Morphological perspectives in the urban planning of small municipalities in rural Spain: alternatives to conventional legal criteria for land classification

Abstract

This paper explores the past, present and future of morphological approaches for land classification in small rural municipalities in Spain. After a brief initial review of the conception of the class of Urban Land and of the conventional regulated criteria and procedure for its delimitation, with special attention to the Provincial Subsidiary Regulations in force in the municipalities without their own planning, the analysis of the morphological approaches is presented. These approaches are grouped into two broad categories: abstract morphological approaches and contextualized approaches, of which different examples of their practical application in various municipalities are presented. The conclusions review the scarce fortune that —despite their obvious theoretical interest— these morphological approaches have had in the past and their real ineffectiveness in the present. On the contrary, the paper reflects on the important role that these approaches could have in the future, as an alternative to overcome the insufficiencies of conventional regulated criteria