PLANARCH II

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Although North-West Europe has an immensely rich archaeological heritage, its population density puts an enormous strain on this sensitive historical legacy which can disappear once and for all if it is not carefully preserved. Planarch II builds on the conclusions of an earlier IIC project to protect and enhance historic environment and 26 archaeological heritage within the framework of spatial planning. The project is led by Kent County Council and brings together eight partner organisations from Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The partners have set themselves four objectives. Firstly to make heritage information more accessible to planners by developing common standards, terminology and methodologies for heritage records in order to facilitate the decision-making processes. This information will be made available on a multi-lingual web-site. Secondly the partners will develop costeffective methodologies for locating archaeological remains and establishing their value, particularly within a spatial planning framework. These methodologies will be developed and tested at transnational level around three pilot projects focusing on wetland areas in Essex, Flanders and Kent. Thirdly the partners will look at ways of better integrating archaeology into spatial planning by ensuring that the historic environment is appropriately treated in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). Archaeological master plans will also be developed and compared in Kent Rhineland and Wallonia. Fourthly the partnership will develop a joint promotion campaign at transnational level to raise public awareness to this issue. These various actions represent a total investment of €2.57 million.

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