Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The ongoing change that characterizes the landscape as a result of the development of the society as a whole
is the basis for this thesis. Even though the Scanian landscape still is dominated by arable land, other values
such as biological diversity, cultural heritage and economical aspects, has all been ascribed the landscape as
more and more important factors and in some respects, compete with the farming industry about the right to
the landscape. Our demand of more and more space, will of course also affect the landscape. Huge amount
of land are used to build external malls and single-family houses, which gives rise to an increasing need for
an extended transport system that also is land consuming.
It all comes down to: how the municipalities deal with non built areas - the green structure. Do the
municipalities have separate programs describing their vision and objectives concerning the green structure?
Literature studies, an inventory made of the municipality programs in the west and south west of Scania
and interviews with employees at the municipalities clarifies the use of the green structure concept, both in
theory and in practice.
The green structure concept seems to be derived from the environmental debate. When the Agenda 21 and
the convention of biological diversity were introduced in the mid 1990’s, a shift from a rather narrow branch
in landscape ecology to the broader green structure concept was made in the sector of landscape planning.
The shift can be seen as an attempt to broaden the approach from the prevailing biological and ecological
perspective. In a Swedish Government Official Reports concerning changes in the Plan- and Building Act
from 1994, an appendix was devoted for the non built areas - the green structure. The formulation made
in the appendix, together with the book that The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Sw.
Boverket) released in 1999, has since then been dominating the work with green structure. In the end of the
1990’s, quite a few municipalities produced green plans covering the built up areas and land owned by the
municipalities.
The result from the inventory, concerning green structure programs of the west and south west municipalities
in Scania, came out with a mixed result. Even though it has been 15 years since the concept of green structure
was introduced, there is still an uncertainty about the meaning of the concept. The green plans produced
in the late 1990’s are out of date and even though the time is right to replace them with green structure
programs that includes the whole community, only very few municipalities have taken the opportunity.
Almost all municipalities mention the concept of green structure in their master plans but with a varying
degree of content. The biological and ecological perspective still seems to dominate the landscape related
work in the municipalities. Some municipalities state that new green structure programs are on their way.
The upcoming implementation of the Landscape convention will once again bring the importance of the
landscape up for discussion and there will be a future need for comprehensive plans for the landscape. The
conditions of the Scanian region are extraordinary with the expanding metropolitan areas in an area of first
class arable land. In terms of physical planning and especially for the green structure, it demands a high
degree of cooperation over the boundaries of the municipalities. The need for a regional perspective will
not decrease so maybe the time has come for Scania, like Stockholm, to take the step and form a regional
authority?