The Development of Metropolitan Bilbao from the Point of View of Strategic Urban Planning: Present and Future Challenges

The Association for the Revitalization of Metropolitan Bilbao, “Bilbao Metropoli-30”, is an association of promotion and research that has been formed to carry out planning, research and promotion projects, headed towards the recuperation and revitalization of Metropolitan Bilbao. The objective is the dynamic recovery of Metropolitan Bilbao through the application of entrepreneurial management tools (strategic planning, the analysis of future scenarios, city marketing and urban indicator systems); by encouraging collaboration between the public and private sectors and the creation of social capital in the city; and by developing entrepreneurial leadership, civil association and innovation in business management. The work of Bilbao Metropoli-30 is broadly focused on Metropolitan Bilbao, which comprises 30 municipalities. In fact, the organisation has no specific administrative limits. The area in which it operates is better defined as an area linked by its culture and industrial heritage. The development of the strategic plan in Bilbao has favoured a debate on a metropolitan scale. The Bilbao experience, with the vision developed by the Bilbao Metropoli-30 Association, is proof of the strategic importance of the metropolitan dimension in the transformation of cities.