Showing papers in "Landscape Research in 2006"

The European Landscape Convention

Abstract: Abstract Adopted in Florence (Italy) on 20 October 2000, the European Landscape Convention is aimed at promoting the protection, management and planning of European landscapes and organising European cooperation on landscape issues. It is the first international treaty to be exclusively concerned with all dimensions of European landscape. It applies to the entire territory of the Parties and relates to natural, urban and peri-urban areas, whether on land, water or sea. It therefore concerns not just remarkable landscapes but also ordinary everyday landscapes and blighted areas. The Convention represents an important contribution to the implementation of the objectives of the Council of Europe: these seek to protect Europeans' quality of life and well-being, taking into account landscape, cultural and natural values. The member states of the Council of Europe signatory to the European Landscape Convention declared their concern to achieve sustainable development based on a balanced and harmonious relationship between social needs, economic activity and the environment. The cultural dimension is also of fundamental importance.

Key concepts in a framework for analysing visual landscape character

Abstract: A transparent and theory-based scheme for analysing visual character is presented. Based on a literature review, nine key visual concepts are identified: stewardship, coherence, disturbance, histor...

World Heritage cultural landscapes: A UNESCO flagship programme 1992 – 2006

Abstract: This paper reviews one of the most important evolutions in the history of the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention), namely, the interaction between culture and nature and the development of the cultural landscape categories. The World Heritage Convention currently covers 812 sites in 137 countries and is with 181 States Parties the most universal international legal instrument in heritage conservation. Among the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, 53 sites are recognized cultural landscapes focusing on the outstanding interaction between people and their environment. The paper further explains key case studies from World Heritage cultural landscapes from all regions of the world and highlights the innovations in the Convention's implementation through the landscape approach, particularly focusing on the management of complex properties involving local communities and indigenous people. The paper also o...

Historic Landscape Characterisation: A landscape archaeology for research, management and planning

Abstract: This article outlines a relatively new form of landscape archaeology known in England as Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC). Whilst it seeks to present and analyse the ‘historic character’ of landscapes, HLC is also a forward-looking approach that uses its distinctively ‘archaeological’ perspective to inform planning for the future. The article argues that HLC is particularly well placed to facilitate communication between landscape scholars from different disciplines and other people concerned with landscapes.

On the nature of virtuous change in cultural landscapes: Exploring sustainability through qualitative models

Abstract: Cultural landscapes are internationally valued resources, yet face endemic threats. Often the ‘drivers for change’ result in a loss of valued qualities, and are associated with ‘vicious circles’ of landscape deterioration. The way in which landscape may represent an integrative framework for research and policy is noted. It is argued that a key objective of research and policy should be to promote ‘virtuous circles’ in which social capital and economic entrepreneurship valorize distinctive landscape characteristics, leading to a situation of mutual reinforcement between human activity and environmental capital. Particular attention is given to qualitative models of virtuosity in the landscape. Positive feedback loops in the landscape are illustrated by reference to current examples of integrated rural projects. The further development of formal models as a basis for reinstating virtuous circles is advocated as a basis for the future planning and understanding of cultural landscapes.

A question of value: What do trees and forests mean to people in Vermont?

Abstract: What underlies conflict over natural resource management? This is a question that land managers are increasingly concerned with in their dealings with multiple publics who have diverse needs. The answer relates to the ways in which people value their surrounding environment and how they react to changes in the management of valued places that hold specific meanings for them. The questions considered for this research included: what are the values and meanings people associate with forest places in Vermont, USA and what role do forests play in the landscape of the state and in personal identity? The interpretive qualitative analysis approach taken in this research emphasizes how the ways in which people value forests are linked to wider issues of concern over well being, quality of life and cultural identity. Through the in-depth discussion groups and interviews undertaken, the diversity and complexity of the meanings people associate with the forested landscape of Vermont were explored. Responden...

Colonial Irrigation: Myths of Emptiness

Abstract: Colonial efforts to develop irrigation in African colonies aimed to improve the colonies' productive capacity. The resulting systems, including Gezira (British Sudan), Office du Niger (French Sudan) and the French systems in Northern Africa, have many characteristics of an imposed factory-based production regime. A factory resemblance is reflected in the mathematical layout of the systems when possible: canals are straight and plots are square. This approach coincides with the general European opinion that Africa had no history; Africa (with the exception of Egypt) was perceived as an empty continent. In the African colonies, economic opportunities were obviously an important element of the discourse. It was ideologies of creating new social and geographical landscapes, however, bringing order in the wildness by filling the empty African landscape with modern irrigation facilities, that were dominating the colonial irrigation discourses and practices in African colonies.

