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Practice Details

Title of Practice:	THE FRIENDLY CITY [LA CIUDAD AMABLE]. Andalusian Public Space Programme Awareness raising, training and interventions regarding cities, public space and sustainable mobility
Year:	2014
BPTag:	Best Practice
Reference Number:	ESP347-14
City / Town / Village:	Seville
Region:	European Union
Country:	Spain
Has this practice been submitted previously?	No
Previous Title:
Address:	CONSEJERÍA DE FOMENTO Y VIVIENDA (REGIONAL MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HOUSING) Avda. Diego Martínez Barrio, 10 41071 SEVILLE SPAIN Telephone: +34955065378 Fax: +34955065350 Email: diego.galan@juntadeandalucia.es
Name of Contact Person:	Diego Galán Beltrán
Email of Contact Person:	diego.galan@juntadeandalucia.es
Summary:	The Friendly City is an initiative promoted by the Andalusian Ministry of Public Works and Housing which aims to create a new approach in government policies on intervention in public space. In fulfillment of this aim, The Friendly City has carried out awareness-raising and training actions to spread the values and methods associated with intervention in public space as collective place, sustainable mobility in the modern city and, in general, with improving the quality of urban space and reactivating it socially, culturally and economically. As part of the same process, the Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing has provided local governments with tools to plan interventions in public space from a more rational point of view in terms of social organisation and the environment. Bilateral relationships with town and city councils have been a crucial part of this process, both as regards training and the interventions proposed. The Friendly City has created a channel for training municipal technicians (responsible for urban planning, the environment, mobility, public planning, etc.) as well professionals involved in the sector, all geared towards improving public space and, in particular, its intersection with urban mobility. The initiative has also provided the regional ministry, municipal councils and professionals with the opportunity to jointly define projects to improve the urban landscape and living environment in towns and cities. As a result of this process, between 2012 and 2014 numerous municipal councils of towns and cities throughout Andalusia planned experimental interventions in public space to improve the lives of their citizens. Altogether, 382 municipalities were involved in the initiative, representing 49.22% of the 776 towns and cities in the region. Of these, 204 council submitted intervention proposals to the regional ministry for approval and partial funding.
Key Dates:	17 June 1998: Order approving Andalusian Public Space Programme 1998 to 2013: Implementation of Andalusian Public Space Programme 1 March 2013: Resolution creating the Friendly City inititive April 2013: Training sessions on intervention in public space June 2013: Training activities at architecture schools in Andalusia Jun 2013-Jun 2014: Design of educational programme to introduce the Friendly City concept in schools 26 Sep-8 Oct 2013: Discussions regarding with individual municipalities regarding their intervention proposals 18 Oct 2013: Formal submission of intervention proposals 3, 5 and 13 Dec 2013: Meetings of proposal selection committee 19 February 2014: Selection of proposals 7 March 2014: Announcement of proposals selected 15 May 2014: Inclusion of proposals in Andalusian Public Space Programme June 2014: Signature of agreements to draw up projects Sep-Jun 2014: Educational programme pilot experiences at 24 schools in Andalusia Oct 2014: Signature of agreements for execution of works Oct 2014-Jun 2016: Execution of works and implementation of new interventions Ongoing process with new interventions
Norminating Organization Details
Name of Organization:	Comité Hábitat Español [Spanish Habitat Committee]
Contact Person:	José Luis NICOLÁS RODRIGO
Type of Organization:	Local Authority

Partners:

There are no partners defined yet.

There are no categories defined yet.

Narrative:

Situation Before the Initiative Began:
Confusion and chaos in public spaces in towns and cities due to the dominant mobility system and a lack of criteria regarding sustainability, public participation, social integration and improving the quality of the environment and public health.

Establishment of Priorities:

To create a new approach in government policies on intervention in public space, involving public
participation and implementing actions designed to create spaces of social interaction.

To raise awareness about the value of public space as a collective place in the modern city in order to improve the quality of urban space and reactivate it socially, culturally and economically.

To help towns and cities create a friendlier living environment, involving the general public in a debate about sustainable urban mobility policies (traffic calming, reduction of pollution, etc.).

Formulation of Objectives And Strategies:

To carry out interventions in public space based on sustainable environmental and social criteria, with a view to developing good practices that can be transferred and mainstreamed in other towns and cities, not only in Andalusia but outside the region as well.

To facilitate and support social empowerment by creating room for public decision making and participation in interventions in public space (identifying needs, lifestyles, design, use and maintenance). All of this will be accompanied by the ongoing provision of incentives for social structures in order to guarantee diversity, equality and social integration across the towns and cities of Andalusia.

Mobilisation of Resources:

1. Administrative resources
The Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing administers all the resources through the Rehabilitation and Architecture Division, in partnership with the Mobility and Infrastructure Divisions.

