EUROSCAPES Kick-off Meeting 18th and 19th February 2010

Thursday February 18th:

o 8.45 Welcoming session o 9.10 General introduction by Mr Aumard, Vice-president in charge of communication and external relations o 9.30 Presentation of the working plan o 9.45 Presentation of the project partners o 12.45 Speech by Mr Piotrowski Vice-president in charge of environmental protection and sustainable development Lunch o 2.00 Presentation by Gilles Vexlard, Landscape architect o 3.30 Workshops : - Inventory and diagnosis tools + SIG - Administrative and financial rules and procedures + communication o 5.45 Presentation of the PERIURBAN project about environmental issues in urban parks o 6.00 Synthesis of the workshops

The European project EUROSCAPES is the result of a shared idea, at the inter-regional level, about the need to develop an integrated and sustainable method to deal with natural and cultural landscapes management issues in urbanized and peri-urbanized areas. The EUROSCAPES project deals with the management maintenance, preservation, protection and improvement of natural and cultural landscapes in urbanized and periurbanized areas, that is to say green spaces (parks, gardens, natural heritage, rivers) but also paths, private green spaces and cultural landscapes (historical and cultural heritage). The EUROSCAPES project partners share the ambitious objective to develop a new management scheme for those landscapes, which is to become a major tool for the implementation process of the European Landscape Convention Treaty, adopted by the Council of Europe. After having identified the complementarities between their landscape management tools and practices, the partners will share good practices in order to contribute to the Landscapes Management Plans initiated in the frame of this project. The Landscapes Management Plans will contribute to the development of a global approach, taking into account several dimensions (qualitative, environmental and economic) of cultural and natural landscape management and maintenance methods. They will especially focus on raising education and awareness, and also involve local territorial strategies, urban master plans, and so on.

The 14 project partners: SAN of Marne-la-Valle Val Maubue City of Loures, Portugal Region-City of de Gieen-Wetzlar, Germany Vice-Ministry of Land Management of the Canarian Government, Spain Slovak University of Technology, Slovakia Sigulda District Council, Latvia DPTU, La Sapienza University, Roma, Italy LBDCA, Region Balaton, Hungary SERDA Romanian South-East Region, Romania Trikalas Municipal Enterprise for Social Development, Greece Granollers City Council, Spain Municipality of Torun, Poland ENTP European New Towns Platform, Belgium Thames Gateway London Partnership, United Kingdom

PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT PARTNERS

Syndicat dAgglomration Nouvelle of Val Maubue, France SAN Val Maubue, as project lead partner, would like to share and develop a common vision about the need to improve the sustainable management method of cultural and natural urban landscapes. It would also like to foster common goals: to protect, to highlight and to develop best practices in terms of landscapes and green spaces management; to develop a common territorial management scheme; and finally to participate in the implementation of the objectives of the European Landscape Convention Treaty. City of Loures, Portugal The city of Loures manages very different kinds of territories, including rural landscapes and urban areas. Concerning urban planning, the city has developed a local tool, its master plan (which is currently being revised), and a regional instrument, the regional plan for the Lisbon metropolitan area. What are the city of Lourdes expectations in the frame of the EUROSCAPES project? To benefit from the exchange of experiences and good practices between European partners in terms of land-use planning issues, but also the exchange of awareness raising tools (communication and trainings) and involvement of local stakeholders. Region-City of de Gieen-Wetzlar, Germany In 2004 the cities of Gieen and Wetzlar, in cooperation with local partners (universities, chambers of commerce etc.) and with the Hessen regional authority, created a specific working group on cooperation between municipalities with a strong focus on cooperation, urban planning and regional development issues. The core idea of the EUROSCAPES project is to enable the partners to build up on shared experiences and practices between European cities in order to improve existing management tools and the quality of the local environment.

Vice-Ministry of Land Management of the Canarian Government, Spain The Canary Islands regional Vice-Ministry in charge of land-use planning has developed a wide range of tools in terms of land planning and inventory, and other good practices in the field of territorial inventory. One of the objectives of this project is to develop a model of sustainable management plan for natural and cultural landscapes and to learn from the experience and practices developed by the other partners. The projects final objective is to promote, thanks to European cooperation, a new efficient policy for the development of integrated environmental management methods of urban landscapes. Architecture Department, Slovak University of Bratislava - STUBA, Slovakia STUBAs courses and research activities aim at fostering the best integration of landscape architecture principles and methods while responding to challenges related to sustainable development. The EUROSCAPES project will enable STUBA to benefit from and to contribute to the exchanges between partners in terms of green spaces management and planning. As an academic stakeholder, STUBA will participate more specifically in the analysis of the state of the art developed in the frame of the project.

Sigulda District Council, Latvia The Sigulda District Council would like to benefit from the exchanges of good practices in the frame of the project and to create and implement a management tool for green spaces, to train local teams and to organize awareness raising campaigns for the local inhabitants about how important it is to live in a good and healthy environment..

La Sapienza University Urban and Land planning Department DPTU, Italy DPTU has developed research activities in the fields of environment and landscape planning, regional land planning, urban planning processes and tools, urban regeneration, network and communication systems, geographic information instruments, etc.. One of the EUROSCAPES project objectives is to develop an integrated management plan for the Monte Rufeno nature reserve, using the methodology which will be elaborated in the frame of the project.

Lake Balaton Development and Coordination Agency LBDCA, Hungary

This non-profit-making agency aims at coordinating the development activities of this region, as well as the actions, events and investments in the field of environment preservation, water quality improvement and the development of tourism in the Lake Balaton region. The EUROSCAPES project is a unique opportunity to build up on experiences and practices developed by other European partners to improve the quality of natural and built local environment and to create new green spaces.

South-Eastern Romania Development Agency SERDA, Romania According to its core mission, the promotion of sustainable social and economic, urban and touristic development in South-Eastern Romania, SERDA aims at strengthening the capabilities of local authorities in terms of sustainable natural and cultural urban and peri-urban landscapes management, from a coherent and sustainable territorial perspective. This is why it is now a partner of the EUROSCAPES project. SERDA would like to involve regional stakeholders as well as local leaders in this exchange of good practices.

Trikalas Municipal Entreprise for Social DevelopmentD.E.K.A., Greece As project partner on behalf of the municipality of Trikala, D.E.K.A. is in charge of human resources, sustainable urban development, water and waste management, energy and sustainable transport systems, cultural and natural heritage. In the framework of the EUROSCAPES project, SERDA would like to develop several management plans for green spaces, taking into account environmental guidelines, regulation and social needs; organise trainings for its staff; and to raise general publics awareness about the necessity of such a project.

Granollers City Council, Spain The Environment Department of the municipality is currently implementing its action plan 2007 2011 for the preservation and management of natural heritage, which aims at highlighting the need to preserve important landscapes at the local level, the promotion of botanical elements and the preservation of nature and landscape heritage. The EUROSCAPES project provides an opportunity to improve landscape management tools and to develop new management plans following the future methodology to be developed in the frame of the project, as well as complete SIG tools.

Municipality of Toru, Poland Located in northern Poland, Toru is the capital city of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region. Green spaces constitute one third of the city area. Toru is involved in the EUROSCAPES project because it would like to participate in the exchange process about green spaces management and to learn from its European partners practices and expertise.

European New Towns Platform ENTP, Belgium ENTP is a network gathering new towns and urban areas in rapid growth. It is an unusual partner. It will be in charge of the communication and dissemination part of the project and, as such, it will coordinate and manage the project website, the project newsletters and all the publications.

London Thames Gateway Partnership, United-Kingdom London Thames Gateway territory covers almost 1/3 of the London area; it is a public-private organisation which acts on behalf of 11 local authorities, 8 universities, the Strategic Health Authority and the Education and Competences Council. It promotes the need to develop integrated regeneration policies. London Thames Gateway Partnership would like to put the environment and climate change at the heart of future investments on landscapes.

Presentation by Gilles Vexlard, landscape architect

On Thursday afternoon, Gilles Vexlard, a landscape architect for 30 years, made a presentation on landscaping in parks. He works for the Latitude nord agency he created. He won the German landscape award in 2005 for his work on the Munich Riem Park. During his presentation, Gilles Vexlard introduced the exemplary method he used to design the Munich Riem Park. Located in the periphery of the city, between the international fair, a housing area and the countryside, the Munich Riern Park is composed of an alternation of flowery meadows and forests, mixing the territorial and human dimensions. After a brief explanation of the parks geographical and historical situation, he described the parks core concepts of creation and management. Following this, he talked about issues such as the new types of landscapes or the new urban culture. According to Mr Vexlard, there is also a Europe of landscapes. Indeed, landscapes are the outcomes of the European method of shared historical and cultural events, thus creating continuity from Brest to Vladivostok. He concluded his presentation by referencing Val Maubue, mentioning the Mandinet Park he designed several years ago.

