IMPLEMENTING THE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION AND THE E. U. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT DIRECTIVE IN THE AUTONOMOUS REGION OF VALENCIA, SPAIN Carl Steinitz and Arancha Munoz-Criado The Autonomous Region of Valencia intends to become the first autonomous region in Spain to fully implement the European Landscape Convention, and the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive of the European Union, by designing and implementing a set of policies and plans to protect and enhance the landscapes of the entire Region of Valencia. Covering a surface of 23,000 km2 and with a population of 5 million people, the Valencian Region is one of the most dynamic areas in the Mediterranean Arch and in Spain.The coastal and agricultural areas of Valencia are undergoing rapid and destructive changes that impinge on the attractiveness and economic vitality of the region for both residents and visitors. While we are all aware of the worldwide slowing of development caused by the current economic crisis, we cannot ignore the long-term trends related to the worldwide movement of populations into temperate regions. This is a pattern common to many countries, including Spain.

In November 2007, I received a telephone call from Arancha Munoz-Criado, the Director of Planning of the Valencia Region (and my former student at Harvard), asking whether I would come to Valencia and talk to the President of the Region. I went and met with President Camps and Arancha for well over an hour. The President was receiving substantial public criticism, including a published letter from the European Union, that the region of Valencia “had become ugly”. The prosperity that had come to the region through Spain’s joining the European Union and receiving a disproportionate new members’ share of financial aid, and the development that had occurred on top of the private development of the previous 20 to 30 years, was widely perceived as being ugly. This was to be taken very seriously, as landscape is a major public issue in the contentious political climate of the Valencia Region. The President did not know what to do. However significant this issue was seen by the President and Arancha, it was part of a much broader planning crisis in the Region of Valencia. AT THAT TIME in 2007, planning laws and processes stated that: 542 Municipalities have the responsibility to make municipal plans. These must be approved by the Region. Major investments also must be approved by the Region. Approval could take more than three years.

There were no Regional plans, but there were many uncoordinated and often contradictory directives, laws and administrative procedures, some for landscape protection. The system was confusing, inefficient and often paralyzed. Several aspects of planning had to be fundamentally revised, and the President and the regional government were to be guided in these changes by Arancha Munoz-Craido and her Department. The President and Arancha believed that The European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe offered a very useful model for attempting to manage this crisis. The Action Plan of the European Landscape Convention was adopted by the Heads of States and Governments of the member states in Warsaw, on 17 May 2005. Spain ratified the European Landscape Convention in November 2007, and is required by law to implement this international treaty. The principal provisions of the European Landscape Convention’s Action Plan are in Article 5: 1. Recognition of landscapes in law as an essential component of people’s surroundings, and expression of the diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage, and a foundation of their identity. 2. Establishment and implementation of landscape policies aimed at landscape protection, management and planning. 3. Establishment of procedures for participation by the general public, local and regional authorities and other parties with an interest in the definition and implementation of landscape policies. 4. Integration of landscape into regional and town planning policies, and in its cultural, environmental agricultural, social and economic policies, as well as in any other policies with possible direct or indirect impact on landscape. As a lawyer, The President was also fully aware of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive of the European Commission (Directive 2001/42/EC SEA) and the requirements included in Annex 1. As Director of Planning, Arancha was tasked with organizing its implementation, and especially those aspects related to the landscape in Annex 1. ANNEX I Information referred to in Article 5(1) The information to be provided under Article 5(1), subject to Article 5(2) and (3), is the following: (a) an outline of the contents, main objectives of the plan or programme and relationship with other relevant plans and programmes;

