CHARACTERIZATION OF IBÁÑEZ RIVER BASIN AS A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

This article gives an account of a pioneer experience in Chile that deals with territorial planning based on the concept of cultural landscape, It is a cultural diagnosis of Ibañez river basin in the Chilean Patagonia, promoted by the regional government of Aysen and carried out by NGO POLOC. We will refer to the methodology and results of the characterization process of The study uses previous diagnosis and available databasis regarding the study area and gathers new information mainly from oral sources. Through interviews and workshops, a multidisciplinary team assumes the role of describing the and gathering about 29 variables from 4 thematic areas. The integration of information allowed us to describe the main phenomena that have shaped the landscape. In turn, the spatial distribution of different variables was incorporated into a GIS, in order to identify and characterize landscape units which assemble distinctions and value ratings of the landscape user