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.