011 of the spatial patter of urban vulnerability in Spanish cities with more than fifty thousand inhabitants and provincial capitals. They also analyse the concentrations of the immigrant population with limited resources in 2006 and 2011. These analyses can serve as a starting point for the design of public policies of urban regeneration.
The objective of these works has been to locate the neighbourhoods in which the conditions of the resident population are significantly worse than those of the entire Spanish population. They constitute a reflection on deprivation and vulnerability from an urban perspective, focused on the determination and analysis of specific settlements that are in a worse situation than the rest of the Spanish urban fabrics, and that can constitute pieces that due to their size, autonomy and homogeneity may be the object of intervention plans or programs that improve their position. They also offer an overview of the urban vulnerability of Spanish cities over the two decades they cover, allowing the analysis of both the existing imbalances in a city, region, or the entire country, as well as their evolution over the studied period.
Open data
Urban vulnerability
Deprived neigbourhoods
Residential segregation
Inequality
The location of the neighbourhoods in which the conditions of the residents are significantly worse than those of the rest of the urban population is fundamental in terms of sustainability in a broad environmental but also social sense.
Firstly, these neighbourhoods concentrate the greatest need for residential rehabilitation. The aim is both to improve the energy efficiency of its dwelling buildings and minimise energy poverty. This particularly affects the most deprived households (among them, single-parent households are an important group), but also in general the oldest housing stock in our cities. In this way, we will contribute to reducing energy losses in buildings. This objective is essential in the current climate emergency scenario. The building sector is the second largest contributor to the emission of pollutant gases and carbon into the atmosphere after transport in Spanish cities.
Secondly, it is a matter of pure equity for a fairer society. These neighbourhoods have fewer public resources and are less accessible. Both at street level and inside their buildings and, in many cases, with respect to the rest of the city. These realities have a negative impact on the quality of life of their residents. And they particularly affect the older population and newly arrived residents. By improving the habitability and accessibility of buildings, we will substantially improve their quality of life and strengthen the community's sense of belonging.
Thirdly, this would be a major investment in social terms. To explain this, we will talk about the consequences of the inhabited space on the life trajectory with the term ‘neighbourhood effect’, which will be explained in the section about the key objectives of our project in terms of inclusion.
The recent making publicly available of the delimited perimeters and associated databases in reusable formats, adjusting the data to the general principles of transparency and good governance, may represent a milestone in this respect, but it is still too early to assess its repercussions. The possibilities for improving the dissemination of the information produced for the Analyses are still extensive. From now on, the task ahead should be to continue improving the usefulness of the information.
It would be desirable to increase the use of these Analyses as a tool to support the diagnosis of areas in need of intervention, or for the evaluation and monitoring of public policies. These data are being used in various plans and projects such as the Spanish Urban Agenda or the Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development Strategies (EDUSI), and have been used in various planning or municipal diagnosis instruments, although the Catalogue is not always explicitly mentioned, as may be the case in state housing policies, where a programme-memory is required for the declaration of urban rehabilitation and regeneration areas that receive public funding and in which their use could be of great interest.
Of course, each neighbourhood needs specific solutions in terms of design and quality of experience, but in all cases the first step is to consider them as places where urban regeneration policies need to be implemented. Many of these neighbourhoods face stigma due to their poor construction quality, location around major infrastructural barriers and other associated problems, such as a perceived lack of safety. With the publication of this data, their residents, who in many cases have an over-represented migrant and ageing population, can become empowered, become aware of the dimension of this widespread problem, and generate links of solidarity among themselves to demand improvements in their neighbourhoods.
There are two schools of thought that explain the impact of urban segregation, the concentration of the most privileged and the most vulnerable population groups in differentiated spaces. The first shows that is merely a translation of social differences. And, above all, of the economic inequalities they entail. The different groups will live in those areas that best suit their spending possibilities. Without other conditioning factors, the larger our cities are, the greater the segregation and the gap between different social groups will be. The second one adds that the place of residence has important consequences for the reproduction of social relations. To demonstrate this, they use the concept of "neighbourhood effect". This effect implies that the concentration of vulnerable populations in certain areas aggravates their initial situation. This hampers the chances of improvement for the next generations. Its impact is particularly significant for children and remains present in the long term. They are even more pronounced in the case of migrant populations.
