Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
If you don't find your question here, write to us directly and we will answer you as soon as possible and, if appropriate, we will include it in this section (spenxarxa@diba.cat).
What will I find in this guide?
The Urban Environment and Health guide is a practical reference and guidance tool to help you take health indicators into account when designing and implementing municipal urban development plans, managing municipal resources and/or supporting activities in your municipality. You will find information about how the physical environment in which we live has effects on our health and what we need to take into account when carrying out interventions on the urban environment so that these health aspects are factored into your decisions. So the guide is useful to anyone working in a technical or municipal capacity who has to design, build, use or manage elements of the urban environment.
What will I find in the guide's files?
The information contained in the guide is presented in 78 files. Each one covers a different subject, with information on indicators and regulations, together with proposals and specific examples for creating or improving the urban environment. The goal is to minimize those environmental factors that could imply a risk for the health of the people who live there and to encourage people to live more healthily.
Irrespective of the subject matter, each of the files consists of the following:
- A description of the need, with data on the available scientific evidence that relates the features of a given physical environment where people live to certain health indicators.
- Proposals and recommendations to be considered at a given stage during planning, design, maintenance or management of elements of the urban environment.
- Specific cases where the proposals/recommendations proposed or others similar to them are being applied. These references are accompanied by documents, audiovisual files and/or portals where you can obtain more information.
- References from the regulations or the literature.
How can I access a file?
There are three ways you can access a file.
- Guided search tool. This tool is intended to help you find exactly the file or files that may be useful to you for the specific project you have in mind or are already working on. The guided search tool will select between 3 and 10 files out of the 72 files included in this guide.
- Internal search box. You will find this at the bottom; you can write in this box the file name or a relevant word that may be in the file. Do not confuse the guide's search box with Barcelona Provincial Council's generic box, which is at the top of the screen, in the top-right corner. In this case, searching by keywords takes you more directly to the files but without offering any guidance or making any conceptual distinctions in the final result: all the files containing the keyword are shown.
- Areas of Action.You can search for files on the basis of their classification by "Areas of Action". In this case, unlike the two previous options, there will be no tool that will guide you in the search or make suggestions.
How is the guide structured?
To make it more user-friendly, the guide is structured so that all the information is presented in accordance with two different criteria, to cater for all needs.
- On one hand, the content is classified by "Area of Action"; that is, according to the space in which the work is to be performed:
- Public space
- Amenities
- Housing
- Urban planning
- Information and participation (this is cross-functional)
- On the other hand, the content is also classified by "Type of Intervention"; that is, considering the task to be performed:
- Design
- Maintenance
- Management
- Promotion
- Use
The guided search tool will point you in your search toward the files that you need to review in order to improve the project you are working on.