Mandinet Park Munich Riem Park

Cest lhomme, qui, en sappropriant les lieux, les inscrit dans le paysage et en dfinit lusage qui en est fait. Les lieux se fabriquent dans le temps se sociabilisent sils sont de qualit et cette mme qualit induit le bon usage.

Mandinet Park

Munich Riem Park

Workshop 1: Inventory and Diagnosis Tools

On Thursday afternoon, during the 1 workshop about inventory and diagnosis tools and geographic information systems, the team of the SAN presented its views about the project. It also talked about the tools currently developed by the SAN in terms of green spaces management. The presentation of the SIG (Systme dInformation Gographique Geographic Information System) tools illustrated the quantitative inventory work made for the spaces managed by the SAN. Those tools constitute the basis of the approach developed by the SAN the core idea of this approach being that management objectives will be elaborated only after acquiring good knowledge about the territory. Thanks to those tools, the partners will be able to evaluate these objectives, to decide if they are realistic or not and to assess which changes will be necessary, as well as the impacts on existing tools and practices. This project is developed in the frame of a process mainly based on an assessment of territorial elements, on the ground. The SAN Val Maubue also presented its internal objectives, which could eventually match part of the project objectives. If we take into account the diversity of the partners territories, it seems that the needs and objectives of each partner are different. Therefore, there is need for partners to discuss those differences Furthermore, it is important to note that the SIG tools can be used only once the project challenges have been clearly identified. It cannot be used to provide added value to the project; it is only a technical solution to meet specific goals and objectives defined by the partners and to do a follow-up of those objectives in the years to come (See table 1). Last but not least, the presentation was followed by a debate about technical, organisational, methodological and conceptual aspects. It is possible to identify several types of needs: Clarify the role of each partner in the frame of the project; Identify relevant stakeholders and problems; Define a common strategy (formalisation of the objectives); Normalise the exchanges between partners; Etc.
st

SAN activities Official report Need to rationalise our working methods Dispersed knowledge : papers, habits, human memories, various database On the ground Take into account our green heritage Perception by endusers and inhabitants Equivalent in terms of SIG tools Quantify our spaces Locate geographically Centralise information for a better decision process

Empirical knowledge

Interconnection

Objective knowledge

Sustainable Management of spaces

EUROSCAPES Project Landscapes design Experience sharing Very different territories (size, competences, institutions) Major themes : Tourism / Built heritage / water spaces management / Green spaces Project orientations Common objectives and goals? Start thinking about the methodology What indicators can we map? Equivalent in terms of SIG tools Development of a common and shared tool? or Implementation of an interactive platform to exchange methods and data, adaptability for each partner (specific process according to his tools)?

A questionnaire will be sent to each partner in order to identify the main working themes (water, environment diagnosis) and tools (SIG) which could be used during the implementation phase of the project.

Workshop 2: Financial and Administrative Reporting Procedures, Communication aspects

You will find all relevant information concerning financial, administrative and communication rules and procedures in the INTERREG IVC manual and website, as well as in the projects application form and in the partnership agreements. Every six months, a progress report is due to the lead partner. The first progress report is to be sent before September 1st 2010. Each partner must send to the lead partner the contact information of its financial officer, its communication officer, and its controller. Each partner must also send to the lead partner a draft communication plan by July 2010 (before the 2nd projects seminar in Torun) and a list of expected target groups. Concerning the projects communication strategy, flexibility and coherent actions are the main rules. Do not hesitate to combine EUROSCAPES events with other relevant events organized at the same time in your region, as long as this is coherent with your role in the project as described in the projects application form.

Friday February 19th:

After the signature of the project partnership contracts, the partners made a study visit of the Val Maubue territory. They discovered the various categories of cultural and natural landscapes as well as the everyday preservation and management work of the SAN teams.

Project Information
Please try to send as soon as possible to the lead partner: - For the project website: a paragraph specifically dedicated to the project in which you describe your role, actions and expectations concerning the project and pictures, video or further information; - A local communication plan; - Contacts and mailing list for a broad diffusion of this newsletter

EUROSCAPES Related Events

The Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, is taking part in the European project Urbspace (http://www.urbanspaces.eu/) developed in the frame of the Central Europe programme. A thematic seminar on Open urban spaces took place in Milan (IT) on the 21st of April 2010, which focused on urban open spaces and land management with a debate on Thinking and living urban open spaces.
Information & contact: zhudekova@yahoo.com

Please remember that the next EUROSCAPES thematic seminar on the Management of green monuments within the urban area will take place in Torn, th th Poland, on the 8 and 9 of July 2010. For more information and registration, contact Anna Karmienko at: a.karmienko@um.torun.pl