The article maps the accessibility and proximity potential of Barcelona based on pedestrian travel times using a 15-minute city lens. The researchers developed a standardized quantitative method to calculate 15-minute city values at a microscale level and explored if Barcelona and its neighborhoods meet the criteria. They analyzed 24 variables across 5 urban social functions - care, education, provisioning, entertainment, and public/non-motorized transport. The results found that Barcelona demonstrates high coverage of the functions, especially in central areas, with 76% of blocks having access to over 20 destinations within 15 minutes, showing high walkability. The study contributes to adapting the 15-minute city concept to specific city contexts.

1. BARCELONA UNDER THE 15-MINUTE CITY LENS:
MAPPING THE ACCESSIBILITY AND PROXIMITY
POTENTIAL BASED ON PEDESTRIAN TRAVEL TIMES
CARLES FERRER-ORTIZ, ORIOL MARQUET, LAIA MOJICA, GUILLEM VICH
PUBLISHED ON SMART CITIES JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 11, 2022
Article Review on:
Prabal Dahal 078MSUrP012
July, 2022
Asso. Prof. Dr. Ashim R Bajracharya
Submitted to Submitted by
Asso. Prof. Luna Bajracharya
Geospatial Technology for Urban Planning

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to Asso.Prof.Dr.Ashim R Bajracharya, and Asso.
Prof.Luna Bajracharya for the guidance and directions in preparing this review.I would
also like to convey my sincere thanks to IOE,Pulchowk Campus,Department of
Architecture for providing this platform.
I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the authors of the article as
well as the publisher for making the article readily available in the internet.

3. ABOUT THE JOURNAL
SmartCities Indexing & Abstracting Services
• AGRIS
• CNKI
• DOAJ
• EBSCO
• Elsevier
• Scopus
• Inspec
• J-Gate
• OpenAIRE
• OSTI.GOV (U.S. Department of Energy)
• ProQuest
• Web of Science
• ESCI

4. KEYWORDS
15-Minute City
chrono-urbanism
proximity
accessibility
network analysis
Barcelona

5. STRUCTURE OF
THE PAPER
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Background
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions

6. INTRODUCTION
• The 15-Minute City (FMC) is a new holistic model for urban planning that gains momentum in
the debates revolving around the development of sustainable cities.
• The FMC has been seen as a potentially effective model that can respond to various
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and be adapted to the criteria defined in the New
Urban Agenda, both approved by the United Nations
• This interest has increased exponentially as a result of the health crisis caused by COVID-
19,due to the long period of confinement of the population in proximity environments and the
need for a rapid adaptation of cities to new problem
• The concept should be adapted in accordance with the specificities of each city
(geographical, urban, cultural, political, social, etc.), which opens the debate on how
adaptable this idea is to any territory

7. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• The first objective is to develop a
standardized quantitative method for
the calculation of FMC values at a
microscale level
• To explore whether the city of Barcelona
and its neighborhoods already meet the
criteria for being considered an FMC

8. BACKGROUND
Theoretical models of chrono-urbanism practices:
• Plan Melbourne (20-Minute Neighborhoods, based on walking, cycling, or public
transport)
• Singapore and Beijing (longer time threshold for commuting trips (45 -60 mins) and
shorter time threshold for local daily trips (15-20 mins)
• Shanghai’s 15 min walk rang
• Guangzhou’s basic life circles that span 30 walking min in rural communities and 15
walking min in urban communities
• City of Portland complete neighborhoods in less than 20 min
• Others: Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Momo, Vienna, Montreal, Valencia, Carlow, Ennis,
Fredrikstad

10. BACKGROUND
Although the concepts of FMC and hyper
proximity have attracted a considerable amount
of theoretical debate, not many studies have
tried to systematize and apply the theoretical
conceptualization of the FMC into practice using
publicly available spatial information

11. BACKGROUND
• Some studies analyze the territorial distribution
of the prerequisites of proximity with a focus on
the socioeconomic characteristics
• Other studies explored the relationship
between origin-destination mobility flows and
local urban accessibility in Barcelona at the
neighborhood level

12. BACKGROUND : QUESTIONS
Many theoretical and methodological questions remain unresolved, as follows:
• Should the FMC criteria adapt to the geographical, urban, cultural, political, social, etc.
specificities of each city?
• Should Euclidean distances or network-based distances be used?
• Should all urban services and activities be at the same distance (15 min distance)?
• What is the optimal spatial scale of analysis? Building blocks or harmonized grid
systems?

