URBAN PLAN OF SALAMANCA

Salamanca is located on the Northern Plateau on the Iberian Peninsula. It has a plain relief and it is by the river Tormes, a tributary of the Duero.The climate has mild temperatures and quite abundant precipitations. 

The shapes of the streets of Salamanca change if they are on the historic centre or on the suburbs. In the historic centre, the buildings are the traditional stone-brick-made, an the streets are radiocentric, and they converge in the Main Square of Salamanca, such as the Rúa Mayor or the Street of Zamora. One of the problems may be the services. It is necessary to walk away from the historic centre to get to work or to do the shopping. A possible solution could be reduce the redisential areas and put other locals instead. This problem is relationated with parking. There are almost no places for the car to park. A possible solution may be the construction of parkings in the origin of the streets, or underground ones. In the historic centre, we can see some neo-classic houses, made by the bourgeoisie during the XX century. These class weren't able to build in the outskirts of the city, so they decided to replace the short and medieval houses for taller and more modern ones.

The urban enlargement of the city were built in the first half of the XX century by the people who moved from the rural areas to the city to find job and opportunities. This extensions are attributed to working class population that arrived into the city in the 1950s due to a rural exodus. These neighborhoods have a more regular plan, such as La Avenida de Portugal, La Avenida de Italia or La Calle de Ledesma. 

The periphery/outskirts

Lately, Another type of extensions has to do with nearby villages that have become part of the city as a consequence of a population increase in them. In the XX century as well, the people from the rural areas bought cheaper houses in this villages than city ones, so the population increase in this semi detached residential areas.

With regard to the industrial areas, we can outline el Polígono Montalvo and the Polígono de los Villares. The main activities both develop are winery, cheese-making and oil-making. Other secundary activities could be plumbing and iron and steel industry.

DEMOGRAPHIC PYRAMID

A population pyramid is a graphic representation of bars that shows the demographic structure according to two changeables: sex and age, in a city or a country.

Observing the sex ratio we can say that the same number of men and women born during this year. Sex ratio matches at the 45-49 years old bar. When looking at the top of the pyramid it is clear that women have a higher life expectancy. The reasons of that might be that testosterone reduces life expectancy in men because of biological reasons.

The shape of this pyramid shows that most of the population was young people. In addition, the structure of the pyramid exhibit that there were high birth rates and high death rates. So, this pyramid is an expansive pyramid that is on stage 2 (high birth rates and falling death rates). The age group with a larger number of people is the bottom one; this means that there were a lot of births that year. Also, we can see a bump due to the 10-14 years old bar. The causes of this young population could be better hygienic conditions for the children. The lack of old people may be a consequence of the Afghanistan’s war or terrorism.

The consequences of the demographic structure of the pyramid are investments in the educational system. According to the data shown, we can predict that the demographic evolution of this country will be to stage 3.