17 years of landscape planning Obere Kyll

In the association municipality "Obere Kyll" in the Eifel 13 local municipalities are united to an administrative unit, which covers an area of approx. 13,700 ha.
The planning process documented over 17 years took place in 5 stages:

1st stage1989-1991
Pilot project of the state of Rh-Pf. Introduction of the environmental assessment of the land use plan by means of landscape planning.
First nationwide application of the impact regulation in urban land use planning.
Publication by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1992.

2nd stage1992-1994
Experience input for the project of the Federal Ministry of the Environment and the BDLA "Introduction of landscape planning in the new federal states".
Reprint of the publication by the Federal BDLA 1994.

3rd stage1999-2000
Partial update "Wind power" of the land use plan of the VG Obere Kyll.
Overall conception for the association municipality area for the control of the privileged wind power use on the basis of the landscape plan.

4th stage2003-2006
1st overall update of the landscape / land use plan of Obere Kyll using digital "Geographical Information Systems (GIS)".
First implementation of an environmental assessment at the level of the land use plan according to BauGB 2004 in Rhineland-Palatinate.

5th stage2005-2006
Accompanying study for environmental monitoring / environmental monitoring on behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Published in 2007.

Due to the current topicality, results from stages 3 and 5 are briefly presented here.

Wind energy
The high-altitude west of the municipality has the largest wind capacity in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1991, the first wind farms were built here, which grew to a size of about 70 turbines. By the end of the 1990s, the technology had been developed to such an extent that applications for the erection of the now privileged turbines were also submitted in lower-lying parts of the municipality. Some saw economic advantages in a structurally weak area, while others feared that the landscape on the upper Kyll would be "covered in vegetation".
An "overall concept for wind power" in terms of landscape planning, combined with a partial update of the land use plan, was intended to objectify the political discussions and exhaust the legal control options.
In addition to noise immissions, the greatest potential for conflict with wind energy lies above all in the protected asset of landscape/landscape.
On the basis of the present landscape planning, it was possible to fall back on a differentiated assessment of the landscape. Such bases have been available since the 1990s for every municipality in Rh.Pf. (Fig.1). A derivation of the sensitivity to wind turbines was therefore quickly possible: it is mainly the high-quality classified landscape parts in the open countryside.

Environmental monitoring / monitoring
Analysis of the landscape change between the first (1990) and second (2004) inventory of landscape planning using GIS. Documentation of the environmental assessment landscape / land use plan Obere Kyll (update 2006).

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2007

Jury verdict: The project replicates the exemplary process of integrated, participatory land use and landscape planning of a small community in the Volcanic Eifel. The landscape of the Upper Kyll was developed with the help of conceptual-creative impulses of the landscape plan - and this with foresight over a period of almost two decades.

The pilot planning in 1991/1992 was the first case of an integration of a landscape plan into the land use plan. In 2000, one of the first municipal overall concepts for wind energy was drawn up on the basis of landscape planning. The latest update of the landscape plan, which has been available since the end of 2006, is to be particularly emphasised once again. Because it also deals in an exemplary manner with the very latest environmental tasks such as the strategic environmental assessment and environmental monitoring.

Most of the tasks and requirements which are placed on modern landscape planning are fulfilled here in an exemplary manner. An overall view of the development of landscape planning since 1989. Particular mention should also be made of the lasting, constructive cooperation between local authorities, citizens and landscape planners.