Suppose you were faced with developing a regional plan that highlights natural systems and their human uses for one of the world's great cities. You have never been to the city or its surroundings, though you once lived in the broader geographic region. What would you do? Here is my story, and especially its result.

Barcelona struck me as a vibrant livable place with a cutting-edge can-do attitude. Best known are the amazing multicolored organic structures created more than 80 years ago across the city by Antoni Gaudi. I was inspired by his Parque Guell, especially the stunning evocative mosaics created with broken pieces of brightly colored ceramics (Color Figure 40). They are as magical today as when he did them. Any land mosaic I propose for the Greater Barcelona Region should be as inspiring, valuable, and long-lasting as those ceramic mosaic masterpieces in tiny spaces.

In essence, a 150-page conceptual plan (including 28 maps) was prepared over a 15-month period for the city's Mayor and Chief Architect (Forman 2004a). The project objective was to evaluate and highlight the importance of the urban region (rather than the city), the major natural systems therein, and the diverse human uses of these natural systems. This challenge was addressed by the development of a “land mosaic for natural systems and people” based on landscape ecology and other principles. I extensively visited the region, talked with diverse knowledgeable experts, and accumulated shelves of valuable information, maps, and literature.