Uploaded on 2014-11-25 by rociocarvajo

The European Union has put together in the last years a wide range of documents and reports on European metropolitan areas (see: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/region_cities/metropolitan_regions) that offer a framework to elaborate territorial plans, exploring concepts such as self-management and/or self-government. Both initiatives are good examples to take into account when analyzing the Territorial and Metropolitan Plan of the Urban Agglomeration of Seville (POTAUS –Plan de Ordenacion del Territorio de la Aglomeracion Urbana de Sevilla), published in 2006. Although the Plan affected 46 urban areas, the parts involved in the elaboration of the plan came from the Regional and the Central Government, from just 6 municipalities and from the Regional Water Agency. When compared to the case-study in Zurich, I do better understand the key elements that make the plan a total failure: - A lack of analysis of the main current problems, such as mobility, uncontrolled growth, land shortage, infrastructures and services deficit and lack of environmental quality. Instead of analysis each of these aspects, general answers are presented which do not take into account the real problems, thus offering incomplete solutions - Basic incoherence. The plan talks about the need to create mixed-use areas, but through the creation of differentiated Opportunity Areas, each of them defined by just one usage, such as Technological, Logistic, Entrepreneurial or Residential. The solution to the problem is therefore a continuation of the problem itself. Again, no data is available in order to compare, analyze and/or extract useful conclusions. - Lack of fundamental parameters/data. The only information provided in the plan is the population, the number of housing areas (and the percentage of occupation), the land classification and the land usage. 120 pages are presented based on these parameters. The Territorial and Metropolitan Planning of Seville has been the result of a total lack of planning since the administrative creation of the region after Franco dictatorship. As a consequence, improvisation has given irregular, chaotic and dysfunctional urban agglomerations that keep growing at a fast pace. Having access to accurate data and putting together the right stakeholders could help to break into a structural problem that we have been carrying with us since the Transition. Political willingness is crucial, as well as a public engagement towards the Common Good. ![Source: Oficina del Plan de Sevilla][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14169214702192142.jpg