13. BACKGROUND
- RESEARCH
SCOPE
• The present study will propose a
methodological approach for the
calculation of FMC requirements at a
cadastral parcel level to later analyze the
meeting of these criteria of the city of
Barcelona and its neighborhoods

14. BACKGROUND : DEFINING DISTANCE TO SERVICES
Most sources apply a different Euclidean distance for each destination category.
Useful distance for imagining improvements in a large city such as Melbourne,
does not have to be identical in a compact city such as Barcelona.
Mode of transport also determine the measurements of spatio-temporal
distances
From the FMC approach, access on foot (guaranteeing almost universal
accessibility) to local services is considered essential while the use of bicycle is
considered as access to city-scale services.

15. MATERIALS
AND METHODS
: STUDY AREA
• 101.35 km2
• a traditional city with a compact and continuous urban
morphology, a high population density, a mixture of
land uses, and a commercial structure based on small
businesses
• Mobility surveys show us that more than one-third of
trips in the city are less than 10 min duration and 76%
of these are carried out using non-motorized modes of
transport population with 1,664,182 inhabitants
distributed across 73 neighborhoods
• At the neighborhood level, a certain heterogeneity is
identified with regard to the urban vitality
The City of Barcelona

16. List of 73 neighborhood codes and names of Barcelona (from Appendix A)

17. The City of Barcelona. Its 73 administrative neighborhoods and cadastral parcels. Source: own
production by authors derived from the 1: 5000 Orthophoto from ICGC, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

18. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Selection of Indicators for the FMC’s 5 Urban Social Functions
Of the 6 urban social functions defined by Moreno et al., it was decided to select and
analyze care, education, provisioning, and entertainment.
On the other hand, access to public and non-motorized transport is also included as a
set of components of access to sustainable mobility.
The selection of indicators with their proximity time ranges is based on previous studies in
cities such as Málaga, Valencia, and the sustainability indicators for Spanish cities that are
designed by Barcelona’s Urban Ecology Agency and other similar models of chrono-urbanism
that apply a distance of proximity to activities and services outside Spain

19. The proposed methodological approach. Source: own
elaboration by authors based on data from Open Data BCN

20. Selection applied in the present study with the 5 urban social functions and the corresponding
24 variables of facilities, services, and stores and the assigned temporal thresholds

21. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Measurement of Distances to the FMC’s 5 Urban Social Functions
For the precise measurement of accessibility, the following 4 basic elements have
been used:
• supply points (the location of services),
• potential demand points (the location and distribution of Barcelona
residents),
• the distance between supply and demand (walking time and speed), and
• the transport network (pedestrian-tolerant roads)

22. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Measurement of Distances to the FMC’s 5 Urban Social Functions
GIS; ESRI ArcMap 10.7 was used to:
1. Enter service offering (Supply) points as vector layer of points from coordinates
provided in various database
2. New polygonal layers were created to selecting the systems of public free
spaces (squares and parks) delimited by the MUC, of more than 1000 m2 and
1000 m2. From the resulting polygonal layer, the multiple vertices on the perimeter
of each polygon were transformed into location points.

23. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Measurement of Distances to the FMC’s 5 Urban Social Functions
GIS; ESRI ArcMap 10.7 was used to:
3. All cadastral parcels were included, and centroids were generated for each parcel
to permit calculation of the service areas of each urban function
4. Using the ESRI’s ArcMap Network Analyst tool, a pedestrian road graph assigning a
travel cost equivalent to the walking speed of 1.25 m/s or 4.5 km/h (2.796 mi/h)
was prepared. This speed corresponds to the walking speed of an adult in an
urban environment and is consistent with other mobility and transport engineering
studies.

24. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Measurement of Distances to the FMC’s 5 Urban Social Functions
For each variable of the services for urban functions (facilities), a service area was
generated, defining different types of influence zones (buffers). In the present
study, buffers linked by unique cut-off values (5, 10 or 15 min according to each
indicator) were used, with an extension beyond the limits of the 100-m network for
the correct inclusion of the centroids of residential parcels.

25. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Systematization and Mapping of the 5 FMC’s Urban Social Functions
Spatial joins were made from the residential centroids with each generated buffer,
to determine the inclusion (coverage or access), or exclusion (Yes/No), of each parcel
in the various areas of influence corresponding to the different urban functions.
A synthetic result map of the FMC showing the accessibility of all the cadastral parcels
of the city to the set of 24 indicators was also calculated

26. Share of cadastral parcels with FMC access to selected services
3
3
6
7
5

27. RESULTS Partial indices synthetic maps
Care features (left side) and education (right side). Number of variables accessible simultaneously from each of the parcels. Source:
own elaboration by authors based on data from Open Data BCN and the 1: 5000 Orthophoto from ICGC, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

28. RESULTS
Provisioning functions (left side) and entertainment functions (right side). Number of variables accessible simultaneously from each of the parcels. Source: own
elaboration based on data from Open Data BCN and the Urban Map of Catalonia (MUC) and the 1: 5000 Orthophoto from ICGC, used under a CC BY 4.0 license
Partial indices synthetic maps

29. RESULTS
Public and non-motorized transport. Number of variables accessible simultaneously from each of the parcels. Source: own
elaboration based on data from Open Data BCN [42] and the 1: 5000 Orthophoto from ICGC, used under a CC BY 4.0 license
Partial indices synthetic maps

30. RESULTS
Synthetic 15-Minute
Index Map
Synthetic Map of the 15-Minute City in Barcelona. Source: Own elaboration of authors based on data from Open Data
BCN, the Urban Map of Catalonia (MUC) and the 1: 5000 Orthophoto from ICGC, used under a CC BY 4.0 license

31. DISCUSSION
• Barcelona demonstrates a very high coverage of all the urban functions analyzed, especially in
central areas
• The areas with less accessibility are found mostly on the outskirts
• The fact that 76% of the analyzed blocks in the present study have walking access to more than 20
everyday destinations, within less than 15 min, speaks of the extreme walkability levels of most of the City
of Barcelona, together with the success of service-allocation strategies led by the city council in past years.
• In methodological terms, this study considers both the location of the available destinations and the
demand (i.e., location of the population), while simultaneously incorporating the average walking speed in
the calculation of distances, as well as the urban morphology of the environment.

32. DISCUSSION
• Future studies will need to overcome municipal
boundaries or other arbitrarily set administrative units
• Future studies need to explore two large domains such
as access to housing and workplaces
• Further studies should consider sociodemographic
variables, such as age or gender, in order to enrich the
discussion regarding equity in access and, thus, to reach
a more realistic view on the value of proximity and social
exclusion
• Future research should also address the relationship
between the provision of accessibility and the travel
demand, checking whether the potential of the FMC is
exploited by the real population and translated into
daily mobility characterized by proximity and use of
destinations with short distances

33. CONCLUSION
• Results highlight the extent to which the City of Barcelona as a whole, and its composing
neighborhoods, already meet the FMC general criteria and the access to its five key urban social
functions.
• The distribution of local public facilities and services across most parts of the city grant Barcelona
very high levels of accessibility, especially in central but also peripheral historic neighborhoods

34. REVIEW
Data Source and Authenticity
Statistical Institute of Catalonia with Spanish acronym: IDESCAT
for population distribution in 73 neighborhood with code
numbers
The Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat) is the body responsible for official statistics of
Catalonia. Created in December 1989 (Decree 241/1989 of 11 December), it is a regional
administrative body with legal personality, administrative and financial autonomy, and full
capacity to act within its areas of competence, in accordance with Law 23/1998, on statistics in
Catalonia. At present it comes under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, of the Generalitat de
Catalunya.
https://www.idescat.cat/institut/idescat/?lang=en

