Author(s)

J. L. Miralles i Garcia

Abstract

The last real estate cycle in Spain is a paradigmatic example of non sustainable development. The extraordinary urban development in the 1997-2007 period produced an extraordinary economic growth based on land speculation and housing. The end of the cycle generates a very severe economic crisis, one that is the most serious economic crisis in a long time. This process has economic, social and environmental repercussions; from the economic point of view Spain has a temporally increased its GDP. The real estate activity has generated houses, and land able to be developed, but without use and without a market. From the social point of view, the Spanish people have changed their system of moral value. It takes as an ideal rapid enrichment without effort and without producing useful goods and services, and from the environmental point of view, on building over an extensive area without use. It is an irreversible process of rural land transformation. All land conversion is carried out by urban planning; the landscape changes and \“urban sprawl” increases. Keywords: urban planning, landscape architecture, landscape ecology, landscape management, sustainability, public participation. 1 Introduction Spain has seen a process of economic development that is clearly unsustainable. The process occurred mainly between 1997-2007 and a large number of houses were built in this period. In Figure 1 you can see the number of visas given for construction for housing, and in Figure 2 you can see the number of houses built for each year. In 2002-2007 there were more visa granted for construction in Spain than in France and Germany combined. The process is especially intensive in the case of coastal and tourist areas as in the Autonomous Community of Valencia [1].

Keywords

urban planning, landscape architecture, landscape ecology, landscape management, sustainability, public participation.