Methodology for the pre-diagnosis of residential buildings in vulnerable areas in the city of Barcelona

Abstract

In a paradigm of raising urban economic and social inequality among south European cities, public administrations are confronted with the challenge to foster the improvement of the most deprived residential vulnerable areas. In the framework of the implementation of a building rehabilitation program on vulnerable residential neighbourhoods by the Barcelona City Council, the current research presents a technical and experimental approach on 16 of the most vulnerable areas. The aim of the study is to obtain a qualitative evaluation of the residential vulnerability as well as the identification of buildings with a most deprived physical state. The purposed methodology approaches a first pre-diagnosis of the building state and the detection of buildings that present a major need for rehabilitation actions, providing prioritization criteria. Rehabilitation is here considered from a wide and integral perspective, taking into account both socioeconomic aspects that describe the housing community and specific physic conditions of the built stock. Such methodology is complemented with the interchange of information with local actors, both from the social tissue and the neighbourhood local administration. The results of the present research provide the public administrations with the identification of data sources and a systematization of technical and social qualitative information onsite on a database, as well as the elaboration of a GIS analysis and cartography in a compendium of maps. The actualization and testing of quantitative information on specific areas provides the public administration with a set of very relevant tools in order to address specific and complex vulnerable areas and to efficiently invest public resources with the aim to improve both physical and social conditions of deprived neighbourhoods in long term.