Landscape management. Case Study: the situation in the Autonomous Community of Valencia (Spain).

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1 Landscape management. Case Study: the situation in the Autonomous Community of Valencia (Spain). JOSÉ LUIS MIRALLES I GARCIA Departament of Urbanisme Polytechnic University of Valence C/ Camí de Vera s/n SPAIN Abstract: Spain signed the European Convention on Landscape in Florence, 2000, and ratified it on November 26, Already by 2004, some of the Autonomous Governments assumed the contents of this Directive (Guidelines), and therefore, edited several laws on landscape s planning and implementation processes. On the other hand, in Spain there are no studies on the architecture of landscape and very little professional practice. With these new changes, some Autonomous Communities, like Valencia, initiated a regulated process in order to intervene in landscape planning and implementation. This situation leads to a complete and deep revision of planning processes under the European frame of development of the Aarhus Convention, all considering a generic perspective of sustainability. Key-Works: Landscape architecture, Landscape ecology, Landscape management, sustainability, public participation. 1 Introduction In Spain, there is a great professional tradition on territorial and urban planning, but, until now, there has not existed any professional practice on landscape architecture. In the same line, and with few exceptions, there already do not exist any degree or post-degree studies on landscape. Nevertheless, in 2000 Spain signed the European Landscape Convention of Florence, although did not ratify it until November26, By that, a new way of understanding territory and intervention on territory is introduced, although without neither a disciplinary debate nor any tradition on professional practice, but for some isolated cases. This incorporation to landscape paradigm as a new way of understanding intervention both on territory and in the city, takes place simultaneously to the approval of Spanish laws developing European Directives (Guidelines) to implement the Aarhus Convention on Access to information, public participation in decisionmaking and Access to justice in environmental matters, all them understood as instruments to improve sustainability (Act 9/2006, April, the 28th, and Act 27/2006, July, the 27th) In Spain, there has neither been any tradition on public participation in taking-decision s processes associated to territorial and urban planning, and so, these laws regulate extremely new processes, with no previous experience. On the other hand, following the European Landscape Convention, any part of territory is landscape, and so, it is environment. Due to all this, landscape and public participation, two completely new matters in Spain, are incorporated to territorial and urban planning processes [1]. Similarly, in the case of Valencia, a complete legislative development takes place (Three Acts, and two Codes), in order to incorporate sustainability and landscape to planning processes. New legislation is wide and complex. It incorporates important novelties, but it is not always clear, and so presents difficulties for its implementation. That is one of the reasons by which there are some doubts about its effectiveness. 2 Previous questions In order to understand the problem, it is necessary to remind a group of initial approaches on sustainability and the intervention on territory through planning. ISBN: ISSN:

2 2.1 Regional planning and landscape planning Territorial and urban planning is a matter concerning administration. This is because both regulate land uses, and so, put limits o private property, limits that can only be established by administration, in order to defend general interest of the whole society. The European Landscape Convention talks about landscape protection, planning, and management. It is a new way of understanding territory that incorporates both landscape value and perception as seen by part of citizenship. Form this point of view those landscapes sensed as of a great value by citizenship should be considered of a general interest. All this implies new methodologies to analyze territory value considering landscape, and to introduce landscape public valuation in planning processes before the decision taking moment; that is to say, when all options are possible. 2.2 The concept of territorial sustainability When we talk on territorial sustainability, this question can be focused from several perspectives, and for different aspects of territory [2]. Also it exist a proposals for a sustainable urban planning [3]. But if we focus on urban development, that is, in the processes that take place to develop rural land into urbanized land (or artificial land), we must assume that for periods of time as long as human generations, all transformation of rural land into urbanized land has an irreversible character. That is the reason why, if we want a sustainable development, the maintenance of rural land withy valuable resources left out (kept away) of urban development processes, is of great importance for future generations. In an objective way, we can consider that the portions of rural land to be kept out of development are those that count as ecological footprint (or perhaps, better said, as ecological pantry). This is a clear an objective criteria. There exist a great number of methodologies to identify these areas such as the developed by Miralles & Altur [4], Miralles [5] or those other marked by Zev Naveh & Arthur Liebermann [6]. However, in the vision of landscape as seen in European Landscape Convention, it is assumed that the maintenance of landscapes with an identity character for population is another criterion of sustainability. There exist, so, two criterion for the identification of the portions of land to be protected: environmental unities (physical objective criterion) and landscape units (perceptual criterion). Normally these portions of land are protected by administrative protections. Nevertheless these protections are ineffective to guarantee the maintenance of sustainability criterion in the long term because people responsible of government and administration change or can change in the short term, and have power to modify the administrative situations concerning land protection. 2.3 The question of implementation The establishment of legal criteria and of an administrative organization to guarantee the maintenance of protected land on the long term is not at all an easy question [7]. Besides, natural resources protection implies limitations to private property. This is the reason by which there also results necessary to establish mechanisms of economical compensation for landowners in order to recognize the environmental services that their properties give to society. Although it is not at all an easy matter to deal with, the resolution of this question of land management is essential to guarantee territorial sustainability in an effective way. 2.4 The Aarhus Convention and the public participation The Aarhus Convention establishes a group of measures with the aim of turning public participation into an essential element for society to be conscious, promote, and assume decisions to guarantee sustainability. The Convention provides for [8]: Access to environmental information Public participation in environmental decision-making Access to justice Besides, the vision of landscape established in the European Landscape Convention [9] also requires a process of public participation for the valuation of landscapes and the decision taking on the objectives of landscape quality to associate to landscape units and landscape resources. There exists so, a double cause for the formalization of the processes of public participation. ISBN: ISSN:

