The Law 8/2005, of June 8, for the protection, management and planning of landscape in Catalonia creates the landscape catalogue as a new instrument for the introduction of landscape objectives in the territorial planning of Catalonia, as well as in sectoral policies, and thus it adopts the principles and action strategies established in the European Landscape Convention, promoted by the Council of Europe. The Law defines it as " descriptive and prospective documents to determine the types of landscapes of Catalonia, identify their values and state of conservation and propose quality objectives to be met". The Landscape Observatory is in charge of drawing up seven landscape catalogues referring to the seven regions in which the future political-administrative structure of Catalonia will be organised.
Due to the novel character and importance of these catalogues in the territorial planning of Catalonia, the Landscape Observatory prepared a Prototype landscape catalogue in May 2005, which establishes a basic conceptual, methodological and procedural framework to create the seven catalogues in a coherent and coordinated manner. This document was submitted to the consideration of more than 70 institutions, research groups and landscape experts to obtain the maximum consensus on its contents, before ordering it formally from the work teams that are now applying it. In 2006 a revision was carried out, which is downloadable from the website.
In 2006, the Landscape Observatory coordinated the catalogues of Camp de Tarragona and Terres de Lleida, which were handed over to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and Public Works of the Government of Catalonia in October 2006, as well as the landscape catalogues of Alt Pirineu i Aran, Comarques Gironines and Terres de l'Ebre, which will be presented at the end of 2007.
© 2009 The Landscape Observatory de Catalunya / Hospici, 8 - 17800 OLOT - Tel: +34 972 27 35 64 - Fax: +34 972 27 15 89 · observatori@catpaisatge.net