Landscape management in regional planning studies

Abstract

Landscape is considered as a key aspect in people's lives quality as well as an important component, of public interest, concerning issues of environmental, economical, social and cultural levels. Landscape's importance is recognized in the European Landscape Convention 2000 and it's protection is identified as a priority. In Greece a large number of valuable landscapes is met, as a result of man-made and natural heritage osmosis. The failure to implement an effective policy to protect them caused their deterioration in many cases. The numerous institutional tools, mainly regulatory in nature, did not contribute significantly to landscape protection since they were not able to cancel the principal degradation dynamics. The paper focuses on a review of the contemporary attempt to provide a landscape policy through the revision of the 12 Regional Frameworks for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development. An integrated approach in regional scale to landscape, according to the principles as identified in the European Landscape Convention 2000, is proposed.