The Navarre Spatial Planning (NSP) represents the culmination of the instruments for territorial management set out by Navarre Law 35/2002, dated 20 December (BON #156, dated 27 December; www.cfnavarra.es). The Government of Navarre, through its Department of the Environment, Territorial Management and Housing, in August 2001 awarded "Navarre XXI", a group of companies comprised of the Navarre Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tomillo Centre for Economic Studies, Eide Consulting, Ecotec Research & Consulting and Basartea, and under the technical leadership of the public sector enterprise Nasursa, Navarra de Suelo Residencial, S.A. the job of drafting said document.

The NSP is the manifestation of the Community of Navarre’s desire to cooperate in and contribute to the community policy for territorial and regional development and is subject to the guiding principles laid down in the European Spatial Planning (ESP), approved in Potsdam in 1999, thereby establishing a framework of cooperation between community policies having effects on the Territory.

Guiding Principles:

• More balanced competitiveness of the European territory while respecting the environment and protecting natural resources.

• A more cohesive society.

• Sustainable development as a new model for economic development.

Territorial Directives:

• To foster a more well-balanced, polycentric urban system, as well as strengthening collaboration between urban and rural spaces.

• Equal access to infrastructure and knowledge.

• Intelligent management of cultural heritage and nature.

The NSP drafting procedure contemplates the following steps:

• Preliminary analyses (Regional Reference Report).

• Process of Public Participation.

• Topical Reports.

• Integrated Diagnosis of Navarre.

• Scenarios for developing a desirable Territorial Model within 25 years from now.

• Territorial Model.

• Information and Consensus as to the Territorial Model (at the present time).

• Drafting of the Territorial Strategy Project.

• Public Information and Final Approval.

• Evaluation and monitorization.

The Navarre Spatial Plannig (NSP) serves to support and develop the principles and directives of the ESP for the Community of Navarre in order to establish a territorial diagnosis described by a series of variables summarised into six synthetic indicators, that allow us to understand not where we stand at the present time, but to compare ourselves to the rest of Spain and to the European Union and to facilitate the assessment process for the future.

• Strategic indicators: Competitiveness, Social Cohesion and Sustainability, and

• Territorial indicators: Polycentralism, Accessibility and Patrimony Management.

The first conclusion is that there do not yet exist European regions whose model of development fully adapts to the criteria established in the ESP. The second conclusion is that the new territorial and urban management tools are much more social in nature and attempt to bring the citizen closer both to the process of elaboration by means of participation, as well as proposing objectives that are closer to his/ her interests.

The Navarre Spatial Planning will be defined and definitively drafted after the citizens have contributed to defining the Territorial Model for the Future as a summarised version of what use the residents of Navarre will put their territory to in the coming years. Through this strategic document they will be able to orient the different sectorial policies that have an impact on the regional space with the mission of complying with the established strategic and territorial objectives. But, in addition, the NSP will define the pertinent tools for control and permanent assessment, such that the citizens and the Parliament of Navarre can verify and monitor its implementation.

Navarre is characterised by the diversity of its environments, ecosystems and ways of understanding life and daily life. The territorial model seeks to make these spaces serve to expand the presence of Navarre within the Atlantic Arch, to contribute to the consideration of the Pyrenees as a European natural space, to foster the territorial and administrative cooperation in the Ebro River Valley, as well as generating collaboration between the more urbanised areas of Navarre and its rural and natural areas. At the same time it seeks to generate an urban area within the metropolitan area of Pamplona connected not only with the most important centres in the area, but also with leading European and international centres.

From the standpoint of territorial management, accessibility means being able to connect one place to other places. Normally, it is applied to a centre or city with respect to its connections with other spaces, and is used to express the degree of closeness between them. The exchange of goods and circulation of persons depend upon this spatial quality. Therefore, it is an essential factor for locating economic activities.

Accessibility has much to do with connectivity, as it is understood in this 5th Barcelona Biennal. The NSP aims to establish an inhabitable and sustainable territory for its citizens, but a territory that is also competitive and integrated with other areas. Therefore, tools must be described and executed in the NTS that will be reflected in the territory, and that will allow for connectivity at the four levels established in the Biennal:

• European level: connecting cities in a polycentric Europe. The development of the activities of excellence in Navarre (alternative energies, biomedicine and healthcare technology, agricultural and food industry, etc.) will permit our "Region-City" to competitively insert itself into the European urban system.

• Regional level: connecting the cities within the polycentric urban system of Navarre. The regional monocentric trend must be overcome and relations between urban centres must be made possible for cooperation in the network.

• City level: connecting social groups, local stakeholders, co-operation between local administrations, joint plans between administrations, public-private management, etc.

• Street level: connecting citizens and their different ways of using the territory and guaranteeing citizens’ access to cultural training.

All of the objectives posed by the NSP can be summarised as the vertebration of Navarre, taken to mean the consolidation of Navarre’s territorial structure. Therefore, the implications accessibility has on the territory are clear and its treatment takes on spatial relevance.

Vertebration, from the perspective of the NSP, is understood in two directions: outwardly and inwardly.

Communication corridors, taken to mean those spaces that are affected by lines of communications will guarantee outward connectivity. Therefore, they are of a more physical nature and require that they be truly implemented on the territory. The territorial model proposed within the framework of the NSP also describes "doorway spaces", understood as those areas or centres that allow for physical or cultural access, that is, the link that goes from inside the community to outside the community. The citizens must necessarily take part in these relationships.

Inward connectivity includes everything from personal and neighbourly relations to the pendular movements and commutes to the neighbouring centres that make up what we have termed, "urban subsystems" that connect in turn, with each other by means of articular spaces. The NSP must guarantee that they work as gears, not only between territorial areas having a similar horizontal identity, but also with other territories.

The spatial representation of these concepts are not fixed in time. The dynamic nature of people and their relationships mark the changes in how the territory is conceived of, which is why no specific subregional spaces are drawn up, but the features that allow them to be identified are established, thereby allowing them to receive personalised urban-territorial treatment (Territorial Management Plans and Territorial Action Plans).

NTS INSTRUMENTATION

As has already been stated, the NSP aims to orient the Navarre Government’s sectoral policies and to proved citizens with the information they need as to how their interests have been expressed in the territorial policy.

From a standpoint if policy and directive application. Throughout the entire process of drafting the Navarre Spatial Planning, the fact that the external vertebration of the community affects many aspects of the territorial structure has been kept in mind. Therefore, the following aspects will be taken into account in its final form:

• The consideration of a space above that which is established by administrative limits.

• The comparative analysis with other regional areas and application of the "best practices" of reference and benchmarking techniques or what we have termed regional references.

• The analysis of the impact European policies will have, as well as their temporal application and, most especially, the process of expansion.