Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ)

The Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability examines how we can create more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities.

The Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ) was founded in partnership with the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in Barcelona. The lab develops novel research that builds on urban planning and policy, social inequality, and development studies. Our main emphasis is on the opportunities and challenges created by urban municipal, community, or private initiatives that enhance sustainability, equity, and health in cities.

Our research examines processes and dynamics that lead to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, bringing together theory and methods from urban planning, public policy, urban and environmental sociology, urban geography and public health. Our studies analyze the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how community groups in distressed neighborhoods contest the existence, creation, or exacerbation of environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes and policies.

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2025-10-29
18:55
32 p, 30.3 MB Drivers of vulnerability to health impacts of flooding and extreme rainfall for migrants in European cities : a scoping review of the existing literature / Kim West ; Neves Alves, Susana ; Kotsila, Panagiota ; Fernandez Arrigoitia, Melissa ; Melo, Lourenço ; Cañizares, Ana
IMBRACE (Embracing Immigrant Knowledges for Just Climate Health Adaptation) is a five-year research initiative funded by the European Research Council. It explores the intersection of climate change, health, and migration, focusing on racialized migrants from the Majority World (MW) living in European cities. [...]
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, 2025 (IMBRACE reports)  
2025-10-29
18:47
25 p, 2.3 MB Drivers of vulnerability to heat-related health impacts for migrants in European cities : a scoping review of the existing literature / Fatima, Fizza ; Ruiz Cayuela, Sergio ; Kotsila, Panagiota
IMBRACE (Embracing Immigrant Knowledges for Just Climate Health Adaptation) is a five-year research initiative funded by the European Research Council. It explores the intersection of climate change, health, and migration, focusing on racialized migrants from the Majority World (MW) living in European cities. [...]
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, 2025 (IMBRACE reports)  
2025-07-09
12:45
21 p, 194.5 KB Naples, 2032 : Visionary Fragments of the Eco-Transfeminist City / Iengo, Ilenia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Following critical Black studies scholar and activist Walidah Imarisha's (2018, https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=Jzcgpm5rxG8) words, "We can't build what we can't imagine, all organising is science fiction", this paper investigates the subjective and collective imaginaries about the Southern Italian city of Naples, from the positionalities and desires of transfeminist and environmental justice activists. [...]
2025 - 10.1111/anti.70000
Antipode, Vol. 57, Issue 3 (May 2025) , p. 996-1016  
2025-05-22
05:57
15 p, 8.0 MB A conformance-based framework to evaluate the National Urban Agenda's impact on urban sustainable development in Brazil / Pierri-Daunt, Ana Beatriz (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Domingo, Darío (Universidad de Zaragoza. Departamento de Geografía) ; Zichao, He (Xiamen University. Department of Urban Planning) ; Hersperger, Anna M. (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest. Snow and Landscape Research)
Although national urban policies are implemented to steer urbanization processes, the systematic evaluation of these measures continues to pose a methodological challenge. We developed an innovative methodology for assessing policy outcomes based on a multi-dimensional set of indicators considering socio-economic and land change factors and applied it to Brazil. [...]
2025 - 10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107584
Land Use Policy, Vol. 155 (August 2025) , art. 107584  
2025-05-20
04:31
9 p, 2.1 MB Changes in use of natural outdoor environments and health of women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic / Cuenca, Valeria-Carolin (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Cole, Helen (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Triguero-Mas, Margarita (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Natural outdoor environments (NOE) provide health benefits; meanwhile, gentrification and touristification can be detrimental to health equity by modifying who benefits from NOE. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated gender-based health inequities and changed the use of NOE, while it also affected the course of neighborhood gentrification and touristification. [...]
2025 - 10.1016/j.ufug.2025.128668
Urban forestry & urban greening, Vol. 104 (February 2025) , art. 128668  
2025-03-25
13:50
35 p, 2.5 MB Grassroots mobilization for a just, green urban future : building community infrastructure against green gentrification and displacement / Oscilowicz, Emilia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Anguelovski, Isabelle (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; García-Lamarca, Melissa (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Cole, Helen (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Shokry, Galia (Kean University) ; Perez-Del-Pulgar, Carmen (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) ; Argüelles, Lucía (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) ; Connolly, James J. T (University of British Columbia)
