Avaluació ambiental estratègica: estudi del cas POUM de Besalú

Abstract

Strategic environmental evaluation: Case study, Urban Plan, POUM Besalú (Catalonia). According to the existing legislation in Catalonia it is necessary as a preventative method to carry out a process of environmental evaluation for planning and for public programmes which would allow for the integration of environment issues in the decision making processes. The urban town plans are considered to be public plans and therefore they must take into account this environmental evaluation. In particular they must consider the necessary actions as well as the specific documentation which the existing regulation requires (article 7 of the 9/2006 Regulation of 28 April relating to the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment). As an instrument for environmental evaluation, the Urban Town Plan (POUM) Besalú 2007, has done a report on environmental sustainability, (ISA). The objective of this report is to offer a series of sustainable criterion which serve as a basis for the town planning development, basing itself upon the integration of the sustainable principals established in: The 305/2006 Decree, the State Legislation 9/2006, the Directive 2001/42/CE and the blueprint of the Catalan Environmental Evaluation Legislation for Plans and Programmes (AAPP). The urbanistic Legislation and its Regulations indicate to be clearly in favour of a sustainable urban development based upon the rational use of land in order to create compatibility between growth and the necessary economic dynamism together with social cohesion, respect towards the environment and the quality of life of the present and future generations. According to the Directive 2001/42/CE, the sustainable environmental elements which ought to be incorporated into the Urban Town Plan need to be integrated from the beginning of the decision making process which is required in the establishing of the general layout plan. For this reason it is necessary to establish the following environmental objectives: * Environmental diagnosis of the site. * Establishment of environmental objectives. * Setting up of pointers for compliance of the established objectives. * Incorporation of environmental objectives in the setting up of town plans, regulations, programming and financing. * Verification of compliance with established objectives. * Deployment measures and follow up. According to the Town Planning article 3.1 of the Legislative Decree 1/2005 dated 26 July, the concept of sustainability related to urban layout is understood as the following: ”Sustainable urban development is defined as the rational use of land and the environment and it involves the combination of the needs of expansion with the preservation of natural resources while taking into consideration landscape, arqueological, historic and cultural values with the intention of guaranteeing the quality of life of present and future generations.” This case study wishes to highlight the importance of the environmental analysis and the evaluation of the most important social-environmental characteristics in the new sectors of proposed growth and in the areas subject to modification and/or transformation the same as those in the immediate territorial context(this measure is required in the reference Document emited by the appropriate environmental body “Girona Land strategic environmental evaluation Office”) in order to justify the urban plan in accordance with urbanistic and sustainable social-environmental criterion.