Regional Coordination of Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects—A New Role for Landscape Observatories?

egional coordination should be of the utmost importance when working with large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, railroads, wind farms, etc. However, when studying infrastructure planning in Sweden, it has become evident that large-scale infrastructure projects are ruled by project-centred logic rather than place-centred logic (regional coordination). Each project has its specific budget and project management, leading to, for example, duplication of landscape related analyses and poor consideration regarding possible synergy effects and resulting in a scattered and fragmented infrastructural landscape rather than a landscape where the historical continuity and regional qualities have been safeguarded. Present regional authorities act mainly upon project initiatives and are limited by their formal, jurisdictional framework. Thus, there is a role to fill when it comes to regional and landscape-centred coordination of landscape interventions. This is where landscape observatories, as suggested by the European Landscape Convention, could provide an alternative solution. Landscape observatories could also be incorporated into formal planning processes, but with the very specific task of arguing from a landscape point of view, rather than from a perspective of economic growth, exploitation or individual project handling.