The new addition to our StoryMaps collection focuses on gentrification patterns in Barcelona over the past ten years and offers specific anti-gentrification policy tools for more inclusive greening.
For the past year, BCNUEJ has worked on visualizing our quantitative and qualitative data on the adverse impacts of urban greening interventions in European and North American cities through diverse media, including interactive web documentaries with testimonial videos from affected communities, short films and our StoryMaps series on gentrification and greening.
Our StoryMaps collection in particular explores how urban greening interventions in various cities across the US and Europe, despite addressing diverse socio-environmental challenges, often result in a greenspace paradox—either causing or exacerbating inequalities among vulnerable communities, rather than providing benefits to all residents.
In our latest edition to this collection, which includes the cities of Atlanta, Washington D.C, Nantes and Dublin, we look at greening and gentrification in Barcelona. In it, we highlight:
- The history of Barcelona and how it has impacted current greening and sustainability plans implemented in the city
- The changing magnitude of gentrification across the city over a ten year period based on diverse gentrification indicators
- Two policy tools that can be implemente as anti-gentrification and inclusive greening measures
The new collection offers citizens and policymakers a closer look at how green space, which is generally perceived by default as positive interventions, can be detrimental to certain communities if they are not implemented in parallel with thoughtful anti-gentrification measures.
To learn more about Green gentrification in European and North American cities, read our new open-access article in Nature!
Explore the Barcelona StoryMap and the full StoryMap collection here.
Download our Policy and Planning Toolkit (2021) for a guide to addressing urban green justice issues in other regional contexts.
