auma is drafting the environmental impact study of a residential development plan on the Costa del Sol for an international architecture practice. Unlike assessments that arrive once the plan is closed, here the environmental work has run alongside the urban design.
Project overview
| Client | International architecture practice (confidential) |
| Market | Developers |
| Practice area | Urban planning · Environment |
| Location | Costa del Sol (Málaga, Spain) |
| Services | Environmental impact study of an urban development plan |
| Year | 2026 |
The challenge
Environmental assessment of planning is where much of a scheme's real impact is decided, long before any construction project exists:
- Plan scale, not project scale: uses, densities and mobility models must be assessed, not a specific works package.
- Sensitive territory: the Mediterranean coast combines development pressure, water scarcity and landscape value.
- Dialogue with the design: environmental conclusions only help if the planning team can still incorporate them.
The auma solution
auma works embedded with the architecture team rather than as an external reviewer:
- Preliminary environmental diagnosis of the sector to identify the decisive constraints before the layout is fixed.
- Assessment of layout alternatives against landscape, water, mobility and land-take criteria.
- Measures and indicators written into the plan's own rules, not attached as a separate annex.
The result
- Environmental impact study delivered and incorporated into the plan's documentation for processing.
- Environmental constraints resolved at design stage, avoiding later rework of the layout.
- A document consistent between the planning report and the environmental assessment.
Assessing a plan once it is drawn turns the environment into paperwork. Assessing it while it is being drawn turns it into a design criterion.
Frequently asked questions
What is the environmental assessment of an urban plan?
The procedure that analyses the environmental effects of a planning instrument before approval, under Spain's Law 21/2013 on environmental assessment. Unlike project assessment, it works with uses, densities and territorial models.
When is strategic environmental assessment required?
When the plan sets the framework for future project consents or may affect Natura 2000 sites. General plans and their developments undergo ordinary or simplified assessment depending on scope.
Who drafts the environmental study of a plan?
The plan's promoter commissions environmental specialists who work in coordination with the urban planners. That coordination is what gets environmental measures into the plan's binding rules rather than leaving them as recommendations.
Drafting an urban development plan?
We embed environmental assessment from the first sketch, while it can still improve the scheme.
Let's talk about your project