Line of action:

Urban environments

Status:

En ejecución

Location:

Tarragona (Catalonia)

Execution date:

2022

Duration:

01/06/2022-31/12/2025

The municipality of Tarragona, with a surface area of more than 62.5 km2, is located in a very diverse coastal territory, and marked by its geographical structure, with a coastline of more than 6.5 km, two alluvial valleys (Gaià and Francolí rivers) and agricultural areas of orchards and forest areas on calcareous hills. The level of urbanisation in the municipality is very high (over 30%) and the fragmentation is enormous, given that the municipality has numerous nuclei and neighbourhoods detached from the urban fabric and, in addition, large industrial facilities (port, petrochemical estates) and commercial-logistical facilities. On the other hand, Tarragona is located in the passage of the Mediterranean communication infrastructure corridor and also opens its doors to the interior of the peninsula (Ebro valley). The result is a matrix of disconnected interstitial open spaces between residential, industrial, commercial and communication infrastructures, which are highly susceptible to the effect of phenomena linked to the climate crisis (forest fires, damage to the coastline by storms, serious risks of flooding in its river network). In addition, the set of these spaces has a high pressure and load of public use. In the past, Tarragona City Council has developed a Master Plan for Green Areas and an urban figure called the “Green Belt” mapped in the Municipal Urban Development Plan, which incorporates most of these spaces, but there is no strategic, planned and coordinated action on them in fields such as ecological restoration, the fight against invasive alien species, the promotion of biodiversity and adaptation to climate change. The Project will make it possible to solve these shortcomings and begin to act in some of the locations that accumulate the greatest environmental problems or in which nature-based solutions can obtain better results.

This project focuses on increasing connectivity and strengthening the ecosystem capacity and the resilience of the city will result in its resilience in the face of climate emergency scenarios.

Tarragona-GreenBelt26 also aims to implement the Green Belt Management Plan as a municipal environmental planning tool, based on the study and specific planning of the components biodiversity, river system, coastal system and green infrastructure.

Some of the actions that stand out from this project are:

• Action plan for biodiversity in the municipality of Tarragona
• Plan for adaptation to climate change and recovery of the public domain of the coast of the municipality of Tarragona
• Hydrological feasibility studies of the actions in the river system of the municipality of Tarragona
• Green infrastructure design
• Tarragona Green Belt Management Plan