Cartography As a Witness of Change of Spanish Urban Models Along

2021-4187-AJMS – 11 APR 2021 1 COVID19: Cartography as a Witness of Change of 2 Spanish Urban Models along History due to Sanitary 3 Crisis 4 5 During centuries, the pandemics were something very natural to the human 6 being, but as result of the industrialisation during the 19th century, they 7 became a problem. The arrival of population to big cities provoked the 8 development of irregular and overpopulated quarters with any measures of 9 safety, and facilitated the expansion of tiny diseases. The problem resided in 10 the sanitation’s problems. As for example happened in London and Paris. As 11 solution, in different cities, and as starter point Paris with the Haussman´s 12 proposals, different inner reforms and extension plans were made in Spain 13 (Nadal, 2017, 357-385). Humanity believed that these extension plans would 14 give us a healthy density and an ordered expansion. We opened with scalpel 15 big boulevards to believe that we had a wide city to walk. But nothing 16 further from reality. At the beginning of 20th century, the history repeats. A 17 new pandemic crisis has raised and has shown that cities have, again, a 18 crisis of congestion. 19 20 Keywords: cartography, cities, covid, urban models 21 22 23 Introduction 24 25 As a result of a health crisis, speculations on the conditions and 26 perspectives of urban historical centres within the aftermath of the worldwide 27 COVID-19 pandemic, supported different European cases. As we are writing, 28 European cities are being hit by the ‗second wave‘ of the worldwide epidemic, 29 and are subjected to different containment strategies and measures. Within the 30 last year, such measures have strongly impacted the economic base of the 31 historic centres, for the foremost part connected -but not limited- to tourism, 32 leisure, and cultural consumption, with major consequences in terms of 33 unemployment and depression. More extensively, the very lifetime of and in 34 city centres was highly affected, from the purpose of view of residency, 35 mobility, access to public spaces, and so on. Especially the previous, 36 contemporary and potentially future use of the ground floor zones exposes a 37 scope of possible evidence-based speculations to rethink the kinds and paths of 38 economic and more-than-economic use that's possible in city centres, 39 especially when it involves new ways of connecting economy, lifestyle and 40 citizen-led-innovation. 41 In the unfolding of the pandemic, then, political rhetoric came to the fore, 42 building on the thought of learning from the pandemic and prospecting a 43 replacement ‗urban renaissance‘. However, the extent to which such discourses 44 can contest and review pre-existing urban regimes is clearly questionable, and 45 that they seem to romanticize quite concretize new urban scenarios and 46 agendas. In such a context, and within the framework of the upcoming renewal 47 of the Leipzig Charter expected to be released within the end of 2020, it's of 1 2021-4187-AJMS – 11 APR 2021 1 particular interest to critically reflect on the areas, domains and potentials of 2 transformation of the historic centres of European cities within the post- 3 pandemic. In the last two centuries we can observe in cartography a pattern that 4 is repeated in cities: the change of their structure due to external agents. We can 5 speak of cities of extension during the nineteenth century to cities of 6 pandemics, in plural. 7 The latest crisis, the COVID`s one, has allowed to pedestrianize centres, to 8 create cycle lanes, to increase the use of public transport, and all this, using few 9 resources. Governments have used unique situations like this in which the city 10 is transforming to achieve sustainable development. In cities such as New York 11 Bay after the floods, New Orleans after the hurricane, Paris with population`s 12 increase or Barcelona with the COVID. 13 Crises make tangible changes, they invite governments and citizens to 14 dream, a crisis to evolve, but the citizen has to be the main defender of these 15 new changes, and not governments as on previous occasions. The question that 16 arises in first place is whether the temporary experiment becomes permanent in 17 the centre. To that, we should add who is really in charge of this change, if the 18 governments or the citizens. And last, but not least, we should ask ourselves as 19 researchers or experts if the covid19 crisis has acted as a real trigger for the 20 change of urban configuration or was something that have been previously 21 agreed. 