The municipal councils analyse citizens’ needs and submit intervention proposals to The Friendly City.

2. Technical resources
Technicians of the Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing coordinate the various actions and monitor the execution time frames.

Friendly City trainers, a multi-disciplinary team, carry out awareness-raising actions and provides training for managers and technicians in sustainable intervention in urban space.

Technical teams of the municipal councils analyse technical solutions for intervention in public space in order to respond to citizens’ demands. Friendly City technicians provide support to municipal councils that do not have their own technicians.

Citizen collectives and associations provide support for participatory actions carried out to identify citizens’ needs.

3. Financial resources
Friendly City interventions are jointly financed by municipal councils and the Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

The regional ministry’s resources are obtained from the European Regional Development Fund when the interventions match ERDF priorities. In all other cases, the regional ministry uses its own funds.

The municipal councils finance their contributions through their own funds.

Process:

The precedent for The Friendly City is the Andalusian Public Space Programme which was first launched in June 1998 and since 2012 has promoted a series of interventions in public space that have incorporated sustainable urban development, citizen empowerment and transferability criteria and served as pilot experiences and references for defining the Friendly City initiative.

The Friendly City initiative was created in 2013 to complement the Andalusian Public Space Programme and is structured around three different but complementary lines of action. The first line consists in training municipal technicians, professionals, teachers, university students and the public in general. The second line focuses on creation and promotes municipal projects on public space and sustainable mobility; these reinforce the regional ministry’s urban intervention programmes. The final line revolves around dissemination and actions designed to reactivate urban space; a website provides citizens with access to the lectures delivered as part of the training line, while a digital platform guarantees that the parties involved in the initiative can remain
in contact at all times.

The municipal projects promoted by the creation line aim to respond to the demands formulated through the following categories:

01. Environmental Islands
Projects on a delimited urban sector aimed at reinforcing sustainable urban mobility and road hierarchy and recovering public space for collective use.

02. Habitable spaces
Projects concerned with reactivating and improving the environmental and landscape quality of a public space or specific urban pattern.

03. Sustainable lanes
Bike lanes in urban areas to connect residential areas with workplaces, shops and miscellaneous activities, addressing the growing social demand arising from citizens’ changing mobility habits.

In addition to the aforementioned actions, the social integration and public participation aspects of the initiative are articulated by creating training spaces to provide technicians (municipal and those responsible for formulating proposals) with the appropriate methodologies and participatory skills. Interventions in public space are also supported by creating participatory spaces in the various towns and cities to guarantee the social sustainability of the actions undertaken. All of this is
complemented by awareness-raising activities and the promotion of sustainability and environmental improvement values to encourage better habits and urban maintenance.

Results Achieved:

The entire initiative has focused on promoting:

01. Urban and environmental quality
The improvement of the environmental quality of towns and cities and the health of citizens by mitigating the effects of urban heat islands, creating living areas, reducing noise and the impact of direct sunlight, protecting biodiversity, etc.

02. Reactivation of public space
Proposals for alternative uses, collective activities that promote reactivation and the use of public space by citizens.

03. Sustainable mobility. Accessibility and connectivity
The generation of pedestrian areas and the promotion of non-motorised travel to ensure greater safety for the most vulnerable uses (children, the elderly, people with reduced mobility, etc.); the limitation of motorised traffic and parking spaces; traffic calming; non-discriminatory access and use of public spaces, schools, facilities and housing.

04. Public participation and social integration
The capacity to channel citizens’ needs and demands through mechanisms that encourage them to participate in drawing up and implementing the proposals; the use of public space to encourage the integration of social sectors at risk of exclusion; a role for the most disadvantaged sectors of society by actively involving them in the collective life of their neighbourhoods and the design and reactivation of public space; the elimination of physical barriers that lead to the marginalisation and social exclusion of specific urban sectors.

05. Employment
The capacity to mobilise local labour in the construction, maintenance and reactivation of public spaces; urban reactivation through the creation of jobs in sectors like tourism, retail, culture and the new information and communication technologies.

06. Energy efficiency
Energy efficiency measures in using and maintaining public spaces and urban services (materials, lighting, water cycle, waste collection, public transport, etc.).

Lessons Learned:

01. It is important that the parties involved in participatory processes are able to recognise the
effectiveness of their work throughout the entire intervention in the public space. The results of
participatory processes should therefore be carefully analysed and the conclusions drawn transferred to and shared with citizens.

02. To ensure a robust project, enormous effort must be invested in:
a. Clear, robust leadership;
b. Solidarity and cooperation between the actors involved in the project; coordination of the various actors involved in the public space and the integration of public-private partnerships at both the local and regional level to create co-management frameworks;
c. Inter and intra-governmental cooperation;
d. Integrated, comprehensive approach to include public participation practices in the development of interventions to improve public space.