The design of landscapes at child-care centres: Seven Cs

Abstract: Key criteria, called Seven Cs, identified from phase one of a five-year multidisciplinary study, are described. This study asked, what are the precise outdoor physical factors that contribute to early childhood development and quality play at child-care centres, and to what degree do these factors currently exist at the centres under study? The child-care setting provides an instrumental context for understanding children and landscape interactions. The Seven Cs criteria were derived from a comparison of 12 sample outdoor play spaces at child-care centres in Vancouver, Canada, with findings from a review of the literature concerning landscapes designed for children. Landscapes designed for children's use should consider developmental and play needs, and the unique contributions that landscapes can offer on a daily basis. Seven Cs earmark important physical dimensions of designed landscapes for children that can potentially enrich future designs at child-care centres. The goal is to provide a set ...

A case of conflicts in conservation: Two trenches or a three-dimensional complexity?

Abstract: Conflicts over conservation are often regarded as dichotomies of diametrical opposites. When national parks are established in Norway, two stereotypes can be sketched: (1) the ecocentric position valuing ‘pure, authentic nature’, relying on the national government as the only acceptable decision and management level; and (2) a more anthropocentric position valuing cultural landscape elements and certain traditional and future uses of the area, favouring local management. A conflict over restoring a firing range to a state of ‘authentic nature’ for future designation as a national park is examined. The case has raised comprehensive local debate. It is asked whether the relevant actors should be seen as situated in the stereotypes, or whether a more complex three-dimensional picture would provide a better interpretation.

The interactive landscape plan: Use and benefits of new technologies in landscape planning and discussion of the interactive landscape plan in Koenigslutter am Elm, Germany

Abstract: Information technologies (IT) provide new approaches for better access to environmental information and for improving the implementation of environmental goals in landscape planning. Many potentially suitable tools already exist. However, most have been developed in a different planning context, such as town planning or environmental impact assessment, and are only partly suitable for the comprehensive task of landscape planning. A number of important questions concerning the application of these tools in landscape planning remain unanswered: which types of tools are needed to solve the problems in landscape planning?; must these tools be adapted to the special conditions of landscape planning?; how should they be co-ordinated and ultimately integrated into a landscape planning support system? An analysis of the implementation problems in German landscape planning and the potentials of IT suggests new approaches and answers to these questions. This paper explores the effective use of IT in landsc...

Exploring landscape dynamics at the edge of the city: Spatial plans and everyday places at the inner urban fringe of Malmö, Sweden

Abstract: Landscapes at the edge of the city comprise vast areas that ‘lie fallow’, awaiting future urban development. During this time new landscape values evolve. It is argued that the complexity of urban fringe landscapes is not adequately considered either within landscape research or in the practice of spatial planning. A key to understanding landscapes at the inner urban fringe is to focus on landscape dynamics, and on the interactions between spatial plans and everyday activities. The study is divided into three parts. First, theoretical considerations about landscape dynamics and the character of the inner urban fringe are presented. Thereafter, the relationship between spatial planning and everyday places is analysed in a case-study area at the edge of the city of Malmo in southernmost Sweden. The case study demonstrates the complexity of landscape dynamics at the inner urban fringe, as well as problems regarding the handling of ephemeral and transitory aspects within spatial planning. The study c...

New Landscapes of Gated Communities: Australia's Sovereign Islands

Abstract: The gated community phenomenon is well entrenched in numerous cities around the world Stimulated by concerns over eroding public safety and legitimated through a discourse of community civility, gated communities are the physical manifestation of complex social anxieties and aspirations Typically, gated communities rely upon aggressive mechanisms of exclusion, such as gates and walls that are ‘policed’ by private security guards However, this need not be the case Socio-spatial exclusion can be established and maintained through the more subtle, but nonetheless effective, creation of landscapes that are so imbued with a sense of prestige that they arguably initiate a process of ‘self-othering’ amongst those beyond their margins Here, the Sovereign Islands development in Queensland, Australia is examined to explore how the landscapes of gated communities themselves can be physically and discursively constructed so as to obviate the need for aggressive barriers of exclusion

Using ecomuseum indicators to evaluate the Robben Island Museum and World Heritage Site

Abstract: Robben Island has a number of significant overlapping physical, social, cultural, and political landscapes. The island has been invested with iconic status due to the fact that it was used as the notorious political prison by the apartheid regime in South Africa. After the first democratic elections, the island was officially opened as a national museum in 1997 and in 1999 it was listed as a World Heritage Site. This paper evaluates the initial phase of the Robben Island project using the identified key indicators of the ecomuseum ideal, which has its origins in France in the early 1970s. The ecomuseum movement has challenged many traditional approaches to museum and heritage management internationally, as the new Robben Island Museum has done in South Africa.

