Barcelona and the delta: metropolitan infrastructure planning and socio‐ecological projects

The delta of the Llobregat river is a natural expansion area for the city of Barcelona. It has been used first for agricultural purposes and then in the twentieth century for urban and infrastructural development. The history of the delta is examined, in order to trace the changing interactions between economic and political forces and ecological processes. This includes the influence of urban planning from 1930 onwards. The paper describes the effort made by the Spanish government from 1991 to co‐ordinate investment planning in the delta with the Catalan administration and local authorities. One municipality, El Prat, has offered a partial environmentalist challenge to the dominant economic development model of other administrations. It is concluded that it would be valuable to consider this key zone in relation to alternative projects for the socio‐economic and ecological development of Catalonia and Spain as a whole.