Mapping landscape quality in Spain

Abstract

The process of landscape evaluation is currently recognised as a powerful, interdisciplinary, environmental research tool. It provides a basis for perceiving a study area as a system of inter-related territorial units with specific environmental characteristics. The development and application of different methods to different territories has advanced landscape mapping to the point that widely accepted maps now exist for many regions and countries. In Spain, a number of published landscape maps have been made at the regional level. At the national level, the landscape has been mapped descriptively, but no landscape quality maps exist. The aim of this work was to produce a national landscape quality map which would allow this variable, along with information on vegetation, geology and soils, etc., to be integrated into the planning process. The work also tackles the validation of this map through a comparison with maps previously produced for protected areas.