Agenda XXI LLORET DE MAR (GB) - Ajuntament de Lloret de Mar

2.2.2 A View of the Territory
Anthropic activity affecting the territory has intensified over the past decades, and a series of
changes have materialised. Changes of an economic, technological, political, cultural, and
social origin. The world is ever-changing, but never before have these changes taken place
with such intensity and speed, nor in such an autonomous fashion, so free from premeditated
intentions, bursting through frameworks and parameters which appeared to be stable, and
bursting through conventional planning tools. The quantity and diversity of initiatives and their
vertiginous pace make decision-making processes more complex and dispersed.
The transformation of the territory has been and is virtually always contradictory. On one hand
the creation of wealth, the physical mobility of persons and the permeability between social
strata represent benefits (or they are simply necessary for the development of civilisation), and
on the other, it presents negative aspects resulting from the improper use or abuse of certain
anthropic actions against the milieu. The effect of such actions is not limited only to the natural
milieu, since the mistake is often made of identifying the territory from an exclusively physical
perspective, leaving the human perspective – i.e., political, cultural and ethical relationships
generated in this space - in the background, or even forgetting it altogether.
It is in this aspect – the human perspective – where the connection between the territory and
any act is observed, since it is in this space where the human theories and practices are put in
motion. Everything takes place in and on the territory, and this is what determines the essence
of a space, because it presents a reality which particularises it, which makes it singular and
unique. Each territory evolves in a different way, and its complementary sites are not excluded,
but rather are needed in order to be defined – it is necessary to find what others are missing,
which is what indeed gives value to oneself. Diversity enriches, and at the same time it defines
each territorial identity.
Territorial Identity
A territorial identity is not created artificially, nor is it improvised. It consists of a series of roots
which have been shaped over time and of contact with various cultures, generating itself
naturally and becoming a part of larger regions and territories. A territorial identity is a set of
values, of approaches and of lifestyles, modulated and handed down over the generations,
imbued, beyond doubt, with common traits at the broadest scale; in other words, a territory on
a small scale is unique in its identity and, at the same time it belongs, in a series of concentric
circles, to larger territories which are also unique in their identities. Within these digressions we
must include the consideration of the term landscape – the "landscape", understood as a
human, natural and cultural landscape, becomes or equals the identity of the territory, and it
represents it everywhere. Faced with the difficulty posed by considering the term landscape in
its broadest sense, we have chosen to include a number of considerations made in this regard
by the geographer Joan Nogué i Font in the following box.
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