HORTA

Abstract: Structured health care data has played a critical role in improving quality of care and achieving better patient outcomes. Despite increased use of terminology standards within the electronic health records (EHRs), there is a need to map multi-institutional data that represent patient observations to develop standardized information models. The purpose of this study was to conduct an empirical evaluation of the potential for international health system data interoperability with the Wanda Horta theory using the Omaha System ontology. The 2 frameworks were mapped and validated by a panel of experts. The results showed that the majority (80.95%) of the Wanda Horta theory concepts were mapped at a high level of agreement. Such mappings show that the information models have the potential to facilitate and enhance communication and improve practices between organizations internationally.

Abstract: L’Horta de Valencia is a peri-urban agricultural space with recognized values as a heritage: historic, cultural, agricultural, economic, landscape and natural resource. Across Europe, there are only six similar landscapes according to the DOBRIS report of the European Environment Agency (1998). Many studies and authors show their values. This historical zone has been irrigated, since the Medieval Age, by seven channels of Túria’s river, and irrigation water is managed by specific organization of seven irrigation communities, one for each channel, with a historical Court of Waters. UNESCO named the Court of Waters as a World Heritage. The surface of the irrigation zones historically was very extensive with about 23,000 ha. Today there are about 12,000 ha. There have been several attempts to plan and protect this area and landscape, but so far, none has succeeded. The last attempt was in about 2006 by the Territorial Action Plan to Protect Horta of Valencia, finalized in 2010 but not approved. Meanwhile, the urbanization of agricultural areas has continued. In fact, this situation occurs as a result of management problems. Protection of anthropic spaces requires maintenance of existing economic activities, particularly, but not only, agricultural activities. Stakeholders expect more income from urbanization processes. Therefore, the main problem to execute any plan with success is the management of agricultural space to maintain economic activities associated with the agricultural landscape. This paper analyzes the behavior of stakeholders and structural causes that explain the failure of Horta planning and propose management systems to generate objective conditions in order to maintain this exceptional landscape.

Abstract: This paper assesses the evolution in the preservation, management and planning of a cultural landscape: the historical Mediterranean huerta of Valencia, l’Horta de València. After a characterization of l’Horta as a traditional cultural landscape and a description of its main elements and functions, an account of the driving forces behind changes in this landscape is offered. This account highlights the way in which shared patterns of landscape transformation in Europe materialize in the particular case of l’Horta. It is argued that the negative changes and impacts are not simply the outcome of global dynamics but the result of the region’s planning trajectory and approach to landscape management. This has been shaped by the lack of a territorial and supra-municipal perspective and the primacy of aspects related to culture, identity and heritage over the productive dimension of the landscape. This claim unfolds through an overview of the planning and policy background that has determined the fate of l’Horta over the past decades and an analysis of the new planning tools recently adopted by the Valencia regional government, L’Horta Law and the Territorial Action Plan for the Management and Revitalization of L’Horta, both from 2018. The paper reflects on the general approach of these documents in the light of the literature on landscape planning and peri-urban agricultural landscapes and assesses the main differences and similarities with respect to the previous institutional and planning contexts.