35. REVIEW
Data Source and Authenticity
Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya. Vissir3. 2021.
Available online: http://www.icc.cat/vissir3/index.html
www.icgc.cat
It is the official website of the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, the reference point for
the people of Catalonia and around the world who wish to get information on the products and
services provided by the Institut. It also allows using practical information directly to live and
know more about the country and its cartography.
https://www.icgc.cat/en/Web/Help/About-the-website

36. REVIEW
Data Source and Authenticity
https://opendata-ajuntament.barcelona.cat/en
Open Data or Public Sector Information Openness is a movement driven by public
administrations with the main objective of maximize available public resources, exposing the
information generated or guarded by public bodies, allowing its access and use for the common
good and for the benefit of anyone and any entity interested.
https://www.icgc.cat/en/Web/Help/About-the-website

37. REVIEW
Methods
6 urban social functions defined by
Moreno et al. :
(a) living,
(b) working,
(c) commerce,
(d) healthcare,
(e) education and
(f) entertainment
Paucity of georeferenced data led to researchers not addressing commerce and working in the FMC

38. REVIEW
Methods
Use of GIS; ESRI ArcMap 10.7 1. Service offering (Supply) points as vector point layer
2. Public Free Spaces as vector Polygon Layer
3. Polygon Layer of Cadastral parcel converted to
Centroid layers
4. Influence zone was marked using Buffers
Product Life Cycle
Product: ArcMap 10.7 (10.7.1)
Release Date: June 27, 2019
Support status: Extended Support
Layers

39. REVIEW
Methods
• Functions and Variables Selection and Methods used played important role in determining the
final output of the spatial analysis.
• Step by step methods description and showcase of results have made it easier to understand
how the evaluation was done.

40. REVIEW
Tables and Meanings
(Bus and Train treated as
collective rapid transport)
(civic centers not
shown in table)
3
3
6
7
5
3
6
6
6
3

41. REVIEW
Map Outputs
North ✓ Scale ✓
Coordinate Reference Systems and Ellipsoid not
mentioned in article (may be implied from OpenSource)
72 dpi images were made available (could have been
300 dpi for better sharpness)
Color Blue could have been replaced with something
else?
Grouping could have been less (upto 5) in the Synthetic
Map

42. REVIEW
Map Outputs
Legends are not clear (should
have texts defining the numbers)
The graphical representation
(doughnut chart) also could have
numbers to clearly describe the
results

43. REVIEW
Map Outputs
Grids could have been added to locate
the plots.
Location of the study region could have
been provided in a separate map.

44. REVIEW
Discussion
• Overcome municipal boundaries or other
arbitrarily set administrative units
• Consider sociodemographic variables, such as age
or gender, in order to enrich the discussion
regarding equity in access and, thus, to reach a
more realistic view on the value of proximity and
social exclusion
• Address the relationship between the provision of
accessibility and the travel demand
RESEARCH,
QUANTIFYING AND
GEO REFERENCING
to

45. REFLECTION
• FMC as a concept in Smart Cities (Smart Mobility, Smart Environment and
Smart Living)
• GIS is essential for creating a sustainable, community-based approach
for achieving the SDGs.
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/undataforum/blog/geography-in-implementing-the-SDGs/
• GIS for evaluating and developing FMC as a means of attaining SDG 11 –
Sustainable Cities

46. REFLECTION IN NEPALESE CONTEXT
• Core areas of traditional cities (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kirtipur,
Sankhu) could be analyzed as an FMC with GIS tools
• We need to invest in creating more open data (including land parcels) with
attributes and access to it
• More studies, research and discussions about walkable cities need to be
initiated and promoted

47. REFERENCE
Ferrer-Ortiz, C., Marquet, O., Mojica, L., & Vich, G. (2022). Barcelona under the 15-Minute City Lens:
Mapping the Accessibility and Proximity Potential Based on Pedestrian Travel Times. Smart Cities,
5(1), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010010

48. THANKYOU