246 The Barcelona Region’s land mosaic
thereby altered in generally predictable ways. The patch--corridor--matrix model
thus provides a useful flexible handle for land-use planning.
Aland-use map portrays the big patches, corridors, and matrix of the Greater
Barcelona Region (Acebillo and Folch2000). The flows and movements of water,
materials, species, and people across this mosaic match the activity of a bee’s
nest. Looking ahead, existingtrendsstrongly suggest the following changes for
theGreater Barcelona Region 50 years from now, and in most cases 10 years
hence: (1) more people, buildings, sprawl, wasted precious land, roads, traffic,
and coalescence of municipalities; (2) less clean water, parkland, agricultural
land and production, and area for natural systems and nature; (3) also, hot-
ter drier climate, spread of second homes, more buildings on steep slopes and
on skylines, near-disappearance of clean stretches of streams and rivers, and
reduced biodiversity (Barracoet al.1999,Folch2000,Acebillo and Folch2000,
Pratet al.2002,Busquets2005,Rowe2006). Pulses rather than linear trajectories
are likely to occur: immigration and population growth spurts, climate warming
effects, mega-floods, serious economic drops, and less predictable surprises.
The current land mosaic of the GBRegion contains several distinctive and
important attributes on which to base a plan. These include (Rodaet al.1999,
Acebillo and Folch2000,Pratet al.2002): (1) an impressive set of large protected
natural areas on mountains; (2) high visual quality on hillslopes and skylines
with little urbanization; (3) the Llobregat and Tordera river floodplains/deltas as
major sources of abundant clean water in a relatively dry climate; (4) wetlands,
coastal vegetation, and marine littoral ecosystems as traces of a rich heritage
reduced to a few threatened locations; (5) outward spreading towns ready to
coalesce in some areas; (6) separate houses on large lots, a sprawl pattern ready
toexplode across the region; and (7) local rail lines and train stations apparently
less abundant than in comparable areas of Europe, suggesting vehicular traffic
growth as a major threat.Approach and methods
The overall planning approach is conceptual rather than quantitative.
The land-use focus is on nature itself and on nature--human interactions, but not
on society itself. Planning solutions are integrated, and high-to-low priorities are
generally evident rather than presented in a ranked list. The target is a broad-
scale regional plan with maps, not detailed fine-scale maps, site analyses, and
specifications. To attract and engage decision-makers and potentially gain public
support, the approach strives to be both visionary and feasible.
For thisrelatively large Greater Barcelona Region and with limited time, I
chose not to: (1) drown in details of extensive databases; (2) try evaluating the
contents of numerous existing and proposed plans; and (3) make widespread