Title: Barcelona: building resilience strategies

Authors: Manuel Valdés i López; Margarita Fernández-Armesto; Ares Gabàs Masip; Josep Raventós i Fornós

Addresses: Barcelona City Council, Torrent de l'Olla, 218-220, 5° 08012 Barcelona, Spain ' Infrastructure Management, Barcelona City Council Avinguda Diagonal 240, 4° Planta. 08018 Barcelona, Spain ' Barcelona City Council, Torrent de l'Olla 218-220, 2° Planta. 08018 Barcelona, Spain ' BAC, Infrastructure Management, Carrer Àvila 138, 3° Planta, 08018 Barcelona, Spain

Abstract: Being located in the Mediterranean coast, Barcelona is a historic city with a dense and compact urban grid facing the challenges of a productive and dynamic city of the 21st century. In 2007 after a series of crises related to hazards, the 3Ss project, a diagnose process to identify weak points and related risks for several infrastructures was developed. However, merely diagnosing would not bring real value to the city unless this analysis was integrated into a resilience strategy, the TISU, which was launched in 2009. Comprising more than 40 improvement projects, involving 37 different partners and lead by a coordination team, it is an ongoing project focused on the reduction of urban vulnerability through a constant improvement of the reliance and continuity of the city's services supply, as well as it represents an example of public-private partnership.

Keywords: Barcelona; resilience strategies; urban management; critical infrastructures; service supply; urban vulnerability; risks; hazards; Spain; cities; city services; public-private partnerships; PPPs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2015.072168

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2015 Vol.11 No.3, pp.233 - 242

Received: 04 Nov 2013
Accepted: 06 Aug 2014

Published online: 02 Oct 2015 *

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