Catalonia’s Economy: Agriculture, Industry, and Infrastructure
**Agricultural Areas in Catalonia**
There are four main production areas in Catalonia:
- Forest and Grassland: This is the most mountainous region of Catalonia, where forests, pastures, fodder, and livestock alternate. The economy has diversified thanks to tourism, adventure sports, and winter activities.
- Irrigation, Fruit, and Vegetable Gardens: This corresponds to artificially irrigated areas. These are flat areas with good soil, specializing in fruit production. The most important products are vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants.
- Cereals and Farms: These areas include the central and north-central depression. Characteristic crops are cereals. Intensive livestock production is the main source of income.
- Unirrigated Vineyards and Orchards: Located in the pre-coastal depression and southern territories of the central depression. Dominant crops are grapes, dry fruits, and olive trees. The counties with the highest wine production are Alt Penedès, Priorat, and Terra Alta.
**The Fisheries Sector in Catalonia**
The coast of Catalonia is very extensive but has a fairly narrow continental shelf. This shallow shelf is rich in biomass and shelters, essential for the development of marine life. However, the continental shelf has suffered significant degradation due to intense urbanization of the coastline and overfishing. To halt this destruction, artificial reefs (sunken structures that provide shelter and enhance the recovery of seabed life) have been introduced.
Currently, the fishing sector’s participation in the Catalan economy is very low. However, the fishing industry has undergone significant modernization. Fishing activity is supplemented by aquaculture, which has grown in recent decades. Aquaculture is located on some stretches of the coast: the Ebro Delta, the coast of Tarragona, Arenys de Mar, and the Costa Brava.
**Research, Development, and Innovation in Catalonia**
In 2005, the European Commission established a method to measure innovation using a series of indicators, including:
- Spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP.
- The education level of the population, measured by the number of graduates in science and technology and participation in training.
- The effort of firms in innovation, companies that cooperate to innovate, and expenditure undertaken by ICT.
Investments are most important in science parks. There is an excess of university graduates in lower-grade jobs and a shortage of people with secondary education or training. The most common indicator for measuring the innovative effort of firms is spending on innovation as a percentage of turnover. Between 2002 and 2004, the number of innovative companies in Catalonia increased, but the average effort in innovation decreased. The European regional innovation index places Catalonia in position 82 out of 206 regions.
**Functions of Communication Networks in Catalonia**
The main functions of communication networks are:
- Connecting different centers, producers, and distributors with consumer markets (freight).
- Facilitating the flow of people between work centers, services, and residential areas.
- Linking different systems, urban and rural areas, and less accessible areas.
**The Road Network**
The road network has a radial character centered in Barcelona. To overcome this limitation, recent initiatives have aimed to create transversal axes that relieve congestion and improve the connection between the coast and inland areas. The Transversal Axis absorbs traffic between the central regions of Catalonia, Girona, and France without going through Barcelona.
**The Railway Network**
The first train line on the peninsula, connecting Barcelona and Mataró, was built in 1848 thanks to the initiative of the local bourgeoisie. In recent decades, there has been a modernization of the railway, dependent on the state (RENFE) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC). The Barcelona metro and high-speed train (AVE) have also been expanded and improved. The aim is to construct a new international route that, within 15 to 20 years, will cover the needs of the growing flow of passengers and goods and provide cohesion to the overall mobility of the country, especially in Central Catalonia.
**The Port Network**
Catalonia has 47 ports. The two major ports are Barcelona and Tarragona, which handle commercial, industrial, fishing, and sports activities. Barcelona is the most important port for passenger transport, while Tarragona specializes in transporting liquids, mainly oil and its derivatives. Other ports include La Fortalesa de Sant Carles, Vilanova, and Palamós. In 2007, the government approved the 2006-2015 nutrition plan to promote port activities and improve their efficiency and environmental sustainability. The plan’s objectives include:
- Prioritizing the expansion of existing ports.
- Promoting the role of ports as major logistics centers.
- Improving marketing conditions in fishing ports.
- Creating new places in marinas.
- Promoting the uptake of new markets and short-sea trade from the ports.
- Improving the integration of ports into the urban fabric.
**The Airport Network**
Air transport has experienced tremendous growth, with a significant increase in commercial flights and freight transport. Catalonia currently has a dozen airfields and airports: three commercial airports (Barcelona, Girona, Reus) and seven general aviation and sport airfields. The 2009-2015 plan for airports, airfields, and heliports, approved in 2006, aims to complete the existing network with the construction of seven new airports and heliports and improve the overall infrastructure.
**Traffic Links with Europe**
Catalonia is located at the crossroads of two major economic and strategic European corridors: the Diagonal Corridor and the North-South Corridor. The Diagonal Corridor is a west-east corridor that passes through Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Perpignan, Montpellier, Lyon, and beyond. The North-South Corridor connects Hamburg with Tangier via Metz, Lyon, Barcelona, Valencia, and Algeciras. In the area of the nearest territories, Catalonia is located at the crossroads of two major corridors: the Corridor of the Two Oceans (Atlantic and Mediterranean), which allows users to go from Barcelona to Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux in western France, and the Ebro Corridor, which connects Catalonia with Zaragoza, Cantabria, and the Basque Country.
**Logistics Centers and Regional Balance**
Logistics can be defined as the management of the flow of goods, services, and other resources, including energy and people, between a point of origin and an endpoint. This management is carried out in three phases:
- Transportation
- Inventory, storage, and packaging supplies
- Distribution of goods
Logistical activities are carried out through a network of transport links (roads) and centers for storage and packaging (nodes), also called logistic platforms. Catalonia is a first-class logistics center in the European context. Logistics infrastructure and platforms are fundamental to supporting logistics and freight and are therefore necessary to ensure supply to production and consumption centers.