The Act 8/2005, of 8 June, for the Protection, Planning and Management of the Landscape of Catalonia created the Landscape Catalogue as a new instrument for the introduction of landscape objectives into town and country planning in Catalonia, and into sector policies, and in this way takes up the principles and strategies of action established in the European Landscape Convention promoted by the Council of Europe. The Act defines the catalogues as "documents of a descriptive and forward-looking character which define the types of Catalan landscapes, identifying their values and state of preservation and proposing the quality objectives which they must meet". The Observatory is preparing seven catalogues to coincide with the seven regions in which the territorial planning of Catalonia is organised.
Because of the novelty and importance of these catalogues in town and country planning in Catalonia, in May 2005 the Observatory prepared a Landscape Catalogue Prototype which established the basic conceptual, methodological and procedural framework for the seven catalogues to be prepared in a coherent and coordinated way. This document was submitted for consideration to more than 70 institutions, research groups and experts in landscape in order to obtain the maximum consensus on the contents, before formally commissioning the working teams which are now applying it.
During 2010 the Observatory will be coordinating the Landscape Catalogue of Alt Pirineu i Aran, Comarques Gironines, Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona and Comarques Centrals, which will be presented before the end of 2010.
© 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