Landscape quality based upon diversity, coherence and continuity - Landscape planning at different planning-levels in the River area of The Netherlands

This article discusses three criteria for planning and evaluation landscape quality in the River area in The Netherlands. In the 1970s and 1980s, seve ral landscape plans, at different planning levels, are made for the River a rea. Two of them are discussed in this paper. The regional plan got the sec ond prize in a national planning competition. The design for the floodplain was considered 'the best' over a hundred designs from students. It took ma ny years to describe why. An important purpose in these plans is to improve esthetic and ecological qualities. These plans are later used as a basis f or a research project. In this project some general planning objectives and design principles are distilled from the plans. The general planning objec tives are based upon the following three criteria: 1. Diversity: This refers to the diversity of landscape components as the e xpression of vertical relationships between land use and abiotic features 2. Coherence: This refers to the coherence among landscape components as th e expression of horizontal relationships between sites (hydrology, ecology, infra stucture); 3. Continuity: This refers to the temporal relationships of land use and sp atial arrangement from the past to the future. The three criteria together give information about the landscape structure, including the natural and c ultural heritage. These three criteria were applied as the common basis for planning at diffe rent scale levels in the River area with regard to improving the esthetic a nd ecological quality. Some of the concepts of the plans are given in this text. Identified are interrelations between the criteria diversity and cohe rence and between planning objectives of one criterion at different plannin g levels. The three criteria are furthermore used to evaluate the contribut ion of organic farms to landscape quality in nine different rural landscape s in Europe. The results of this project will be published in a second spec ial issue of Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence B.V. All rights reserved.