(b) the relevant aspects of the current state of the environment and the likely evolution thereof without implementation of the plan or programme; (c) the environmental characteristics of areas likely to be significantly affected; (d) any existing environmental problems which are relevant to the plan or programme including, in particular, those relating to any areas of a particular environmental importance, such as areas designated pursuant to Directives 79/409/EEC and 92/43/EEC; (e) the environmental protection objectives, established at international, Community or Member State level, which are relevant to the plan or programme and the way those objectives and any environmental considerations have been taken into account during its preparation; (f) the likely significant effects(1) on the environment, including on issues such as biodiversity, population, human health, fauna, flora, soil, water, air, climatic factors, material assets, cultural heritage including architectural and archaeological heritage, landscape and the interrelationship between the above factors; (g) the measures envisaged to prevent, reduce and as fully as possible offset any significant adverse effects on the environment of implementing the plan or programme; (h) an outline of the reasons for selecting the alternatives dealt with, and a description of how the assessment was undertaken including any difficulties (such as technical deficiencies or lack of know-how) encountered in compiling the required information; (i) a description of the measures envisaged concerning monitoring in accordance with Article 10; (j) a non-technical summary of the information provided under the above headings. (1) These effects should include secondary, cumulative, synergistic, short, medium and long-term permanent and temporary, positive and negative effects. Over the past few years there have been several laws and programs to protect important landscape areas in the Region of Valencia. However, most of these landscapes are predominantly in places where there is little pressure for urban or industrial development. Most of the Region’s development is where the roads are, along the coast and in the coastal plain, and in relatively flat valleys. Most of the people reside there, and most urban, commercial and industry is there. These areas are also where most people perceive the landscapes of the region. It is essential that these highly valued landscapes be understood, planned for, protected as needed, and enhanced at regional and municipal scales. There had never been a study of public preferences for the landscapes of the Valencia Region. We decided to do a serious visual assessment of the entire Region of Valencia, and within the principles of the European Landscape Convention. This meant that the assessment would not be based on expert judgment but rather on popular judgment.

This was to be an intentional implementation of European Landscape Convention’s Article 5.3 “Establishment of procedures for participation by the general public, local and regional authorities and other parties with an interest in the definition and implementation of landscape policies”. This study took five months. It was conducted in the context of a course of lectures and seminars that I led. Juan Carlos Vargas-Moreno, Tess Canfield, The Valencia Landscape Department and I met five times during Spring 2008 with a large group of faculty and graduate students from the University of Valencia and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and several people from Arancha’s Department. I gave lectures on visual assessment theories and methods, and during the 3 weeks or so that we were away each time the students did the field work and The Valencia Planning Department team conducted the analytic phases. A representative sample of more than 800 people participated in the photograph-based survey, and a highly reliable explanatory model was generated and applied to the very detailed regional GIS. A map was made of predicted visual preferences as seen from all 30 meter grid points in the Region. Protection of the most highly preferred views became public policy. This study is published in Steinitz, C., 2010, “An Assessment of the Visual Landscape of the Autonomous Region of Valencia, Spain: A Case Study in Linking Research, Teaching and Landscape Planning”, Landscape 21, pp 14-33, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (in English).

A web site was prepared which provided access to the region’s data and assessment models, and which is accessible to any registered user. It provides the ability to pre-assess potential projects and it can be used at several different geographic scales.

A general policy of divided responsibilty between the Región and a municipality was defined. It required the municipalities to accept supramunicipal landscape patterns as

constraints to development, but also assigned responsibilty for connecting these patterns and planning the remainder of the área to the municipality.

Several studies and projects of national and regional significance were studied in detail.

A new administrative process for collaboration between the región and the municipalities in the review and approval of municipal plan was introduced. It would cut the time for this mandated process from three or more years to several months.

Perhaps most significant is the fact that in 2012 all political parties voted to support the new planning law and its administrative process (an exceptionally rare occurrence in Spainsh politics).

NOW, in 2013, 542 Municipalities still have the responsibility to make municipal plans. These must be approved by the Region Major investments also must be approved by the Region. -----There is now a policy of divided but shared responsibility, with a regional landscape policy to shape Municipal planning while increasing Municipal freedom, flexibility and responsibility for local decisions. -----There have been several new Regional landscape policies based on scientific studies, including of public visual landscape preferences. -----There are Regional internet-based services to aid Municipalities, investors and the general public in planning. -----There have been studies for projects of National and Regional significance. -----There is a faster and simpler administrative review process for municipal plans and projects, with public participation, and pre-review and transparency for investors. -----There is a new planning law combining aspects from 6 major planning laws into 1.

Noone can guarantee the full and smoothe implementation of these laws, policies and proceedures, but neither can anyone doubt that they put in place the opportunity to properly implement the European Landscape Convention. Taken together, they promise a better future for the Autonomous Region of Valencia and they can provide a model for other áreas as well.