Is it not more edifying to have a historic garden or a library nearby than a housing estate or an infrastructural barrier? Is it not easier to innovate in a school where the pupils are not materially deprived? Nothing is categorically determined. But the advantages and privileges at the outset are undeniable. As is the vulnerability faced by certain urban spaces. The "neighbourhood effect" is a reality. Starting disadvantages condition the future of children living in vulnerable neighbourhoods. This is why we should all push for greater opportunities for them. We cannot afford to waste their talent. Or their potential for innovation. Let us not let this opportunity pass us by. Let us ensure that extraordinary resources are directed towards redressing extraordinary inequalities. This project is just the initial drop to make visible to the public where these spaces are in our cities.
As mentioned above, many of these neighbourhoods face stigma due to their poor construction quality, their location around major infrastructural barriers, increased institutional neglect and other associated problems, such as a perceived lack of security. With the publication of this data, their residents, who in many cases have an over-represented migrant and ageing population, can become aware of a common widespread problem, empowered, and generate links of solidarity among themselves to demand more investments to improve the places where they live.
It is in these neighbourhoods where the greatest need for refurbishment of the housing stock is concentrated. On the one hand, the aim is to minimise energy poverty, which particularly affects the neediest households, including single-parent households. On the other hand, we will contribute to reducing energy losses due to the low efficiency of buildings. This is a fundamental objective in the current climate emergency scenario. In addition, the lack of accessibility and the differential in the number of facilities and equipment in these areas lead to isolation and loss of quality of life, especially affecting the ageing population and young people with fewer resources. These are the groups that will benefit most from neighbourhood improvement actions.
The works began in 1996 within the framework of a project developed within the OECD, of which Spain was a participant, and whose objective was to study the situation of "disadvantaged neighbourhoods". The project envisaged the drafting of a report by the Ministry of Public Works analysing the characteristics of these neighbourhoods and the measures that national governments should develop for the integration of public policies in them.
The Analyses were drawn up on behalf of the Spanish Government, through the Ministries of Public Works and Housing (currently the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda), by a large team of researchers, newly qualified architects and professors of the Research Group on Architecture, Urban Planning and Sustainability (GIAU+S) of the School of Architecture of Madrid, through the Juan de Herrera Institute, under the direction of Agustín Hernández Aja. The coordinators for the Ministry were Eduardo de Santiago Rodríguez and Ángela de la Cruz Mera, for the 2001 and 2011 editions, and Félix Arias Goytre for the 1991 edition. The Ministry was provided with technical assistance for the processing of the data from the company Analística for the 1991 Analysis, and Argea Consultores for the 2001 and 2011 editions. The statistical data used were provided by the National Statistical Institute.
The full credits of the working teams of each analysis can be found in the publication ‘Vulnerable neighbourhoods in large Spanish cities. 1991/ 2001/ 2011’ at http://oa.upm.es/51015
The edition of open data published in e-cienciaDatos was carried out by Iván Rodríguez Suárez, José Manuel Gómez Giménez and Agustín Hernández Aja in February 2021. The data were deposited by the UPM University Library and produced on different dates: the 1991 Analysis in 1996; the 2001 Analysis in 2008, 2009 and 2010; the 2011 Analysis in 2013, 2015 and 2010; and the 2011 Analyses in 2013, 2015 and 2016; and the open data edition in 2020.
