El artículo explora la relación entre las desigualdades sociales y la transición energética en el área metropolitana de Barcelona. Así, se analiza hasta qué punto el necesario proceso de mejora de la eficiencia energética y la descarbonización pueden verse asociados no a una reducción sino a un incremento de las desigualdades. Por un lado, se constata como la población de rentas más bajas reside en parques inmobiliarios ineficientes y tiene menor propensión que la media a tomar medidas para mejorar dicha situación. Por otro lado, las áreas más acomodadas presentan una mayor propensión a la implementación de sistemas de autogeneración eléctrica, así como mayor presencia de vehículos eléctricos. La concentración territorial de ambas situaciones puede venir consolidar procesos de desigualdad social y segregación espacial, lo cual hace necesario la adopción de políticas correctivas.

The article explores the relationship between social inequalities and the energy transition in the Barcelona metropolitan area. Thus, it analyzes to what extent the necessary process of improving energy efficiency and decarbonization can be associated not with a reduction but with an increase in inequalities. On the one hand, it is confirmed that the population with the lowest incomes resides in inefficient real estate parks and has a lower propensity than the average to take measures to improve the said situation. On the other hand, the more affluent areas have a greater propensity to implement self-generated electricity systems, as well as a greater presence of electric vehicles. The territorial concentration processes of both situations can come to consolidate social inequality and spatial segregation, which makes it necessary to adopt corrective policies.

The objective of this article is to explore the transformation of open spaces based on the extension and deepening of the urbanization process on a planetary scale, a process that today concerns the entire territory and has rendered obsolete the old distinctions between urban and rural spaces. To do this, the research analyzes land uses in two very diverse areas-the Iberian Mediterranean coast and the Ecuadorian Amazon-to show how urban activities are transforming, in both cases, the uses of open spaces. The comparison starts with the reading of nocturnal satellite images, which allows analysis of the intensity of the uses of the territory from the emitted luminosity. The results obtained through radiance levels show the relationship between the evolution of luminosity and the economic dynam-ics implemented in the territories analyzed and allows verification of the importance of permanent anthropic uses in the open spaces of both territories.

El artículo tiene por objeto explorar la transformación de los espacios abiertos a raíz de la extensión y profundización del proceso de urbanización a escala planetaria, proceso que atañe hoy al conjunto del territorio y ha dejado obsoletas las viejas distinciones entre espacios urbanos y rurales. Para ello, estudia los usos del suelo en dos áreas muy diversas —el litoral mediterráneo ibérico y la Amazonía de Ecuador— para mostrar cómo las actividades urbanas están transformando, en uno y otro caso, los usos de los espacios abiertos. La comparación parte de la lectura de imágenes satelitales nocturnas, que permite analizar la intensidad de los usos del territorio a partir de la luminosidad emitida. Los resultados obtenidos a través de los niveles de radiancia muestran la relación entre la evolución de la luminosidad y las dinámicas económicas implantadas en los territorios analizados, lo que permite constatar la importancia de los usos antrópicos permanentes en los espacios abiertos de ambos territorios.

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which is more knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability.

Spatial inequalities in living conditions have traditionally been attributed to geographical location, the opposition between urban and rural settings or the size of settlements. Accordingly, the geographical literature has used these oppositions to explain not only differences in access to education, work and services but also diversity of lifestyles, beliefs and even political attitudes. In recent decades, however, urban areas have extended their scope, urbanization has become more dispersed, territories have become more interdependent and spatial hierarchies have tended to weaken. At the same time, social inequalities have become more marked, as manifested spatially by residential segregation. This article puts forward the thesis that residential segregation constitutes a considerably better explanatory factor currently for the elucidation of social inequalities and differences in living conditions in regional spaces than geographical location, the urban/rural divide or the size of settlements. A set of key indicators in the population of residents in Catalonia (level of education, socio-economic position, risk of poverty, self-perceived health and life satisfaction) are therefore analyzed from various spatial perspectives to explore this argument and evaluate each indicator's explanatory potential. The main results seem to confirm the hypothesis that the most striking spatial inequalities are associated with residential segregation.

