Landscape planning as a tool for preserving the landscape values of the Dinara Nature Park

Dinara Mountain massif is recognized as an area of exceptional value, which led to its recent protection as a nature park, the second largest one in Croatia. The protected area includes the territory of two counties with four cities and nine municipalities, five of which are included with over 50% of the territory. The paper explains how landscape planning methods establish potential spatial conflicts and propose a compromise between landscape conservation and spatial development. The basic method was the identification and analysis of the landscape value models in 3 categories: natural, visual-experiential, and cultural-historical values. The creation of the models is preceded by a detailed analysis of all environmental components and the collection and creation of spatial data with the help of GIS tools. By overlapping the basic models, a cumulative model of the overall landscape values of the space is produced, which clearly shows which parts of the landscape have a higher value, regarding the protection requirements. The final value model is overlapped with the planned interventions and a clear overview of the vulnerability and possible conflict zones in the area is obtained. The paper describes the impact of individual interventions on the landscape qualities that need to be preserved and suggests guidelines for spatial plan corrections for the purpose of minimal impact on existing values, thus helping to prevent unwanted changes.