Urban Planning and the Third Landscape in the Field of Local Development

Urban planning in the community of Madrid (Spain) acquires specific characteristics in the particular case of local development, gaining real importance in the case of minor local entities. A good example is found in the so-called Cortijo de San Isidro, integrated in the area of the municipality of Aranjuez. In the present investigation, the authors approach the reality of the third landscape from the perspective of local development, referring to this administrative situation and which marks a historically-based development model, with geographical perspective and implications both landscape and environmental. The minor local entities have personality and full legal capacity to exercise the powers that the legislation and areas of action recognize in each case. Cortijo de San Isidro is currently made up of different buildings, outbuildings, and a large amount of land dedicated to cultivation in order to serve as a model of colonization (many of them today residual spaces marked by urban speculation and the existence of not a few marginal spaces, a true model of local development).