Riksintressen för kulturmiljövården. Kritisk genomgång av fördjupade riksintressebeskrivningar

Abstract

In Sweden, the main responsibility for urban planning lies with the municipalities. The county administrative boards are responsible for clarifying the governmental interests for the municipalities. The main purpose of this essay was to study documents with descriptions of national heritage areas in order to examine whether certain problems within these documents are still present in the most recent ones. This was done by comparing old documents with new ones. The problem with these kinds of documents has been the lack of clarification of cultural values in national heritage areas. The choice of topic is based on the belief that cultural values are often overlooked in urban planning. The aim of this essay is to contribute to the knowledge about how cultural values in national heritage areas can be described better. By clarifying the role of cultural values in urban planning these values can have a stronger impact. The expectation of this essay is ultimately to inspire the country administrative boards to review and rewrite their descriptions of cultural values in national heritage areas. The result of the comparison and analysis of the documents was as follows: Clear guidelines for how certain values in a setting are to be considered are badly needed. Furthermore, the guidelines need to be concrete and based upon the physical environment. By using pictures, maps and photographs, the descriptions can be more readable and distinct for the administrators at the municipalities.