New methodology for the analysis and diagnosis of neighbourhoods in Murcia: the Santa Eulalia Case Study

In the case of Murcia, the gathering of territorial knowledge applied to neighbourhood regeneration through a co-creation processes, is a pathway Murcia City Hall has been working on since the previous period 2007-2013, in projects like the Urban Initiative Espírito Santo, a project within the framework of the Urban Initiative.

In the new funding period 2014-2020, the Murcia Strategy City 2020 emerges through the new agenda of applied transformation by means of a territorial intelligence model, which includes the “DUSI Strategy”: Murcia - Innovation & Tradition. This strategy, which focuses on neighbourhoods and districts, allows us to prioritise courses of action for change and transformation towards sustainable urban development through a broad process of citizen participation.

Which is why this new methodology of neighbourhood analysis and diagnosis is fundamental in designing local public policies. It combines different elements that allow us to think about an urban future constructed through a social design of territorial regeneration in which the virtual learning environments and underscoring the value of our intangible heritage, as a set of practices and existing networks that are present in the territory, become crucial elements of the knowledge management.

A new model of neighbourhood intervention based on a methodology of territorial observation that applied in different stages, tools for the detection and application of generated know-how, based on a territorial design which is in constant evolution and can be replicated in multiple contexts.

Starting point

Murcia shares the problems of many of the major European cities and more specifically those of the Mediterranean Arc. However, despite having a number of elements in common, it has specific characteristics that make its case a unique one, both from the territorial, demographic and administrative point of view. Murcia is a densely populated and anthropised territory that alternates heavily urbanized areas, peri-urban areas and rural areas. With a territorial extension of the municipality (881.86 m2) and the existence of numerous urban population nuclei that are dispersed and not interconnected within the territory (28 neighbourhoods and 54 districts), giving Murcia characteristics that clearly distinguishes it from other cities.

For the development of public policies and strategic territorial planning, this urban configuration hinders the possibility of obtaining statistical information and documentation which provides an accurate situational view of reality. Facing this predicament in year 2003 the "Municipal Observatory la Asomada" is created as a working line of action within a European project with the aim of implementing tool capable of improving the understanding of the territory, taking into consideration the particularities Murcia has. As a result of this experience the observatory became an essential instrument for designing local policies that aim to tackle the following challenges:

The need to envision future scenarios, by conducting economic, social and demographic predictive analysis.

The possibility of coping with the inherent difficulties of participatory processes using adequate multilevel methodologies and shared diagnosis.

To improve and expand the information available to the municipal government, using new forms of obtaining information, like public perception inquiries, and by generating new municipal management systems, like the urban alert system.

In this context, the observatory has been evolving for more than a decade, attaining a territorial intelligence model, which applies an innovative analysis and diagnosis methodology of neighbourhoods that allows, amongst other things: for new ways of obtaining information, new channels of (bidirectional) communication with our citizens, innovative participatory processes, capacity development for the population, designing new shared scenarios as well as new municipal management systems.

All of the aforementioned elements converge in the Santa Eulalia revitalization process, which focuses on four fundamental objectives: collaborative creation of the neighbourhood “brand” and exterior projection (neighbourhood branding), collaborative management of public services (city management), multilevel governance, communication management and the creation of awareness for a sustainable urban model (risk management).

Process phases

The new intervention model for neighbourhoods develops through three phases, the identification phase, in which the field work is carried out, the diagnosis of the territory and “critical problem” identification. The agitation phase which focuses on the implementation of multiple actions in a limited timeframe, and the projection phase, which is focused on ensuring the sustainability of the actions through the shared management of spaces.

Identification Phase

Currently the project is in the identification phase, using the method, tools and actions aimed at diagnosis and analysis of the neighbourhood. The identification phase is developed in two stages: detection/observation and investigation/diagnosis.