Blanco, Ismael i Nel·lo, Oriol (eds.) (2018)Barrios y crisis. Crisis económica, segregación urbana e innovación social en Cataluña València: Tirant lo Blanch, 225 p.ISBN 978-84-17203-31-3

The article analyzes for the metropolitan area of Barcelona, the differentiated behavior of the population with respect to daily mobility in a highly exceptional situation: the health and social crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research is based on the analysis of the validations of the transport tickets on weekdays to access the railway transport modes (metro, suburban railway and tram), in relation to the mean income of the area where each of the accesses is made. The research starts from the hypothesis according to which the capacity of individuals to manage their mobility in the city is directly related to their income and social capital, that is, their greater or lesser vulnerability. The evidence provided confirms that during the period under study people living in vulnerable areas have been able to reduce their mobility less and more slowly than the rest of the population. This shows how, in a context in which low mobility becomes a precious resource when it comes to protecting one's health and well-being, the inability to reduce daily commuting becomes both cause and expression of social exclusion.

El artículo analiza el comportamiento diferenciado de la población con respecto a la movilidad cotidiana en una situación altamente excepcional: la crisis sanitaria y social provocada por la pandemia de la COVID-19. La investigación, centrada en el área metropolitana de Barcelona, se basa en el análisis de las validaciones de los títulos de transporte en días laborables para acceder a los modos de transporte ferroviario (metro, ferrocarril suburbano y tranvía), en relación con la renta media del territorio donde se produce cada uno de los accesos al sistema. La investigación parte de la hipótesis según la cual la capacidad de cada persona de gestionar su movilidad en la ciudad se relaciona directamente con los recursos económicos y el capital social del que dispone, es decir, de su mayor o menor vulnerabilidad. La evidencia aportada permite confirmar que las personas residentes en entornos más vulnerables han podido reducir menos y más lentamente su movilidad que el resto de la población. Se muestra así cómo, en un contexto en el cual baja movilidad pasa a ser un recurso preciado a la hora de proteger la propia salud y bienestar, la incapacidad de reducir los desplazamientos deviene causa y expresión de la exclusión social.

The contribution shares the approach of critical urban studies that have conceptualized urbanization more as a process than as a sum of spatial forms. Thus, the contribution studies the urbanization process not only from the point of view of the physical occupation of land but also considers changes in the intensity of the uses of space. To fulfill this aim, the new sources of nocturnal satellite images are particularly useful. These allow us to observe the intensity of urban uses both in terms of their distribution over space and their recurrence over time. The research focuses on the Iberian Mediterranean coast and permits the verification of the intensity of the urban uses of the space for the whole of this area and their seasonal variations throughout the year. The source of the study are the nighttime satellite images of the Earth for the 2012–2017 period from the NASA SNPP satellite equipped with the VIIRS-DNB instrument. By establishing a threshold of urban light the research shows that those districts with the greatest extensions of urban light do not necessarily correspond with the most densely populated areas. Similarly the absence of urban light does not necessarily indicate the absence of urban uses. Finally, the variations of intensity of light prove to be a good indicator of seasonal variations of activity in tourist areas.

The European urban system has experienced significant transformations over the last two decades, affecting both the system's articulation and hierarchy, and the morphology of urban areas. The sources of information on land use, although increasingly precise and exhaustive, present some limitations when it comes to identifying and quantifying this development, particularly due to their sporadic nature. In this context, the advances in the availability, precision, territorial coverage and recurrence of night-time satellite images offer new opportunities to assess the transformation of land uses. Under the assumption that there is a direct relationship between light emissions and the level of urbanisation, the present study identifies the development of the European urban system between 1992 and 2012. In this respect, the level of brightness suggests that the extension of urban land uses has been much greater than those calculated by using other sources, such as aerial photography or planning regulations. The contrast with these sources demonstrates that, even though night-time images are subject to significant limitations, their use can have advantages in the explanation of new patterns of land use. Thus, brightness could contribute to a more complex picture of the urbanization process, measuring not only the artificialisation of land but also the spread and intensity of urban uses of space.