3 3 The introduction of landscape in legislation of the Autonomous Community of Valencia Spain signed the European Landscape Convention of Florence in 2000, but ratifies it, in November 26, On the other hand, Spain applies the European Directives that develop the Aarhus Convention en 2006, through the Act 9/2006 of April 28, for the Strategically Environmental Assessment and the Act 27/2006 of July 18, for participation rights. Particularly, the Autonomous Community of Valencia passes the following laws: 1. Law 4/2004, June 30, of Territorial Planning and Landscape Protection, published in July Law 10/2004, December 9, of Un- Developable Land, published in December Law 16/2005, December 30, of Urban Development Law published in December These laws have been developed by means of the following autonomic regulations: 1. Territorial and Urban Planning and Implementation Regulations. Decree 67/2006, of May 12, published in May Landscape Regulation approved by Decree 120/2006, of August 11, published in August Concerning landscape, the law on Territorial Planning and Landscape Protection establishes the general criteria for the implementation of European Landscape Convention in the autonomous Community of Valencia thus incorporating landscape studies to urban planning, and the Landscape Code establishes the detailed contents both of landscape studies and of the processes for public participation in landscape valuation. 4 Contributions of Valencia s Landscape Act Next, we shall comment the principal contributions of Valencia s legislation concerning landscape as well as the technical schemes that inspire this regulation. 4.1 Urban planning as an instrument of landscape planning In Spain in general, and particularly in Valencia, there exists a long tradition on territorial and urban planning. New Valencia s laws add to traditional functions of urban planning a function of landscape planning. That implies that traditional analysis of physical media through the identification of environmental unities of homogeneous characteristics in order to its planning is completed by the identification of landscape units that consider observation points and visual basins. Besides, these landscape unities are valuated as the media between public landscape valuation and technical valuation weighted by visibility. This public valuation is made through public participation processes whose results must be taken into account in previous version to urban plan. All this implies an important methodological change. Thus, the process of edition and implementation of urban plan develops in four successive phases: 1. Phase of start of the process. 2. Phase of analysis and strategic decision. 3. Phase of plan elaboration. 4. Phase of plan implementation. Between them, the phase of analysis and strategic decision generates preliminary version of plan that will be exposed to public participation. Previously some activities of public participation in order to valuate landscape should have taken place and even the identification of main problems considered by population should have been detected. Planning process in its phase of strategic decision can be observed in Figure Public participation The process of public participation is concreted in a Public Participation Plan that is part of Landscape study. Plan includes the identification of interested people and the group of all the actions and activities of public participation to be held along all the process of the elaboration of plan. Participation processes are linked to both the process of landscape valuation and to the process of strategic environmental valuation. The Public Participation Plan with the identification of landscape units to be valuated must be exposed at the beginning of the phase of analysis and decision-taking. Though it is not marked in law, being coherent with the ISBN: ISSN:

4 objectives of the SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment), environmental information should also be exposed. The most usual way to expose these participation with the description and structural determinations of that territorial model make preliminary version of plan. PRE-DIAGNOSIS Technical elaboration phase DEFINITION OF OBJECTIVES AND CRITERIA Political decision DIAGNOSIS OF TERRITORIAL AND LANDSCAPE PROBLEMS a) Level 1 Analysis. Territorial Structure. Identification of Landscape s unities. b) Identification of problems. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN a) Public exhibition of the analysis of landscape units. b) Public valuation of landscape unities. Phase of technical elaboration and participation RE-FORMUATION OF OBJECTIVES Identification of objectives in relation to quality of rural and urban landscape. Political Decision IDENTIFICATION OF ACTUATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES. STRATEGIC LEVEL 1 Definition of landscape planning zones and landscape key projects Phase of technical elaboration LANDSCAPE VALUATION, ACTUATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES Sustainability Inform PRELIMINAR DEFINITION OF TERRITORIAL MODEL (Previous Agreement) Political decision PUBLIC EXHIBITION. PRELIMINAR VERSION AND SUSTAINABILITY INFORM Public consultation and participation period. TERRITORIAL MODEL DEFINITION Political decision Fig. 1 Strategic phase in planning process documents is the municipal web site. As it can be observed in Figure 1, the result of technical analysis and of the activities concerning public participation, between which landscapes valuation is included, is the generation of a territorial model. The synthesis of both the analysis and the process of public 4.3 Projects and Programs of Landscape Law foresees a system for the financing of projects of sustainability and life quality. In a synthetic way, the aim of this law is to establish some limits to the consumption of resources and to the emission of pollutants. ISBN: ISSN:

5 Social agents exceeding those limits must pay a quota for the excess of consumption or for the emission of pollutants named sustainability quota. Funds obtained through this quota shall be used to pay projects and programs (considered as a coherent group of projects) having as objective the improvement in the sustainability conditions or in population s life quality. The types of possible projects are diverse: subsidized housing, mobility improvement, public facilities. Between them, there exists a possibility of landscape projects and programs that have as objective the conservation, restoration, improvement, or creation of landscapes. Besides that, there exist some doubts on the implementation of this system of economical penalties when exceeding consumption and or emissions, to finance sustainability. Actually, it has been fixed an only limit for the consumption of resources: the consumption of land to be urbanized. By the moment, no other limit has been foreseen, and it is possible that the only limit established disappears with a new legal change. In my point of view, it is not a bad idea, but perhaps the item used to manage the limit (a percentage of already developed land) does not reflect objective sustainability conditions. However, if the only limit fixed by the moment disappears, the system designed to finance sustainability costs will also disappear. 4.4 Special systems of land management Both the Autonomous Community of Valencia and Spain have lived an intense process of urbanization in the period This process has been especially intense in the Mediterranean coast, and in the coastal fringe of the Autonomous Community of Valencia. This situation has marked a tendency to massive construction in the entire littoral leaving no open spaces, no free zones either. These are the reasons by which it a system to obtain public ownership of free spaces in protected zones has been designed. Law establishes the obligation to hand over to public administration an amount of undevelopable land equal to that reclassified from the category of un-developable to developable land. Thus, for instance, if a municipal plan reclassifies 2 million square metres of undevelopable land to developable land, the promoter of that urbanization shall have to hand over an equal amount of protected land to public administration. Obviously, this system makes possible the acquirement of land with ecological or landscape values. There exist some exceptions to this transfer when development deals with facilities or subsidized housing. Nevertheless, this measure is questioned because most protected land is in the interior, whilst most urbanized land is in the coast. Therefore, the application of this implementation system eases the acquirement of protected land located in the interior, but not in the coast that goes on been urbanized in an exhaustive way. On the other hand, from 2006 takes place a change of real state cycle under the frame of a global economy influenced by the economical problems of the United States. The change of real state cycle is affected by a substantial reduction in the amount of loans given by banks to finance housing acquisition, and do housing production is being re-directed towards subsidized housing that doesn t generate this type of transfers. 5 Valuation of new of landscape planning and management and conclusion New legislation supposes a considerable effort to introduce new methodologies concerning landscape planning and implementation. It is probable that new contributions due to European directives shall consolidate. On the other hand, new landscape planning and implementation systems derived form regional laws present bigger change risks. They are a considerable effort towards the search of new landscape implementation systems that ease the acquisition of funds to pay sustainability costs charging costs on activities that exceed the limits of sustainability indicators. Although it seems to be a good idea, efficacy of this system is yet to be proved. References: [1] Miralles i Garcia, J.L., The introduction of the sustainability in the procedures regulated for urban planning: the case of the last act on urbanism, territory and landscape in the Valencian Community (Spain), Sustainable Development and Planning III, Vol.2, WIT Press, 2007, pp ISBN: ISSN:

6 [2] Moore R. Precinct Planning and Design Standards (PPDS) in a coastal area: the development, planning and design process of a medium-sized coastal precinct incorporating community facilities and infrastructure, Sustainable Development and Planning III, Vol.1, WIT Press, 2007, pp [3] Amado, M.P., The operative process in sustainable urban planning. Sustainable Development and Planning II, Vol I, WIT Press, 2004, pp [4] Miralles i Garcia, J.L. & Altur Grau, V., Applied Methodology in GIS supoort for the definition of territorial ability to sustainable development. Environmental Challenges in an Expanding Urban World and the Role of Emerging Information Technologies. CNIG, National Centre for Geographical Information. Ministério do Equipamento, do Planeamento e da Administração do Território (Lisbon, Portugal), 1997, pp [5] Miralles i Garcia, J.L., An Operative Proposal for the Implementation of the Concept of Sustainability in Urban Development. Conservation and Urban Sustainable Development. A Theoretical Framework. Centro de Conservação Integrada Urbana e Territorial, CECI. Federal University of Pernambuco. (Recife, Brasil), 1999, pp [6] Zev Naveh & Arthur Liebarman, Landscape Ecology. Theory and Application. Springer Verlag, [7] Miralles i Garcia, J.L. & Gaja i Díaz, F., Proposal for to Natural Capital Bank as a managing tool for urban management sustainability. The Sustainable City II. Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, WIT Press, 2002, pp [8] European Comission Web Site: [9] Council of Europe Web Site: /Html/176.htm ISBN: ISSN: