José Tomás Pastor PuigArquitecto Urbanista

http://ea-slp.com

LANDSCAPE

Well, I’m going to talk about landscape, its meaning, and the changes introduced in recent

years, becoming extremely important element in decision-making about the territory.

PICTURES

Traditionally, the landscape has been considered as an idyllic scene, which is represented in

frames, as the English pictorial stream in the late 18 th century, or through the reproduction of

landscapes for royalty and European aristocracy, beautifying the environment of their

residences, like Versalles, Windsor, or temples,

This trend is widespread in the construction of gardens become a speciality: gardening or

landscaping.

However, the European Council, in its 2000 Convention in Florence (Italy), approved the

European Landscape Convention (ELC), which was ratified by Spain.

In Valencian Community, has been compulsory since 2004, with the Spatial Planning and

Landscape Protection Act, and Landscape Regulations in 2006. This regulation incorporates the

procedures for public participation in decision-making on landscape.

But, what does the European Landscape Convention means?

It establishes a definition and implementation principles and criteria, so we analyze the ELC,

starting with the landscape definition:

“Article 1 – DefinitionsFor the purposes of the Convention:

a. "Landscape" means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors;

b. "Landscape policy" means an expression by the competent public authorities of general principles, strategies and guidelines that permit the taking of specific measures aimed at the protection, management and planning of landscapes;

c. "Landscape quality objective" means, for a specific landscape, the formulation by the competent public authorities of the aspirations of the public with regard to the landscape features of their surroundings;

d. "Landscape protection" means actions to conserve and maintain the significant or characteristic features of a landscape, justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or from human activity;

e. "Landscape management" means action, from a perspective of sustainable development, to ensure the regular upkeep of a landscape, so as to guide and harmonise changes which are brought about by social, economic and environmental processes;

f. "Landscape planning" means strong forward-looking action to enhance, restore or create landscapes.

Article 2 – ScopeSubject to the provisions contained in Article 15, this Convention applies to the entire territory of the Parties and covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It includes land, inland water and marine areas. It concerns landscapes that might be considered outstanding as well as everyday or degraded landscapes.”

Article 3 – AimsThe aims of this Convention are to promote landscape protection, management and planning, and to organise European co-operation on landscape issues.”

It should first be considered that the landscape is any area or territory, and divides it into:

"natural, rural urban and peri-urban areas."

LANDSCAPE CLASSIFICATION

Landscape classification diagram

As far as landscapes are concerned, not only they are not just the idyllic landscapes, but also

are the everyday and deteriorated landscapes, as these.

The landscapes are changing throughout the day, or the year, for human actions such as

changing cultivation, or building a new roads or residential buildings.

The landscape is firstly a social and cultural construction, always located in a material and

physical place.

The landscape is both a physical reality and the representation that culturally we make of it, the

outward and visible appearance of a certain portion of the earth’s surface and individual and

social perception it generates.

But there is one very important aspect, all these areas or territories, are landscape, as they are

perceived by citizens as they reflect the history, tradition and social identity relationship between

citizens and the territory it inhabits, then this aspect is VERY RELEVANT .

Valencian Community has since 2006, a regulated procedure for citizens public participation in

decision-making on landscape, as determinant or urban and regional planning.

The perception of citizens materializes through all the senses: sight (e.g. watch a landscape),

ear (hear a bird singing), smell (smell the perfume’s flowers), touch (touch something, feel cold,

heat, humidity), taste (like gastronomy tourism).

But according to the several researches on the subject, the view makes up between 75 and

80% of perception, so to obtain an assessment of the perception of citizens is through the

Visual Preference Evaluation.

Are usually made two types of surveys or assessments, first, you select the most representative

views of different landscapes in the territory under study, and citizens are asked their territory’s

value, that reflects the feelings of identity, singularity, representation etc. , on a scale which is

divided into 5 levels: very high, high, medium, low and very low.

VERY HIGH: visual reference, high value identity, unique landscape.

HIGH: Landscape with certain uniqueness and representativeness.

MEDIUM: Landscape pattern distinguished but has no representation.

LOW: No significant structure is abundant and not significant.

VERY LOW: damaged landscapes, in which there is no interest of conserving space and

they are generally areas with conflicts.

Secondly, in places where there are no legal impediments to implementation of infrastructure

interventions, or residential commercial or industrial developments, are made simulations of

how the landscape can change, and citizens are asked that if the change improves or get worse

the landscape, setting a range of value between +3, +2, +1, 0 (not affected) -1, -2, -3.

VALUE INTENSITY MEANING

NEGATIVE

- 3 THIS ACTIONS SHOULD NEVER DONE

- 2 REDUCE VISUAL QUALITY, BUT COULD INTEGRATE IT

- 1 REDUCE VISUAL QUALITY, BUT IT COULD BE ACCEPTABLE

NEUTRAL 0 THE PROPOSAL DOES NOT CHANGE THE INITIAL VALUE

POSITIVE

+ 1 IMPROVE VISUAL QUALITY, BUT COULD BE OVERLOOKED

+ 2 IMPROVE VISUAL QUALITY AND THIS ACTIONS ARE INTERESTING

+ 3 I CONSIDER THAT ACTIONS OF THIS TYPE ARE PRIORITY

Stone quarry disappears

The Social Value of citizens as a result of Public Participation Plan is contrasted with the

technical value of Landscape Quality, conducted by technicians based on 6 criteria:

1. Interest of conservation. Spaces that have some kind of protection: Nature Network,

Archaeological sites, etc

2. Representative. Site identity

3. Integrity. Good condition and no impacts

4. Singularity. Unique in its setting

5. Role of a holistic landscape. Ecological corridors or systemic function

6. Quality of the scene. Scenario widely recognized

The aim is to check that agents interested in some type of action such as selling land for a

housing development, or provide jobs in a new commercial, do not change the majority opinion

in their interests.

The result of the assessment, corresponds to the average value, if there are two steps

maximum of difference or the higher of the two values, affected only by a step, if there is a

greater difference.

Once valued landscapes, using GIS, it’s estimated the visibility of all landscapes: Landscape

Units or Landscape Resources.

The result is a map, which is distributed according to the visibility areas, from w are very visible

from all routes: highways, roads, inhabited places, observation points to hidden areas, or not

visible.

MAXIMUM

HIGH

VISIBILITY LEVEL

MEDIUM

SLOW

MINIMUM

HIDDEN

The combination of landscape value and visibility, determined Landscape Quality Objectives,

which set implementation policies on the landscape:

LANDSCAPE QUALITY OBJECTIVE

VISIBILITYLANDSCAPE VALUE

VERY HIGH HIGH MEDIUM LOW VERY LOW

MAXIMUM PROTECTION PROTECTIONMANAGEMEN

TPLANNING PLANNING

MEDIUM PROTECTIONMANAGEMEN

TMANAGEMEN

TPLANNING PLANNING

MINIMUMMANAGEMEN

TMANAGEMEN

TSEVERAL SEVERAL SEVERAL

HIDDENMANAGEMEN

TMANAGEMEN

TSEVERAL SEVERAL SEVERAL

Remember the definition of the ELC of the different policies to implementation in landscape:

a. "Landscape policy" means an expression by the competent public authorities of general principles, strategies and guidelines that permit the taking of specific measures aimed at the protection, management and planning of landscapes;

b. "Landscape quality objective" means, for a specific landscape, the formulation by the competent public authorities of the aspirations of the public with regard to the landscape features of heir surroundings;

c. "Landscape protection" means actions to conserve and maintain the significant or characteristic features of a landscape, justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or from human activity;

d. "Landscape management" means action, from a perspective of sustainable development, to ensure the regular upkeep of a landscape, so as to guide and harmonise changes which are brought about by social, economic and environmental processes;

e. "Landscape planning" means strong forward-looking action to enhance, restore or create landscapes.

These landscape policies are applied by the Landscape’s Catalogue, the Implementing

Regulations, and the Actions’ Program.

In summary, we can see that the landscape quality objectives come from the value assigned to

the different landscapes, which basically comes from the perception of citizens.

This aspect is being developed by the European Council in the ELC Implementation

Workshops, especially the last, which focuses on democratic governance aspects of the

territory:

In conclusion, I must conclude with the importance of the landscape value, and the relevance of

citizens in this value, so it requires the awareness of citizens and encourage their participation,

because they have in his hands the ability to influence the actions on the territory in which they

live and left it in inheritance for future generations.

And that’s all. Thank you very much for your attention.

José Tomás Pastor Puig

http://ea-slp.com

Passeig Germanies, 98, entlo.46702 Gandia Valencia962 864 061 (Fax: 962 870 116)info@ea-slp.com