Municipal climate resiliency and re-naturing plans are promoting greening and green (re)development, such as the inclusion of new parks, greenways, or rehabilitated shorelines, frequently as a-political, win-win solutions for all residents. [...]
2025 - 10.1080/07352166.2023.2180381
Journal of urban affairs, Vol. 47, no. 2 (2025) , p. 347-380  
2024-12-13
05:34
13 p, 3.1 MB Spatializing gentrification in situ : A critical cartography of resident perceptions of neighbourhood change in Vallcarca, Barcelona / Antunes, Bianca (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya) ; March, Hug (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) ; Connolly, James J. T (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
In this paper, we link the tools of critical cartography and cognitive mapping with more traditional gentrification studies in order to capture in situ the shifts associated with nascent processes of change in bodies, environment, and minds in Vallcarca, a liminal gentrifying neighbourhood of Barcelona, Spain. [...]
2020 - 10.1016/j.cities.2019.102521
Cities (Amsterdam), Vol. 97 (February 2020) , art. 102521  
2024-11-14
05:43
1 p, 278.3 KB Corrigendum to "Perceived urban ecosystem services and disservices in gentrifying neighborhoods : Contrasting views between community members and state informants" / Kathryn Rodgman, Mary (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Anguelovski, Isabelle (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Perez del pulgar, Carmen (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Shokry, Galia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; García-Lamarca, Melissa (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Connolly, James J. T. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Baró Porras, Francesc (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Triguero-Mas, Margarita (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
2024 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101674
Ecosystem services, Vol. 70 (December 2024) , art. 101674  
2024-10-29
10:50
20 p, 5.8 MB Shifting perceptions of green and blue spaces during the COVID -19 pandemic in gentrifying neighbourhoods : Experiences of inclusion and exclusion by women and non-binary residents / Calderón-Argelich, Amalia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Anguelovski, Isabelle (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Cuenca, Valeria-Carolin (Universidad de Alcalá) ; Cole, Helen (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Triguero-Mas, Margarita (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) ; Valdivia, Blanca (Col·lectiu Punt 6) ; Baró Porras, Francesc (Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Department of Geography)
1. The COVID-19 outbreak triggered a combined health, social and economic crisis, imposing multiple restrictions that altered the use and perception of public green and blue spaces (PGBS). In this article, we explored how the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions affected the use and perceptions of public greenspaces and seafront in gentrifying neighbourhoods, focusing specifically on women and non-binary residents. [...]
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2024 - 10.1002/pan3.10722
People and Nature, Vol. 6, Núm. 6 (December 2024) , p. 2494-2513  
2024-10-18
06:16
22 p, 1.6 MB Pathways linking biodiversity to human health : A conceptual framework / Marselle, Melissa R. (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) ; Hartig, Terry (Uppsala University. Department of Psychology) ; Cox, Daniel T.C. (University of Exeter) ; Bell, Siân de (University of Exeter) ; Knapp, Sonja (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department of Community Ecology) ; Lindley, Sarah (University of Mancheste. Department of Geography) ; Triguero-Mas, Margarita (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals) ; Böhning-Gaese, Katrin (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) ; Braubach, Matthias (European Centre for Environment and Health) ; Cook, Penny A. (University of Salford) ; Vries, Sjerp de (Wageningen University and Research) ; Heintz-Buschart, Anna (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department of Soil Ecology) ; Hofmann, Max (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) ; Irvine, Katherine N. (The James Hutton Institute) ; Kabisch, Nadja (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Department of Geography) ; Kolek, Franziska (Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Zentrum München) ; Kraemer, Roland (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. Department of Monitoring and Exploration Technologies) ; Markevych, Iana (Jagiellonian University. Institute of Psychology) ; Martens, Dörte (Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development) ; Müller, Ruth (Institute of Tropical Medicine) ; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) ; Potts, Jacqueline M. (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland) ; Stadler, Jutta (German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) ; Walton, Samantha (Bath Spa University. Department of English Literature) ; Warber, Sara L. (University of Michigan. Department of Family Medicine) ; Bonn, Aletta (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. [...]
2021 - 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106420
Environment International, Vol. 150 (May 2021) , art. 106420