ERDF FUNDS 2014-2020

WHAT IS AN ISUDS?

Integrated sustainable urban development refers to the long-term improvement of social, economic and environmental conditions in a specific urban area that does not degrade the environment and provides quality of life for citizens. Europe is one of the most urbanised continents in the world, with more than two-thirds of its population living in cities. For this reason, European cities play a key role in the economy. Cities are places where connectivity, creativity and innovation are present. But they are also places with a greater concentration of issues such as unemployment, exclusion and poverty. This is why the economic, environmental and social challenges faced by Europe’s urban areas are increasingly evident. Successful urban development can therefore only be achieved through an integrated approach.

As indicated previously, the acronym ISUDS stands for Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy. An ISUDS is, therefore, a concrete and systematic document drawn up in advance to plan and direct a series of future actions.

The ISUDS, as its name suggests, has a strategic nature that comprises long-term thinking and the definition of priorities. This involves choosing and creating a hierarchy of challenges that need to be tackled and objectives that must be achieved. Likewise, an ISUDS has a territorial component, meaning that it is developed on a specific territory of action and integrates different sectoral views: physical, environmental, urban, social, economic, etc.

Each ISUDS must address specific THEMATIC OBJECTIVES (TO) selected from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

TO2: Enhancing access to, and use and quality of, information and communication technologies (ICT).

TO4: Supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors.

TO6: Preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency.

TO9: Promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and any discrimination.

An Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy will have the following contents:

ISSUES/CHALLENGES. Initially, detecting and identifying urban issues and challenges.
INTEGRATED ANALYSIS. Considering an integrated analysis that covers the physical and environmental, climatic, demographic, social and economic dimensions.
Defining and diagnosing the results expected with the ISUDS.
SCOPE. Defining the scope of action.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. Defining an implementation plan that includes the lines of action, timeline, budgets and productivity indicators.
SOCIAL STAKEHOLDERS. Identifying the role of citizen participation and social stakeholders in both the design and implementation phases.
ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY.
ERDF HORIZONTAL PRINCIPLES AND CROSS-CUTTING OBJECTIVES. Ensuring equality between men and women and non-discrimination, sustainable development, accessibility, attention to demographic change, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Scope justification

To establish Cono Sur as the target territorial area for the operations to be selected, a territory analysis has been carried out for different aspects:

Socio-demographic vulnerability: In today’s Spanish society, three demographic phenomena have a severe impact on the increase in social vulnerability, i.e. the ageing of the population, the complexity of the structure of households and immigration. The ageing of the population is particularly relevant, both at a national and local level, since it changes the structures needed in cities.
Socio-economic vulnerability: It has to do with the capacity of households to successfully achieve a certain degree of material and emotional well-being, which is related to three basic variables, i.e. unemployment, job insecurity and the low educational levels of the working classes.
Residential vulnerability: It refers to the physical infrastructures where citizens live.
Subjective vulnerability: It concerns the subjective perceptions that residents have of the urban and social environment where they live and which can be considered as a benchmark of the quality of the residential environment (vicinity, neighbourhood).

After analysing the municipality from an integrated economic, social and environmental perspective – with information on the potential of the different territorial areas of the city – it is considered key to invest in the development of Cono Sur, from a strategic point of view, as a functional area of this strategy. It has social, economic and environmental problems but also great potential thanks to its natural and cultural resources, which would maximise the impact of those integrated actions carried out taking into account these territorial dimensions.

This analysis can be found in greater detail in the ISUD Strategy itself, where the main results are set out.

Territorial scope - Cono Sur

The scope in which the Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy is carried out is the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the achievement of its objectives reflected through its specific application in the Cono Sur area.

It includes the neighbourhoods that occupy the entire coastal platform towards the south of the city from the historic centre of Vegueta, including the residential groupings on the adjoining slopes and the ravines that broaden when they reach the coast. These neighbourhoods, from north to south, are San Juan and San José, La Vega de San José or Polígono de San Cristóbal, the fishing neighbourhood of San Cristóbal, Zárate, Casablanca I, El Lasso, Hoya de La Plata, Pedro Hidalgo, Tres Palmas, and Salto del Negro.

It is quite a heterogeneous urban ensemble that includes public housing blocks, self-built urban areas, public spaces and structuring facilities. More than 34,500 residents live in this area which, at the beginning of the 21st century, showed urban vulnerability that limits their quality of life, sustainability and well-being.

This territorial contrast can be seen in a space with slopes and a coastline that define its unique landscape, including a significant natural and cultural heritage with clear signs of opportunity.

A synthesis report is proposed to set out the characteristics of the Cono Sur area with the aim of providing an urban and geographical reference to understand the lines of action and operations that make up the Strategy.

Relevant documentation