22 23 24 Literature Review 25 26 "Public health problems were the ones that made the city rethink, because 27 diseases afflicted both the rich and the poor." said Richard Sennet, in Build and 28 Inhabit. During centuries, the pandemics were something very natural to 29 societies, but as results of the industrialisation during the 19th century, they 30 became a drag. The arrival of population to big cities provoked the event of 31 irregular and overpopulated quarters with any measures of safety, and 32 facilitated the expansion of small diseases. the matter resided within the 33 sanitation‘s problems. As for instance happened in London and Paris. As 34 solution, in several cities, and as starter point Paris with the Haussman´s 35 proposals, different inner reforms and extension plans (Nadal, 2017, 357-385). 36 Humanity believed that these extension plans would give us a healthy density 37 and an ordered expansion. We opened with scalpel big boulevards to believe 38 that we had a good city to steer. 39 40 2 2021-4187-AJMS – 11 APR 2021 1 Figure 1. Haussman´s Plan for Paris. Source: arqui-urba.blogspot.com 2 3 4 The current urban configuration in many countries is predicated on their 5 many attempts to health problems during the 19th century. At that point, the 6 link between the expansion of cities and therefore the spread of disease led 7 some countries to adopt a replacement perspective on health risks (Hamlin, 8 1992). For example, within the last third of the 19th century, England became 9 the leader in terms of sanitation. Starting at that point , the mechanisms 10 available to fight classic epidemics were reassessed, new preventive measures 11 against transmissible diseases were adopted, a shift of focus from the 12 environment to the people happened (Rodríguez Ocaña,1994), and different by- 13 laws concerning health were passed in many cities. Those by-laws affected 14 areas as diverse as drains and sewers, street lighting, the regulation of 15 accommodation, slaughter house activity, and markets. But, these healthcare 16 worries not were taken into account early in the most part of European 17 countries (Wohl, 1983), including Spain. By the top of the 19th century, Spain 18 was clearly a backward nation in economic, political and social terms. This 19 resulted during a proposal to adopt measures and develop infrastructure already 20 in situ in other European countries (Arnould, 1902; Sussman, 1997; Poligliano, 21 1984; Hildreth, 1987). The recommended modernisations included sanitation, 22 because the state of health of the Spanish urban population left much to be 23 desired (Real Consejo de Sanidad, 1901). Conditions in Madrid, for instance, 24 were completely deficient, despite the extensive structure that had been 25 administered since 1856 on the city‘s sewers and drain network. There have 26 been over 3,000 cesspits within the city, while in outlying neighbourhoods and 3 2021-4187-AJMS – 11 APR 2021 1 parts of the old city, the sewers had no traps to stop the discharge of noxious 2 fumes and quite 4,000 homes had no direct water supply (Hauser, 1902). 3 Meanwhile, Barcelona City Council undertook a sanitation project 4 between1885 and 1893. As a part of that project, tanks were built from which 5 water was to be released in order to maintain the circulation within the sewer 6 and drain system, thanks to insufficient connections to dwellings (Capel and 7 Tatjer, 1991). In 1901, a conflict broke call at Seville between the League of 8 householders and therefore the council which just about halted the construction 9 of latest drains within the old city (Pulido Fernández, 1992).Specifically, of the 10 seven Spanish cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, only Zaragoza and 11 Seville had extensive modern systems of drains, although the water system was 12 deficient. In Madrid, Valencia and Malaga, the land put aside for water was 13 unusable thanks to the poor state of repair of the drains; while in Barcelona and 14 Murcia, the installations were also deficient. The high death rate thanks to 15 infections was seen as evidence of the importance of the sanitation problem 16 and of the relative backwardness of Spain in questions concerning urban 17 reorganisation (Hauser, 1913; Pulido Fernández, 1902): urgent action was 18 required. 19 20 Figure 1. Plan de los alrededores de la ciudad de Barcelona y del proyecto 21 para su mejora y ampliación, 1859 22 23 Source: Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, Barcelona. 24 25 Related to this organisation problem, since the middle of the century, a 26 series of legal regulations were approved in Spain aimed at regulating urban 27 growth: the extensions. Thus, in 1864, the first Population Expansion Law was 28 approved, the development of which was not in force until three years later. Its 29 preparation was preceded by the Barcelona Expansion Plan designed by 30 Ildefons Cerdà and approved by the Central Government in 1859 and by the 4 2021-4187-AJMS – 11 APR 2021 1 failed project of the Reform, Sanitation and Expansion Law drafted by the 2 Minister José Posada Herrera.

Load more