- Landscape, future corridors and urban growth: three cases in Castilla y León (Valladolid, Segovia and Zamora)   23 kb by    De las Rivas Sanz, Juan L. & null, null & null, null | insur@uva.es    Short Outline LANDSCAPE, FUTURE CORRIDORS AND URBAN GROWTH. THREE CASES IN CASTILLA Y LEÓN (VALLADOLID, SEGOVIA & ZAMORA) I am the director of three regional plans for three urban and rural regions in Castilla-León: the metropolitan area of Valladolid (400.000 people) and the city and the surroundings municipalities of Segovia and Zamora –two historical little cities, about 60.000 people, with different character. The current context of urban growth is in a way from the compact –mediterranean- model to an sprawll model, with a lot of spillovers in the traditional landscape –rural or natural. The location conditions are progressively more open and the control of urban land uses is in permanent conflict with the market hegemony and the will of economical growth. The arrival of new regional networks is in the future of these cities, with new infraestructures and new opportunities of development in a region with a low level in its economy. One of the most important future infrestructures is the High Speed Train, connecting Madrid and its hinterland with Segovia –20’- and Valladolid –60’-, finished in the 2003/5. Zamora is a city with strong problems, but also the regional governement is speaking there about the HST, in the corridor to Portugal and Galicia. The new rail layout on the urban areas is now in discussion. Our work must define the guidelines for the urban grwth in any case, knowing the spectatives about the probable urban change in the next two decades. The new conditions of location and the incredible growth of urban space in the last years, without demographic growth and with the change in the work conditions and lifestyles, looking for open spaces, probably increase with the future infrestructures. We are working in the idea that lanscape structure must regulate the change in urban areas, managing its constraints to managing the infraestructure layout and the urban density. But to understand the lanscape is no easy. There are scientific, cultural and social values rarely involved in planning. The landscape has a formal structure, and this structure will be related with the urban networks and facilities to prepare the urban growth in an adaptative way. This conception of urban fitness is not conservative. The landscape is allways in a creation process, is imperfect and fragile, but has form. The landscape in the urban realm can not became the slave of carterpillers. We can present the first ideas, with graphics and maps, to understand our vision of the urban future in these cities and in their urban regions. Abstract In Castilla y León -the larger Spanish Region, inland and with a medium density of 25 hab./Km2, with a rich system of medium cities- we have detected a context of urban growth with sprawl process, only usual in the metropolitan areas, mixing rural, urban and natural realms. Abandoned the compact model, the landscape is a key if we want some spatial control. Keywords urban planning, landscape planning, urban form Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2001: Honey, I Shrunk the Space   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper