Landscape management planning makes essential technical contributions to care of the landscape, nature conservation and the provision of recreation facilities in the face of competing land-claiming interests, such as transport, the development of residential or industrial areas; or energy, water and waste management and factors all of these aspects into the overall planning. It thus forms the basis for decision-making and further planning phases, while taking into account legislation at state, federal and European levels.

Urban planning ensures the sustainable development of towns and cities, while taking variable underlying conditions and requirements into account. These include such factors as political influence and demographic shifts. Our consulting and planning expertise extends to both construction management planning and specific planning in the context of urban renovation and regeneration, village renewals and the development and expansion of residential and commercial areas.

Certified environmental construction supervision is now one of our core landscape-planning skills. In 2018, an employee of the Rücken & Partner Group attained a university qualification in this field having successfully attended an extensive advanced training course and passing the corresponding final examination. The advanced training programme was delivered in cooperation with the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and the German Federal Association of Landscape Architects. Environmental (also known as “ecological”) construction supervision entails the monitoring of construction projects for conformity with the environmental requirements established in the permit.

The relocation of ant colonies is a further skill that can be acquired through specialist training. This complex topic is taught in a two-day theory course and, in most cases, an approximately one-year practical phase. Under Article 44 of Germany’s nature conservation and landscape management act (BNatSchG), ants are classified as wild animals and therefore entitled to protection. If the construction project plans encompass an area where an ant colony exists, it normally has to be relocated. A special protected-species permit must then be obtained from the nature conservation agency, and a suitable replacement site analysed.

Our key strengths at a glance

• Landscape management planning (environmental construction supervision; relocation of ant colonies; environmental reports; environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports; FFH compatibility studies; interference-balancing regulations; care and development plans; CEF (continuous ecological functionality) measures;, species-protection (saP) studies; biotope mapping; accompanying landscape conservation planning, bioengineering in the context of watercourse renaturalisation; and the presentation of geographical information systems data)
• Urban development (landscape management plans; open space plans; urban development concepts; urban framework plans; utilisation and development concepts; municipal regulations; conversion measures)
• Permit engineering (location analyses; scoping procedures; planning permission meetings; approval procedures in accordance with Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG); water permit approval procedures in accordance with current AwSV (installations for handling substances hazardous to water) and TRwS (substances harmful to water) rules; construction and operating permit approval procedures in accordance with state building regulations; planning procedures; other relevant areas of legislation (nature conservation, environmental compatibility, construction planning law, etc.)
• Climate protection (CO2 engineering; cradle-to-cradle planning; climate protection concepts; CO2 analyses and balancing; potential analyses; SWOT analyses; municipal climate protection)