In the first stage "detection/observation" field work is carried out in order to attain a pre-diagnosis of the territory and a first glance of critical issues. To this end, a series of instruments are combined that allow the information to be contrasted more precisely. Innovation is present as a key factor in the fact that some of these instruments have been designed by the Municipal Observatory itself, and although they are extrapolative to other municipal areas and are contributing to solving a large part of the difficulties that are generated by the lack of territorial information at intra-municipal levels (which is the case of the neighbourhoods).

These instruments are used to collect information about the neighbourhood that is to be intervened, as is the case of Santa Eulalia, but also to analyse the most apparent problems affecting that area, facilitating access to the neighbourhood in the remaining stages of the project. These are some of the aforementioned instruments:

1.- Urban alert system. A system designed through a methodology based on the analysis of territorial vulnerability, which allows us to assess the level of vulnerability of a specific neighbourhood or districts. To this end, and by adapting a methodology established by the Ministry of Development that initially only used population census variables and which has been modified to also include other available indicators, the Observatory has constructed three indexes assessing the degree of vulnerability and level of social exclusion by neighbourhoods and districts (demographic, socio-economic and residential vulnerability indexes), which result in the "urban vulnerability index". The following image shows the level of urban vulnerability of each neighbourhood and district of the Murcia municipality.

2.- Mapping of municipal facilities and infrastructures

Mapped with the purpose of complementing the information generated with the previously mentioned tool, which with the combination of a series of ratios has allowed us to develop a "thermography of the municipality" which identifies the “hot zones” where it is necessary to intervene, and what type of information we need to collect from each area.

3.- Analysis of off-line networks

This tool allows us to detect promoter groups that facilitate the socio-cultural immersion process within the neighbourhood, as well as its (outward) projection. The tool is based on the gathering of information through surveys that are then treated by computer software, in this case Ghepi, which allows us to generate a sociogram of the neighbourhood detecting the most influential nodes and the relationship that exists between them.

This tool is of the utmost importance as one of the most common mistakes detected when evaluating previously carried out urban projects, is provoked by an inadequate initial definition of the project promoter and promotion group, which is responsible for boosting the participatory process, throughout its phases and consolidating the project. In the following image, a main node is clearly defined in the neighbourhood (the Women's Association), which is considered to be the most influential entity in that area by the rest of the neighbours.

This stage of detection/observation within the identification phase is complemented by the design of a control panel of indicator that allows for continuous monitoring and evaluation of the process to guarantee the quality of the undertaken and planned actions.

The second stage within this identification phase is the "research/diagnostic" stage. After elaborating the prediagnosis with all information collected in the previous stage and identifying the critical issues on which to focus, a multi-level shared diagnosis is carried out, which allows the comparison of the pre-diagnosis information and gathering of first impressions and perceptions of the citizens regarding the planned intervention in the neighbourhood.

Within this stage different tools are used, one of them which is still in the development phase, is the monitoring of online social networks. By gathering information from different social networks of the neighbourhood (facebook, twiter, instagram, etc.) we monitor the information that allows for a contextual analysis of the opinions expressed in them. To carry out this analysis, The collected information is processed through computer software used in qualitative research (Atlas- ti).

After analysing all information provided by these tools, we proceed BY defining a course of action and selecting specific activities through a citizen participation process that culminates in the revitalization of Santa Eulalia, where we consider it to be essential to incorporate new participatory channels in which social networks assume a leading role, as can be seen throughout the process.

Despite all the innovative elements incorporated so far, the methodology proposed in the first phase of the intervention model gives added value to the process, given that on the one hand, through the Urban Alarm System, it is possible to detect areas where more municipal intervention is needed as well as the decisive factors of that intervention. And on the other hand the use of on-line and off-line network analysis, which guarantees citizen participation is decisive in the process of generating change, and determining the success of the intervention to great extent.

Authors: Observatory “La Asomada”: García Pina, Cesar. Riquelme Perea, Prudencio. Valls Martín, Iván. Verde Martín, Carmen María.

Coordination: Hernández Martínez, Mercedes. Verde Martín, Carmen María