• Presentation
• Habitats and Flora
• Fauna
• Socioeconomics
• Landscape Ecology
• Geology
• Historical maps
• Ecosystem Services

Presentation

To consider open areas at various planning scales, it is first necessary to have a good knowledge from the ecological and socioeconomic point of view. In the province of Barcelona, there was very little information covering the whole territory (generally it was limited to natural protected areas). At the same time, much of it was difficult to understand and apply at the technical level.

At this point, key experts (research centres, university departments, specialized institutions and companies, etc.) were contacted to generate both basic descriptive information, which often did not yet exist, and subsequent evaluative information. The latter type of information about the values of open space is the distinguishing feature of SITxell, enabling technical users to understand and evaluate the territory, and allowing application in various plans and projects.

The SITxell provides a modular structure for classifying the information gathered: environmental modules, which include layers covering geology, hydrology, flora, vegetation and habitats, fauna, landscape ecology, cultural heritage and landscape; and land use modules including layers relating to socioeconomics, specific land policies, spatial planning, transport infrastructure and technical services. The better understanding of open space provided by the cartography of values is also linked to a greater complexity in reading them. For this reason, and in order to properly understand its meaning, it is essential to first read the metadata, which explains the what, who, how and when of the set-up. Each layer therefore has an associated geographical information metadata file in pdf format.

The distribution of SITxell mapping is carried out using the SITMUN Municipal Territorial Information System, which offers many maps of the province of Barcelona. From SITMUN, SITxell layers can be displayed, if you enter through the Public Access option, or downloaded, if you log in as a SITMUN Local Network user. All SITxell cartographic information is accessible to the public on the IDEBarcelona website using the WMS specification