4. Edge Open Spaces in Madrid and Its Metropolitan Area (Spain), Sustainable Urban Planning and Environmental Values

This contribution is focused on the valuation of the spaces that remain vacant at the city border, as part of a future urban Green Infrastructure. To that end, they have been identified and characterized. Furthermore, a specific GIS has been developed for Madrid, the largest urban metropolitan area in Spain. This chapter is organised in five parts and the final conclusions. First of all, in the introduction, the general objectives are exposed and the concept and importance of the open spaces in the city are studied. Secondly, the methodology describes the design of the research and the development of the GIS. Afterwards, the urban and territorial context, where these pieces have their origin, are characterized. This is a synthetic approach which also includes the recent evolution of the legislation as well as that of the city. Through this evolution it is possible to see how these pieces have been framed into a failed green belt since the middle of the last century. Fourthly, a presentation of these open spaces, their urban regime and their land uses is carried out. Subsequently, their valuation in a potential network of open spaces in the Madrilenian metropolitan area is performed. The basic criteria for this valuation is the land adjacent to each of these open spaces. Finally, in the conclusions, we set out the evidence arising from this research, requiring the need for having accurate tools, such as GIS, in order to reach solid proposals that deal with the challenge of Green Infrastructures. We also believe that the conservation and integration of open spaces should be a priority in general strategies of urban development for mitigation Climate Change and to reduce the effects of Global Warming.