It is the administrative capital of the region of Castilla y León and the center of Valladolid is a metropolitan area, formed by several surrounding municipalities that represent more than 400.000 inhabitants. Valladolid, is located at a height of 690m.a.s.l. under a Mediterranean climate, occupies a strategic position in northern Spain, and for this reason it’s been a centre for industrial development since the 50s.
The city of Valladolid is included in the Valladolid and Palencia initiative - Smart City, which includes a series of challenges for the city in the framework of technological, social and economic innovation directly related with citizens, the industrial network and administrations. Therefore, this initiative tries to position the cities of Valladolid and Palencia as benchmarks in the areas of sustainable development and as drivers of innovation in the context of the Joint Plan CE. This plan consists of measures related to the planning, implementation and international cooperation in the fields of energy technology, environment, transport, citizens and tourism.
The strategic location of Valladolid and it’s communication through an extensive network of roads, high speed trains, and conventional trains, and it’s character of logistic node in the planned Atlantic Corridor (Figure 6), will continue to promote its specialization as one of the most important industrial nodes in northern Spain.
As for weather conditions, Mediterranean climate is the typical climate of the north-central Spain area and Valladolid. Main features of this climate are the extreme temperatures (as this area does not receive the influence of the sea), but not as hard as in continental climates, and low levels of rainfall (between 400 and 600 mm per year), similar to the Mediterranean climate. Winters are cold, with daily frost and about 60 days per year of frequent fog. Summer is the driest season and temperatures often rise more than 30 ° C. During the spring and autumn temperature variability is quite large. According to this, heating is the main demand of energy in buildings, others such as cooling devices are not usually present in homes.
Taking into account mobility aspects, in accordance with the Integral Plan of Urban Mobility for the City of Valladolid (PIMUVA, 2005) the main indicators related to this area are as follows: 37.7% of the population are employed, 22.4% students, housewives 17.9% and 12.7% retired. The motorization rate is 1.05 vehicles per household, of which 23% of households do not own any vehicle and 23.7% own two or more private vehicles. Regarding mobility indicators, 844.645 trips are made on average in a day and a half, representing a rate of 2,48 trips / person and 6,97 trips / home. In addition, these trips can be categorized as walking (53.3%), private vehicles (29.1%) and public transport (12.8%). Among them, 34.6% were due to work reasons, 21.1% due to studies and 14.3% for leisure. Thus, 55.7% of these trips are inevitable for citizens. Some differences were found compared to other cities in terms of demand, especially in relation to the peak hour (14h00-15h00) when 10.8% of the tours are conducted, while 08h00-09h00 and 17h00-18h00 are slot peaks relating that represent 9.0% and 6.9% of the travel respectively.
In the mobility field, workplace and school are important variables to consider. 5.8% of the population works in the metropolitan area and 10.8% of this area. The flow of travel is basically generated in the periphery and attracted by the Centre and the industrial zones. Finally, regarding the modal distribution of mobility, most of walk trips are in the center, while most public transport trips are in the south-western outskirts and most of the private transport travels in the southern periphery.
More about Valladolid
Valladolid has launched a Strategic Plan which the main objectives of the city are set to 2016, as the Plan of Action for Sustainable Energy, Smart City strategy for Valladolid and Palencia, review processes of the General Urban Plan, and actions related to equality and international projection.
In the field of TIC implementation, the City Council of Valladolid distinguishes three levels in the role of CI technologies as the management and control of the tool in relation with the citizens:
- Through a more transparent information on public actions and to facilitate the reuse of information and bilateral communication through "portal web”
- Service Management through the electronic portal in which all procedures and services of the Municipal Catalogue can be managed by telematics
- The socialization of the TICs and access to the Information Society,the deployment for this purpose of digital media such as municipal infrastructure, after four developments:
- 101 Internet access points in personal computers installed in municipal buildings (libraries, civic centers, Youth Space, Senior Centers
- 24 Free access to inland areas of Wi-Fi in municipal buildings, 22 free access outdoor areas of Wi-Fi in public areas and free access to Wi-Fi in business areas in industrial parks
- Creating the Economic Development Agency of innovation and, in order to promote innovation actions. In this center, the City Council and members of his Collaborative Network called Smartolid (Agilecyl, Cylicon Valley, Mozilla Foundation, Initiator Valladolid, Execyl, etc) operate
- Creating the Municipal Technology Dissemination Center, a space for the information society and knowledge, which also houses the Municipal Center of the Processing Data and CyL Area (property of the Generalitat), with different rooms with access to Internet and workshops
In the Smart City framework, Valladolid is continually working to achieve the objectives of sustainability, health and innovation. In addition, the city is a founding member of the Spanish Network of Intelligent Cities (RECI) establishing strategic actions for the protection of the urban environment and to improve the quality of life of citizens of the adaptation of the urban landscape for these purposes. Among these initiatives, one of the strategic priorities is the implementation of a intelligent power management network (Smart Grid) through the installation of smart meters in order to distinguish different uses, it also adapts to the charging infrastructure of electric vehicles
Also, in the different planning tools as the already mentioned Integral Urban Mobility Plan, the Local Agenda 21 and the document Strategic Planning by 2016, Valladolid has launched intelligent control systems of street lighting, a new system for waste management and a recycling system, 93% of smart traffic lights, traffic control cameras for the center control, information about public transportation in real time or electric gate, seen as the best website of the Municipal award 2010 / 2011 by the Orange Foundation.
Urban Plans
Valladolid signed the Covenant of Mayors in 2011 and has just introduced its SEAP. But besides this SEAP they have several urbanistic plans related to different aspects of the city:
- Covenant of Mayors SEAP
- Green Vehicle Program
- Plan for integral urban mobility
- Valladolid by 2016. Strategic proposals
- Local Agenda 21
Valladolid, as an open and socially cohesive city has as main objectives to contribute to improve citizens' quality of life; to direct the collective construction of Valladolid and its metropolitan area, and to promote a common framework to promote effective management relations between citizens, institutions and businesses.
In its current local agenda, Valladolid has defined five programs:
- Sustainable Mobility
- Sustainable urban planning
- Energy Strategy
- Public health
- The social dimension of sustainability