In the short term, the current town planning boom in Spain will be extremely damaging for the management of natural resources such as water and energy. This is shown in a PhD thesis written by Juan Manuel Santiago Zaragoza, a researcher at the Andalusian Environment Institute and a professor at the Department of Graphic and Architectural Expression of the University of Granada. This PhD analyzes for the first time the potential economic and environmental consequences of a lack of planning when carrying out town planning.
The research made by Manuel Santiago Zaragoza shows that local corporations and property development companies lack the scientific tools necessary to manage land in Spain, especially in coastal areas. According to the researcher, the situation in the coastal areas is “dramatic”.
“Over the last few years, the large number of large-scale urbanizations all over the Spanish territory has not taken into account important aspects such as the potential impact on towns when the number of inhabitants doubles in a very short period of time”. The researcher from the UGR stresses the need to “locate problems such as the need for water in the short term or the natural development of coastal areas, and also to determine whether the government, local corporations, or the development company should pay the costs”.
The impact of cars and energy
According to Professor Santiago, it is also necessary to take into account the number of cars and energy consumption levels in town planning. “This study is not only applicable to Spain, but to the whole of Europe, although primary and secondary variables are different for every country. This is the case with the levels of water existent in reservoirs, a problematic variable in Spain in the short term, but not in other parts of Europe. However, high CO2 emission levels can have serious effects on other countries”.
The author of this research study defends the need to consider socioeconomic and natural conditions in every region before building large-scale urbanizations, “instead of responding only to political and economic criteria, which is the current trend in Spain”.
His study has been carried out taking as reference the basins of the Guadalete and Barbate rivers, located in the province of Cadiz, “where natural resources will be exhausted within a decade, since it is impossible to build new water reservoirs”.
Professor Santiago Zaragoza has also observed climate development, according to which the average temperature in Spain will inevitably increase in the years to come. “Apart from climate variability –which shows that we are in a growing cycle of the temperature gradient-, human influence is accelerating global warming. Therefore, water, soil and energy are variables directly affected by the current boom of house building”.
Reference: Prof. Juan Manuel Santiago Zaragoza. Andalusian Environment Institute.
Phone numbers: +34 958 241000 (ext.31160) – +34 958 240050. E-mail: santi@ugr.es
