The territory of the municipalities (both open spaces and built-up spaces and densely built-up urban areas) are ordered by the Pla d'Ordenació Urbanística Municipal (which could be translated as the Municipal Urban Development Plan) which establishes the uses of the land, the conditions of buildability and also the allocations of public spaces and facilities by agreement of the competent administrations. In other words, this Development Plan is the reference that determines what and how the city and the territory will be built, allocating uses for the necessary general functioning of the territory (housing, protected natural spaces, streets and roads, commercial areas, cultural or sports facilities, etc.) and, most especially, the Development Plan determines the future transformation that the city and the territory will have to undergo.

In this sense, defending the Municipal Urban Development Plan involves a technical process as well as citizen participation. These professionals are mainly essential in local administrations, although not exclusively, because they ensure compliance with the prescriptions of the Plan from the point of view of the administration. Thus, urban planning provides information on acts relating to the knowledge of the conditions of buildability of a property (number of floors allowed, depth, separation of the boundaries of a plot, etc.), the types of permitted use (housing, residential, commercial, industrial, sanitary, etc.) and the possible assignments to general or local systems (roads, green areas, facilities, forest parks, etc.), and, where appropriate, the systems of action (expropriation, reparcelling) to arrive at the planned development.

These professionals are integrated in the Town Planning Service, whose mission is the efficient exercise of municipal and local competences in town planning matters in order to define and develop strategies and actions that favour the continuous improvement of the urban habitat, economic, competitiveness, social and territorial cohesion, and sustainability by applying the General Plan. Thus, the basic functions of these professionals are:

• Urban planning: to ensure the application of the Plan's prescriptions, preventing actions from being carried out outside of planning and setting in motion the relevant administrative processes to deploy the contents of the Plan. As well as the preparation and approval of the figures that develop the Municipal Urban Development Plan (partial plans, urban improvement plans, special plans, urban development projects, etc.).

• Urban development management: this comprises the set of practices that establish the technical-legal form of executing urban development plans. Its objective is to determine and specify the work of those who will participate in the process: public administrations, owners, developers and promoters. There are two systems of urban development action: the redistribution system (by basic compensation, by compensation by agreement, by cooperation, by priority urbanisation sectors), and the expropriation system.

• Urban planning licences: to grant permits, authorisations and ensure the legally established procedures that ensure that the process of change and transformation of public and private space in the municipal area is in accordance with the provision of the Plan (building permits, activities, subdivisions...)

• The protection of urban planning legality: to ensure that actions undertaken in the field of urban development management, both public and private initiative, are in accordance with the general laws that determine the administrative process and also in the field of urban development law.

In short, the transformation, preservation and creation of new urban spaces is a complex process because it brings together the rights of individuals (property, burdens and benefits of ownership) and of the commons (valuation, equitable, distribution of the costs of urban transformation, burdens and benefits) on the basis of what is established by the regulations.

• Coordinate the prescriptions of the supra-municipal and municipal plans and regulations in charge of planning (master plans, urban planning regulations, municipal urban action programmes and municipal urban development plans) with the derived planning instruments (special urban development plans, special autonomous urban development plans, urban improvement plans, partial urban development plans, partial delimitation plans and partial plans for priority urban development sectors).
• Ensure the correct development of urban planning (preparation, drafting and management of urban plans) within the framework of the Municipal Urban Development Plan.
• Responsible for the processing of building licences, ruin proceedings, first occupation licences, environmental licences (openings), processing of urban development use certificates, control of buildings and urban development discipline, building bonds, issuing of urban development compatibility certificates. Analyse and supervise building and activity licences, as well as all matters relating to projects, planning, maintenance and mapping.
• Work on the preparation of projects for buildings, public spaces and installations (lighting, sewerage, etc.), as well as on their execution, or on the control of their execution in the event that they have been awarded to a company.
• Responsible for the maintenance of buildings, public roads, sewage systems, street nameplates and numbering, municipal services and facilities, and may also be in charge of coordinating the municipal works maintenance service.
• Carry out the control of their own and contracted works.
• Protect urban planning legality, restore the altered physical reality and the violated legal order, as well as exercising the function of inspection and urban planning discipline with the establishment of sanctions.
  

Regulated training and graduates

• Grau: Arquitectura
• Grau: Arquitectura tècnica
• Grau: Arquitectura tècnica i edificació
• Grau: Estudis d'arquitectura
• Grau: Dret
• Engineering and Architecture Degrees

Complementary training

There is a wide and consolidated offer of postgraduate studies that allow an update and specialisation in the architect's knowledge in the fields of:

• Building

• Building management

• Urban planning

• Sustainability
  

Other specific skills

Commitment to the organisation: Level 2

Analytical thought: Level 2

Planning and organisation: Level 3

Concern for order and quality: Level 4

Team work and cooperation: Level 2

Management

The organisation, administration and control of a company or entity are the main interests of people related to the management field. Activities included in this field of interest vary from effective resource management, feasibility analyses and solving business problems to the development of skills and fostering of motivation in relation to human resources. Knowledge regarding specific techniques of strategic administration and business management are required to carry out these activities.

Legal

People who are interested in the legal field like occupations related to legislation and the law. This field of interest includes advising people and institutions in legal matters, representing them in judicial processes and managing the documentation and procedures necessary for these processes. Carrying out these activities entails the study and knowledge of legal regulations and matters in their various scopes of application.

Logistics

The planning, organisation, control and carrying out of logistics and administrative tasks are the focus of people who work in the field of logistics. Activities in the field of logistics include the organisation and planning of supply, storage, production and distribution systems, taking inventories, controlling stock and estimating production, as well as the organisation and/or carrying out of the administrative tasks necessary for the implementation of these activities. Knowledge of organisation, control and management techniques is essential for carrying out these activities.

Bioclimatic consultant

Scenographer

Specialist in leisure and recreation areas

Project architect

Building project manager

• Work hours

  Normally it is a full day's work with no lunch break from 7.30 to 3 pm. But it will depend on each public administration (local or regional).
  
  

• Salary

  In general, remuneration will depend on the position held:
  
  - Mid-level technicians (Technical Architect): can range from 29,000 to 38,000 euros gross per year.
  - Senior technicians (Architect, Engineer, Lawyer): can range from 50,000 to 56,000 euros gross per year.
  
  Remuneration will also depend on each administration where these professionals carry out their tasks.
  
  
  

• Professional category

  Technician