Catalonia (Spain)
The second study case refers to Catalonia. This region was chosen as, in addition to having implemented processes of strategic environmental assessment in urban planning practices, it relies on the support of a qualified study centre: the Landscape Observ
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Catalonia (Spain)
Abstract The second study case refers to Catalonia. This region was chosen as, in addition to having implemented processes of strategic environmental assessment in urban planning practices, it relies on the support of a qualified study centre: the Landscape Observatory. This centre was created to respond to the need to study the landscape, prepare proposals and sensitise Catalan society to the need for better protection, management and planning of the landscape within a framework of sustainable development. The Landscape Observatory has focused its efforts on identifying and cataloguing Catalan landscape values, creating new instruments for the introduction of landscape objectives into spatial planning. This unique case highlights the potential for landscape interpretation using evaluation methods that address the needs of modern urbanism. Combining approaches to landscape assessment, it allows more effective tools to be adopted, forming a consensus and the pursuit of a set of common, shared objectives and, not least, greater involvement of the local community. Furthermore, each approach compensates for the weaknesses of the other, thereby ensuring a high degree of acceptance of the system— also promoting a broad consensus on the part of professionals who work in this area. For these reasons, the study presented intends to show how the environmental assessment in general, and Directive no. 2001/42/EC in particular, is able to incorporate environmental issues into the planning process, creating a virtuous circle for modern urbanism, triggering positive outcomes and widely shared processes.
Keywords Strategic environmental assessment Regional planning Landscape Observatory Landscape evaluation Quality objectives Local scale planning
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The Territorial Policy in Catalonia
Production by the European Union over the past 20 years, with regard to the territory in general and environment in particular, is an important normative apparatus and has been translated into values and visions that have lead to a new © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 F. Cutaia, Strategic Environmental Assessment: Integrating Landscape and Urban Planning, UNIPA Springer Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42132-2_6
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Catalonia (Spain)
way of governing the territory, referring to the natural environment, managing resources and understanding of urban development. This is a sign of progress and a radical cultural change, at least on a formal and proactive level. While it is possible to appreciate significant changes able to permeate most of the policies at national, regional and local levels, on the other hand it detects a new distance between “formal” and “real”, highlighting, in the field of application, differences between states, regions and local contexts (Romero 2011). Spain, under this matter, is an example. An example lies in what has happened with regard to the ELC: the region of Catalonia has immediately integrated into its national system all the regulations/provisions descending f
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