territorial functions of the catalogues

The landscape catalogues must be orientated to the integration of landscape into town and territorial planning instruments in Catalonia on various levels, from zoning plans to detailed town planning, by way of territorial outline plans and town plans. Thus, from the Landscape Observatory, the landscape catalogues are understood as new instruments which must help in a clear interaction of town and country planning concerned with the implementation of landscape policies.

Use for territorial zoning plans

The landscape catalogues, when finished, will be delivered to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and Public works, which will open them to a process of public information and consultation before definitively approving their content. Subsequently, and as proposed by the Landscape Act, the classification and characterisation of the landscapes, and the quality targets associated with each of them, will be incorporated with regulation nature, as landscape regulations, directives and recommendations, into the seven territorial zoning plans prepared by the Secretariat for the Town and Country Planning of this Ministry and into the directing territorial plans that the Ministry considers appropriate, after public consultation.

Use for town planning

It is these territorial zoning plans and, depending on each case, also the territorial directing plans, which determine in which cases the landscape directives will be of direct application, of obligatory incorporation into the modification and revision of town planning, or when they constitute only recommendations for town planning and for other plans or programmes of a sectorial nature affecting the landscape. From the viewpoint of town planning, also, the landscape catalogues are conceived as very useful tools for town planning specialists and for representatives of local town planning committees , as they provide directives and recommendations with regard to landscape which are very useful in the development of certain projects.