The three Analyses made public, and especially the first two, as they included field work which allowed us to get to know the cities analysed and establish contact with the municipal technical services, constituted a training laboratory for town planners at the Madrid School of Architecture, as they required intensive work carried out over several years by a large group of students, recently qualified architects, and professors. Some of the members of the team have participated in the drafting of more than one of the Catalogues, which, together with the direction of the three Catalogues by Agustín Hernández Aja, on behalf of the Polytechnic University, and in the last two, by Eduardo de Santiago Rodríguez, on behalf of the Ministry, has made it possible to provide them with continuity and coherence, while avoiding the possible limitations derived from the methodology and means used and their discontinuous delay over two decades.
In the elaboration of this extensive work, researchers, professors, and students in the field of architecture and urban planning have been involved. For many of them, this work has been a laboratory for approaching, training and deepening urban research. But also, the work of the municipal technicians from the cities studied have been fundamental and, of course, the help of social organisations working in these cities, among which the field of social sciences was the majority. They are the ones who know best the urban reality of their respective cities, their needs, and the alternatives for their improvement.
Finally, in order to make the work available to the public, it was inevitable to count on the support of the IT staff from the Technical University of Madrid.
The results of the Analyses are the boundaries of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods (VN), their statistical indicators associated, and the delimitation of neighbourhoods with significant concentrations of immigrant population (IN). All of this materializes in a set of databases, layers of geographic information and a set of organized files made from both. First, a local characterisation sheet for each of the municipalities in which there are VNs. Second, location of the VNs detected in each municipality. Third, a statistical sheet for the VN with its delimitation, basic indicators, and a battery of complementary indicators. Fourth, urban planning file of the VN, with a qualitative analysis of the place describing its growth pattern, origin, main public actions carried out, and problems and opportunities detected.
After analysing these datasets, we found a significant increase in the number of vulnerable neighbourhoods. In the aggregate, 370 VN were detected in 1991, 621 in 2001, and 918 in 2011. The central conclusion of the research is that during the two decades analysed the internal imbalances of Spanish cities increased significantly and continuously, in a double process of expansion and spatial concentration of vulnerable population, regardless of market condition and political juncture. Between 1991 and 2011 the population of Spain grew by about 20 %. It increased by one fifth. Meanwhile, the population in vulnerable neighbourhoods shot up by more than 130 %.
In terms of social impact, since the dataset was uploaded, 4.213 files have been downloaded, representing 24.1% of the total downloads from the e-ScienceData portal. These data have been used by social organisations, municipalities, and regional institutions to develop policy strategies for urban regeneration and social demands for neighbourhood improvement.
The Spanish Urban Agenda, in line with the European Urban Agenda and with the consolidation of bodies or instruments that detect, analyse, or monitor areas with conditions of vulnerability in the European context, refers to the Observatories of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods as useful tools for this purpose and the suitability of applying integrated or comprehensive instruments to them. The Vulnerable Neighbourhood Analyses are also proposed as a source of monitoring and evaluation indicators for objectives 2.5. Promote urban regeneration and 6.1. Promote social cohesion and seek equity. The data derived from these analyses should always be free to use, which is the main purpose of this project. Its methodology and results must be open to criticism by researchers, social organisations, and civil society, which should always be able to put forward proposals for improvement and alternatives, as well as to use them to promote social demands.
The Neighbourhood Analyses provide a broad overview of urban vulnerability in Spanish cities that opens up reflection on its possible causes and how it can be remedied. Their objective is to characterise urban vulnerability from the perspective of urban quality of life as a multidimensional construct, establishing the need to identify the problems and opportunities of these neighbourhoods, anticipating in some way the concept of urban resilience, and establishing as a priority the need to provide these areas and their inhabitants with the necessary conditions to maintain or recover their status as citizens and citizens. The data are, therefore, useful tools for determining the phenomenon of urban vulnerability in Spain and for the development of integrated urban regeneration, thanks to the information produced and the urban delimitation of the neighbourhoods they contain.
The Analyses of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods have been published in three editions for the years 1991, 2001 and 2011. All Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were studied. The delimitations were based on data from the Population and Housing Censuses. Three indicators were used: the concentration of population with low levels of education, the unemployment rate, and the accumulation of dwellings with material deprivation. All the neighbourhoods listed exceeded one or more of the benchmark values. And these cut-offs were set at figures well above the state average indicators. Moreover, these variables are highly correlated with other variables such as income, lack of accessibility, the need for building refurbishment and energy inefficiency.
The delimitations of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods are carried out through a double process of statistical and spatial urban analysis. First, definition of the Basic Indicators of Urban Vulnerability. Second, obtaining the variables disaggregated by census section. Third, establishment of the Reference Values for the indicators that allow an area to be considered vulnerable. Fourth, delimitation of Vulnerable Statistical Areas (VSA), by calculating the basic indicators for groups of census sections that exceed one of the reference values. Fifth, delimitation of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods (VN). All editions of the Analyses have sought to delimit spatial areas with a sufficient degree of homogeneity and spatial continuity to enable action to be taken on them with the tools of urban planning. To this end, the VSAs were reviewed through desk and field work, in which they were verified and contrasted with the municipal technical services to encompass fabrics without significant spatial discontinuities, morphological or due to the structure of the city, so that the final result was the delimitation of a Vulnerable Neighbourhood, on which projects of a socio-urbanistic nature could be developed.
Firstly, the methodology and process to delimit statistical and urban perimeters of Vulnerable Neighbourhoods based on three basic indicators (housing, education, and unemployment) can perfectly been transferred to other places. Sendly, the type of digital platform for making the data available to the public can also be replicated.
These Neighbourhoods Analyses consider two of the aspects referred to in the use of the concept of vulnerability: the diversity of dimensions involved, and their different levels of intensity. The multidimensional nature is reflected in the use of three indicators, two of which refer to the socio-economic conditions of the population and the other to those of the residential support. In each delimited area, one or more of these dimensions of vulnerability may be present.
The levels of intensity are evaluated by means of a classification system that allows a wide spectrum of situations to be graded, ranging from the mildest, in positions of risk prior to any real consequences for the inhabitants, to the most acute, in which the population is already in a situation of social exclusion. This proposed classification system is also intended to be a simple method for representing and communicating the level of vulnerability in each of the defined areas.
The contents of each edition of the Analyses can be divided into two large packages of contributions: the usefulness of the socio-demographic information and its body of study, which includes the time range and the determination of the cities studied; and the urban planning, which, together with the conception of urban quality of life as a multidimensional construct, is a fundamental contribution of these data, as it indicates areas suitable for comprehensive urban intervention.
Spanish cities have almost a thousand vulnerable neighbourhoods according to these data. The new policies and projects resulting from the New European Bauhaus, the Spanish Urban Agenda, the European Green Pact, or the NextGenerationEU Recovery Funds should be an opportunity to reduce their deficiencies. Vulnerable neighbourhoods are urban areas where the conditions of their inhabitants are significantly worse than those of the city to which they belong. This situation means greater exposure to risks and uncertainties. In addition, they have less capacity and resources to overcome the problems they face.
What kind of risks and uncertainties are we referring to? Fear of job loss or difficulty in finding a job. Precarious wages. Feeling unprotected by the administrations. Lack of education. Insecurity in facing a changing labour market. The inability to cover basic needs, such as adequate food or thermal comfort in the home. Lack of relationships and support networks in case of need. isolation and loneliness Poor accessibility to the rest of the city. These are a diverse set of circumstances. The sum of these circumstances is a very varied form of vulnerability, with varying degrees of intensity. Urban vulnerability is therefore the result of the relationship between different dimensions. This does not mean that their inhabitants do not possess extraordinary resilience capacities to face them. And, sometimes, to overcome them. However, the sum of the multiple disadvantages they suffer often generates processes of discomfort. And these lead to a loss of hope in the possibility of improving current living conditions.
Contributing to reducing the negative effects of the urban environment on the worst-off populations is essential to contribute to a fairer, more stable, peaceful, and sustainable society, facing our common future with strengthened social cohesion.
