Collserola Resilience Thinking Walkshop: The paths of water is an activity of Eina Gateway to Collserola.
Eina, led by SITESIZE, Resilience Thinking Initiatives and UPC/Agrotech, is launching a new scientific–artistic outreach initiative that invites participants to rediscover the relationship between Barcelona and the Collserola mountain range, the coastal range that embraces the city, through a central element: water. The initiative forms part of the EINA Collserola Living Lab project, which activates socio-ecological relationships by promoting pluriversal perspectives grounded in resilience thinking, while fostering educational transdisciplinarity and the integration of STEAM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, into learning processes.
Barcelona has its own aquifer basin, a subterranean system intimately connected with Collserola. Water not only flows and sustains ecosystems, but also shapes landscapes and has directly influenced the city’s growth and form. Based on this reality, the project adopts resilience science to interpret the role of water in territorial configuration and climate adaptation. Within this framework, several pilot experiences known as walkshops will be developed, learning sessions that combine science, cooperative social art and walking as an educational methodology. These workshops aim to train trainers, teachers and citizens, so they can replicate and expand this integrative and transdisciplinary perspective on the territory.
Description
The resilience thinking walkshops carried out between the city of Barcelona and Collserola, aimed at training educators, propose a socio-ecological learning experience based on walking as a tool for understanding the dynamics of resilience between Barcelona and its hydrological basin. The resilience thinking walkshop methodology promotes learning through walking, where physical effort, sensory perception and collective reflection facilitate understanding of socio-ecological cycles and the interdependencies between city and nature. Walking acts as a social and community practice, generating cooperation, critical thinking and socio-environmental awareness. The experience concludes by linking field observations with Barcelona’s current challenges, such as diversifying its water sources, restoring its relationship with Collserola and moving towards adaptive management grounded in care, proximity and socio-ecological resilience.
The workshop routes begin in the historic village centres of Barcelona, such as Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Vallcarca, witnesses to the city’s historic urban expansion, and ascend towards the boundary spaces between the city and the Collserola range. Through this gradual transition from urban to natural environments, participants read the territory as a socio-ecological system in continuous change and transformation, where tensions between urbanisation, sustainable water management and conservation become visible.
Practical information
The in-person resilience thinking walkshops will be scheduled during the training period for secondary school and sixth-form teachers.
Participants develop a landscape literacy that enables them to recognise ecological indicators, historical dynamics and contemporary challenges such as the loss of proximity to local water sources or the fragmentation of the territory caused by road infrastructures.
June
Gràcia - Sunday, June 21 📍 Casal de Barri de Can Carol 🕙 Schedule: Departure at 10:00 am · Arrival at 1:00 pm
Sarrià – Sant Gervasi - Sunday, June 28 📍 Plaça de Sant Vicenç de Sarrià 🕙 Schedule: Departure at 10:00 am · Arrival at 1:00 pm
July
Gràcia - Sunday, July 5 📍 Casal de Barri de Can Carol 🕙 Schedule: Departure at 10:00 am · Arrival at 1:00 pm
Sarrià – Sant Gervasi - Sunday, July 12 📍 Plaça de Sant Vicenç de Sarrià 🕙 Schedule: Departure at 10:00 am · Arrival at 1:00 pm
Project team
Elvira Pujol, Joan Vila-Puig, Francesc Magrinyà and Rafael de Balanzó.
