The objectives of this GIR are to promote and coordinate the research of a consolidated team of professors who are simultaneously members of the Department of Geography and of the Urban Planning Institute of the University of Valladolid, primarily oriented to the analysis of urban and territorial processes and dynamics; to the study, proposal and evaluation of urban policies and models of municipal management and local governance. To become a permanent observatory of urban policies applied in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American cities, by constantly adopting a comparative approach based on network cooperation with foreign researchers.

Analysis and diagnosis of territorial and urban dynamics, instruments of strategic planning, urban planning, territorial planning and local development; instruments of urban policies and management on which the development and cohesion of local-municipal life and urban competitiveness are based, in specific matters such as: social integration (social facilities and the rest of the elements of the endowment system in as a whole), urban sustainability policies and preparation of Local Agendas 21, industrial land; large-capacity transport infrastructures, spaces for logistics activity and intra-urban mobility; the policies of recovery of historical centers, of valorization of the public space and of rehabilitation of the built heritage; tourism policies and planning of tourist spaces; programs covered in intercity cooperation.