Transfers:

01. Experience of other practices
Although there are references for the initiative, it is nevertheless an innovative initiative. Consequently, the idea and concepts are not based on the political strategies, mechanisms or specific materials of any previous experiences.

02. Replication of the initiative
The initiative can be replicated on different scales, even on a larger one than the region of Andalusia, as the strategy and materials can easily be adapted to the scale of the area in question.

It can also be replicated outside Spain as its approach to the use of public space is based on adapting it to the intrinsic nature of human beings.
a. Territorial replication, by creating analogous strategies and materials for other Spanish regions or areas outside Spain.
b. Replication through the creation of specific, detailed materials on smaller scales (districts, municipalities, groups of municipalities, etc.)

Related Policies:

The initiative is based on the Kyoto Protocol and the Charter of European Cities towards Sustainability, known as the Aalborg Charter.

It is a complementary activity within the Andalusian Public Space Programme approved by the Order of 17 June 1998 issued by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of the Regional Government of Andalusia.

The Andalusian Urban Sustainability Strategy, approved by the Governing Council of the Regional Government of Andalusia on 3 May 2011, supports the political line of the initiative by helping to reinforce the awareness-raising actions and measures and promote the creation of technical and

informative documents, social consensus and public participation in themed workshops and seminars.

Finally, the educational project is encouraging the design of specific materials to disseminate knowledge of public space from the sustainability perspective.

References:
Ideas que hacen ciudad [Ideas to make a city]
Mónica Ureta, El Correo de Andalucía, 16.03.2014
http://elcorreoweb.es/2014/03/16/ideas-que-hacen-ciudad/

Transport Learning has inspired us!
FGM-AMOR, Austria, Dec.2013, Follow TRANSPORT LEARNING to increase quality of life in your city!
http://transportlearning.net/docs/file/transport_learning_publishable_report_final_web_128dpi.pdf

Ya no uso el coche y voy en bicicleta a trabajar. Un granito de arena [I no longer use my car and I cycle to work. Every bit helps]
Alejandra Agudo, 19.09.2013, El País
http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2013/09/18/actualidad/1379540478_027042.html

Sevilla.-Sostenible.-Más de 100 técnicos se forman en intervención urbana para ejecutar las acciones de La Ciudad Amable [Sustainable Seville: More than 100 technicians learn about urban intervention to implement Friendly City actions]
Europa Press, 06.06.2013

Casi 300 municipios andaluces se suman al proyecto de La Ciudad Amable [Nearly 300 Andalusian towns and cities join the Friendly City project]
Argentine Network of Municipalities to Confront Climate Change, 09.04.2013
http://www.ramcc.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task=category&id=4
&Itemid=435

La Junta de Andalucía lanza la convocatoria pública La Ciudad Amable para que los ayuntamientos presenten proyectos de intervención sostenible en el espacio público [The Regional Government of Andalusia launches the Friendly City initiative inviting town and city councils to submit projects for sustainable intervention in public space]
Beraikal, 01.03.2013, Eraikal (initiative of the Basque Government’s Employment and Social Policy Department)
http://eraikal.blog.euskadi.net/blog/2013/03/01/la-junta-de-andalucia-lanza-la-convocatoria-publica-laciudad-
amable-para-que-los-ayuntamientos-presenten-proyectos-de-intervencion-sostenible-en-elespacio-
publico/

Junta impulsa un proyecto para que los ayuntamientos desarrollen medidas de apuesta por la movilidad sostenible [The Regional Government launches a project inviting town and city councils to
develop measures to support sustainable mobility]
Europa Press, 26.02.2013
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1742469/0/#xtor=AD-15&xts=467263

La Consejería de Fomento y Vivienda abre a los colectivos sociales el diseño del Plan Andaluz de la Bicicleta [The Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing invites social collectives to contribute to the design of the Andalusian Bicycle Plan]
Europa Press, 26.02.2013, La Vanguardia.com, Andalucía
http://www.lavanguardia.com/local/sevilla/20130226/54367776234/la-consejeria-de-fomento-yvivienda-abre-a-los-colectivos-sociales-el-diseno-del-plan-andaluz-de-la.html

La Junta lanza La Ciudad Amable para restar espacio al coche en beneficio del peatón en áreas urbanas [The Regional Government launches the Friendly City to rob space from vehicles and give it
to pedestrians in urban areas]
25.02.2013, huelva24.es
http://huelva24.es/not/35096//

La 'Ciudad Amable' transformará el espacio público y la movilidad de más de 50 municipios andaluces [The ‘Friendly City’ will transform public space and mobility in more than 50 towns and
cities across Andalusia]
Europa Press, 24.02.2014

Supporting Material:

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