Landscape in Spatial Planning: Some Evidence on Methodological Issues and Political Challenges

In recent decades, the landscape has given a new impulse to the renewal of spatial planning. This process has nevertheless raised several methodological issues about how to deal with sensitive non-functional aspects in spatial planning tools and procedures, as well as new challenges for policy design. Placemaking, landscape urbanism, and landscape planning do not differ just in scale but in their very idea of public/collective interest and the action that is required to reach them. Reflecting on some evidence from the recent Italian experience of landscape plans and policies, based on direct involvement in practice and academic debate, the author will highlight several main issues at stake today in this field. The conclusions will argue some potentially promising innovation perspectives, on both processes and contents regarding landscape-based spatial planning and policies, as well as some critical conditions of an institutional context.