Rationale

All the OTREMED partners took part in past cooperation projects that aimed at tackling territorial competitiveness issues and spatial planning, for example: AMAT, PIC-RM, PAYS.DOC, PLAN4ALL, InterMETREX and so on.

Currently, MED key actors with competences in territorial governance (mainly regional institutions) are developing tools (guidelines, strategies, plans and territorial information systems) to control the dynamics of land use. However, these tools are deficient in certain aspects. For example:

• They cannot efficiently face common problems, since they do not operate at MED level.
• They do not allow coordinating the situations of bordering territories, considering that there is no homogenised cartography.
• They lack territorial factors and indicators of reference able to anchor territorial balance patterns.
• There are many studies of undoubted scientific value, but they are not directly used by the institutions involved in spatial planning.
• these problems.

Moreover, in 2007, the INSPIRE directive promoted the exchange and harmonization of spatial information within the European Union.

Consequently, OTREMED is based on a double approach: identifying levers to enhance regional competitiveness through the elaboration of a tool that will be able to orient the decision making process and looking for a better application of the INSPIRE directive in the MED space.

Presentation of the Project

The Mediterranean is an area of outstanding uniqueness with an extraordinary natural and cultural heritage whose use, unfortunately, has not always been balanced or coherent.
OTREMED’s objective is to develop a spatial planning tool aiming at improving MED space competitiveness focusing on aspects such as the coordination of land use between bordering regions, the management of population concentration on coastlines, the valorisation of the landscape, the adaptation to both climate change effects and to the migratory flows coming from Southern Mediterranean areas, and the development and structuring of tourism.

To reach the project aims, OTREMED partners will carry out a series of activities based on three axes:

• Capitalisation, updating and development of previous works
• Development of a territorial analysis tool
• Experimentation of this tool, test and application in three different territories.

Communication activities will also facilitate the dissemination of the project results.

Deliverables

1.- CAPITALISATION OF PREVIOUS WORK, aimed at the compilation, analysis and development of existing studies on the Mediterranean territorial model and MED cartography. Synergies with other projects and European programmes will be sought.
2.- MED SPACE TERRITORIAL CHARACTERISATION, covering 11 territorial competitiveness challenges, as stated under PIC.RM, responding to the priorities set in the Leipzig Territorial Agenda. These challenges will be updated to the new European framework.
3.- A CARTOGRAPHIC HOMOGENISATION PROTOCOL aimed at facilitating the transference of cartographic data within MED space.
4.- A METHODOLOGY FOR THE DESIGN OF A TERRITORIAL STRATEGY, identifying territorial factors and indicators. It aims at assessing coherence between land uses and MED’s territorial structure.
5.- A BOARD OF EXPERTS in spatial planning, rigorously and independently guiding and assessing the scientific-technical quality of the tool.
6.- THREE ROUND TABLES, enabling the participation of relevant social bodies in the prioritisation of territorial factors and indicators before testing the tool.
7.- 3 PILOT PROJECTS, checking the tool’s applicability to territorial information plans and systems at three levels: urban, urban extension, and territorial/regional level. This action arises from the design of an information technology tool to be implemented on geographic information systems, granting OTREMED tool to be implemented by the Key Actors in spatial planning.
8.-12 TECHNICAL WORKSHOP, for the transference and implementation of results in all the partners’ territories.
9.- A COMMUNICATION AND CAPITALISATION STRATEGY, to be implemented throughout the whole process.
10.- A WEB PAGE, to promote public participation in the prioritisation of territorial factors and indicators, as a complement of Action 6. It will also facilitate the communication and information transfer.
11.- OTREMED DESIGN AND TESTING GUIDE, to disseminate the main results of the project.
12.- INTERREGIONAL FORUM to capitalise and disseminate information by introducing MED Key Actors in territorial governance to OTREMED results and its applicability.
13.- A LETTER OF INTENT, to look for the highest level of consensus in the application and continuity of OTREMED.

Objectives

OTREMED has three main objectives:

1. To establish a common and transferable methodology, which will contribute to the definition of assessment patterns for spatial planning and facilitate the decision-making process, according to a joint territorial strategy for the MED territory.
2. To enhance the MED space competitiveness in order to ensure economic growth, jobs creation, and social cohesion.
3. To impact positively on policies that promote a balanced and sustainable territory development.

Through 13 actions (see Deliverables), OTREMED also looks for achieving the following specific objectives:
1. Capitalisation of previous work, through:
- Compilation, analysis and development of existing and in progress work on territorial models and the existing cartography resources (action undertaken in phase 3.2).
- MED Space Territorial Characterisation, including work set out in AMAT, PIC.RM (phase 3.3).

2. Development of a tool in line with INSPIRE Directive through:
- Development of a protocol for cartographic homogenisation (phase 3.4).
- Development of a methodology for the design of a territorial strategy (component 4).

3. To ensure the quality and the technical and scientific rigor of the tool through:
- Constitution of a board of experts to technically and scientifically assess along the implementation of the project (phase 3.1).
- Testing the tool through three Pilot Projects and its subsequent assessment (phases 5.3 and 5.4)

4. To introduce public participation processes in the development of the tool, through:
- 3 round tables for stakeholders (phase 5.1)
- Web Page that will allow citizen participation through a public area (phase 1.2).

5. Capitalisation and dissemination of the project through:
- Development of a Communication and Capitalisation Strategy (phase 1.1).
- Design of a web page (phase 1.2).
- Organisation of an Interregional Forum (phase 1.3).
- Design and testing Guide for OTREMED to be presented to all Key actors competent in spatial planning within MED space, to European networkss and bodies, and to European Union institutions (phase 1.4).

6. To ensure its technical suitability through:
- 3 pilot experiences dealing with 3 scales focusing several issues: growth of metropolitan areas, balance of middle-sized cities, dynamism of rural territory, etc. (phase 5.3).
- 12 Technical workshops in which the tool will be presented to local key actors (phase 5.5).

7. To facilitate communication among partners through the establishment of a web page with a private area for partners (phase 1.2).

8. To seek the continuity and the implementation of the tool through:
- The organisation of an Interregional Forum (phase 1.3).
- -The redaction and signature of a Letter of Intent (phase 1.5).