Resultados de traducción
The SSPA Network has presented the ‘Map 174. Zoning of Spanish municipalities subject to serious and permanent demographic disadvantages’ with which they intend to contribute to a better application of the policies against these problems, hence it has also been presented to representatives of the regional and provincial institutions of Cuenca, Soria and Teruel. Map 174, which has been made by geographers, José Antonio Guillén, technician of the SSPA Network and María Zúñiga, professor at the University of Zaragoza, CEOT Group, IUCA of the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning of the University of Zaragoza, it can serve to identify the singularities of the territories and thus be able to take the most effective and fair measures. With the preparation of this map, which is based on the wording of article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the SSPA network seeks to contribute to the debate on depopulation a tool that improves the territorial diagnosis with a view to the application of policies and measures concrete measures that have to reverse the worrying demographic and socioeconomic crisis that affects an important part of rural inland Spain. These works are in line with the work carried out since 2013 by the business organizations of Cuenca, Teruel and Soria, trying to convey a rigorous diagnosis that an important part of inland Spain suffers, also through meetings with institutions.
Rigorous methodology
The map starts from the literal of Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union -Treaty of Lisbon-, where it is highlighted that the Union will propose to reduce the differences between the levels of development of the various regions, paying special attention to rural areas and those with severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps.
Starting from these premises, the map aims to measure the degree of these disadvantages through 6 variables: altitude, average slope, population density, aging index, percentage of population between 0 and 4 years old, and population evolution between 1991 and 2018 .
María Zúñiga, co-author of the map advanced that “the choice of these variables responds to two fundamental principles. In the first place, the resulting map had to be scientifically rigorous, for which, in addition to being based on official statistical sources, it had to dispense with any type of bias, avoiding artificial territorial aggregations or weightings between variables. Second, it had to be easily interpreted by society as a whole and its methodology perfectly applicable to any other territory of the European Union ”.
Along the same lines, the other author, José Antonio Guillén highlighted that “we propose this cartography as a first contribution to the debate on the zoning and ranking of the municipalities that suffer demographic disadvantages. We would like the different administrations to make it their own and value the convenience of, for example, introducing new social or economic variables that allow a better and more effective application of policies to combat depopulation ”.
Conclusions
María Zúñiga pointed out as one of the conclusions of this study that “society as a whole, not only rural society, should consider whether the model of management of the territory to which it seems we are doomed in Spain, with hardly any resident population in an important part of the territory, it is sustainable in economic and environmental terms. Without a sufficient population presence in rural areas, threats such as the loss of biodiversity, the opportunities to curb climate change or the necessary conservation and efficient management of fundamental resources such as water, remain in doubt, and this is everyone’s problem. , also of the inhabitants of the cities ”.
Along these lines, and as a conclusion after the results, José Antonio Guillén analyzed that “of course Spain faces a demographic problem as a whole, but it is no less true that the issue of depopulation is not as widespread as it is sometimes wants to see. It is true that many provinces and autonomous communities suffer from very diverse territorial difficulties that must be amended, but these do not always respond to a demographic disadvantage ”.
The map shows not only the magnitude of the depopulation problem, the main one of a territorial order that affects the country as a whole, but also that the incidence of the phenomenon is not much more unequal between provinces and autonomous communities than might be expected. In fact, of the 1,776 municipalities (21.9% of the total) that suffer a demographic situation considered very serious, 20% -one in five- are located in the provinces that make up the SSPA network.
For its part, compared to 44% of Spanish municipalities that are in a serious or very serious demographic situation, an already very worrying figure, in the case of the SSPA network, this percentage practically doubles, reaching 81, 4%.
On the other hand, 2,452 Spanish municipalities, 30% of the total, enjoy a good demographic situation, while in the provinces of Soria, Cuenca and Teruel as a whole there are only 27 localities that do not suffer demographic disadvantages (only the 4.1% of the total SSPA municipalities).
In the opinion of Jose Antonio Guillén, “this data is extremely worrying, since in order to promote the socioeconomic development of a whole territory it is essential that it has a minimum of populations with a certain degree of demographic, social and economic vigor capable of radiating opportunities for the future to the smallest towns in its immediate surroundings.
With regard to the spatial dimension of the phenomenon of depopulation, 37% of the Spanish surface is in a serious or very serious demographic situation, while in the case of the SSPA network this percentage reaches 70%.