Perspective and approach 247observations on finer-scale secondary issues. This is not a traditional urban or
regional plan in the sense of providing mainly for people and growth, since
natural systems stand alongside people as major goals to mesh in the mosaic
of land (Mata and Tarroja 2006). Nor is it a multi-stakeholder or committee-
report plan that ends up, eventually, proposing an incremental or least-common-
denominator change. Nor is this an action plan with a stepwise sequence of spe-
cific implementation recommendations, which would be closely dependent on
traditions, laws, and regulations, as well as political and economic conditions.
At each step the planning process is designed to be simple, lucid, and close to
theland and people. For a plan, or parts of it, to get off the shelf and be imple-
mented, it must be understandable by decision-makers as well as the public,
who both must explain it, defend it, and generate excitement in it.
An existing area and semi-governmental organization, Barcelona Regional,
has been effectively used in recent years for planning that involves the city
and many surrounding municipalities (Acebillo and Folch2000). Still, impor-
tant urbanization and other processes occur outside this planning area. Thus
theGreater Barcelona Region, with twice the area (i.e., 6500 km^2 )andaradius
of about 65 km (40 mi), was selected for this planning project (Forman 2004a).
The area includes El Vendrell, Igualada, Calaf, Manresa, Vic Valley, and Tordera
floodplain.
Later I identified 16 sections of the Greater Barcelona Region for more detailed
maps and descriptions. Also solutions are frequently woven into the report for
small places, such as gullies, streams, highways, and the edges of towns, which
are widely repeated and have a large cumulative effect across the region. This
is a long-term plan for the Greater Barcelona Region as a whole. Linkages with
other regions are important. Also, plans limited to individual portions of the
region would be different, but valuable, as long as they are readily compatible
with solutions for the Greater Barcelona Region as a whole.
Six intensive visits of 3--6 days each at all seasons over a 16-month period
permitted me to visit all portions of the Greater Barcelona Region (though time
prevented a much-needed analysis of interactions with other regions) (Forman
2004a). I traveled with regional experts and consulted with many other help-
ful knowledgeable leaders. Numerous reports and published materials were pro-
vided and many other publications accumulated. In addition, Barcelona Regional
produced, always in a time-efficient manner, a rich set of background informa-
tion, images, and maps for this project.
Assumptions, principles, vision, spatial models, three plan options
Thirty-five important assumptions were stated, usually each in a sin-
glesentence (Forman 2004a). The plan rests on these. Also, 44 principles from