Riparian anomie: Reflections on the Los Angeles River

Abstract: This paper explores the highly urbanized landscape of the Los Angeles River. Direct encounters with the contemporary river are combined with an historical exploration of some of the developments associated with its transformation into a 51-mile concrete drainage channel. It is suggested that the current landscape of the Los Angeles River not only reveals much about the complex relations between nature and culture in southern California but also illustrates how the contemporary city is marked by a schism between technical conceptions of water control and new attempts to combine river management with wider social and ecological objectives.

Perceptions of Antarctic tourism: A question of tolerance

Abstract: Perceptions of tourism held by a sample of New Zealand's Antarctic community are explored, and the small, mixed group of scientists and support workers that populate Scott Base (New Zealand's research base in the Ross Dependency, Antarctica) are treated as proxy for a ‘host’ community. This exploration is part of a wider study that set out to investigate the nature and meanings of Antarctic heritage. Although the research did not explicitly set out to survey perceptions of tourism, approximately one-half of those interviewed in the wider study gave an insight into this topic. The qualitative data reported were gathered during two visits to Scott Base in 1999. From the responses a three-fold classification was derived, indicating degrees of tolerance toward tourism: cautious, complex and comfortable tolerance.

Management Plans for UK World Heritage Sites: Evolution, lessons and good practice

Abstract: Abstract Since the mid 1990s Management Plans have been prepared for most UK World Heritage Sites. Such Plans are distinctive in the fully integrated approach they take to ensuring conservation for a variety of differing World Heritage Sites. Some Plans were prepared ‘late’ for World Heritage Sites already inscribed on the World Heritage List in the mid 1980s and others formed part of the nomination documents required by UNESCO. Many candidate or recently nominated sites include complex cultural landscapes and townscapes. The essential principle that underlies a good World Heritage Management Plan is that its policies and objectives for the future must be drawn from a proper understanding of the ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ of the site and the potential changes that might occur there. Based on the experience of preparing Management Plans for six UK World Heritage Sites over the last five years, this paper sets out the lessons learned and highlights the emergence of good practice in this field.

The history of the country park, 1966–2005: Towards a renaissance?

Abstract: The origins of the Country Park are examined and the implications of those origins are analysed. Country Parks are followed through to the present, including their enthusiastic sponsorship by the Countryside Commission, their role in local authority policy and practice, and the decline noted in the 1999 House of Commons Select Committee inquiry into Town and Country Parks. In the last two years, the Country Parks Network, administered by Green Space and funded by the government, has shown the tenacity of the Country Park, and there are encouraging signs from the Countryside Agency of renewed interest, and its hopes for a ‘Renaissance in Country Parks’. A summary of this period is also included, but an assessment of the effectiveness of its initiatives must wait for more time to pass.

Development and Damage: Water and Landscape Evolution in Victoria, Australia

Abstract: This paper investigates the interconnection of changes in the institutional framework to promote water development and subsequent alterations to natural landscapes that have occurred over much of Victoria's history. Specifically, a clear correlation is demonstrated between institutional and natural landscape changes, and environmental degradation. Throughout Victoria's history, each phase of water development ushered in by changes to the institutional arrangements signalled more significant changes to natural landscapes, highlighted by the acceleration of infrastructure construction to harness water supplies and more intensive use of water. As water-supply development became more intense, the natural landscape changes that accompanied this development led to the alteration of delicate ecological systems that had evolved over thousands of years, leading to an acceleration of environmental degradation. The link between changes in institutional structures for water development and the impacts of thi...

Developing the untapped wealth of Britain's ‘Celtic Fringe’: Water engineering and the Welsh landscape, 1870 – 1960

Abstract: This paper focuses on the development of water engineering schemes in Wales in the late 19th and 20th centuries, concentrating mainly on water-supply schemes promoted by large English municipalities such as Birmingham and Liverpool, but also discussing hydro-electricity. It is argued that the first water engineering projects in Wales were informed by certain perceptions of the Welsh landscape and wider discourses regarding Britain's ‘Celtic Fringe’, and that such concepts were used to promote ideas of water purity. Ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘modernity’ surrounding the changing of the landscape through water works are analysed, and how such notions were challenged in the 20th century is explored, particularly from conservationist and nationalist perspectives. In the second half of the 20th century, it is argued, a paradox emerges, whereby different ways of seeing or perceiving the landscape of Wales led to a divergence in the political dynamics surrounding water-supply projects and hydro-electric sc...

Refining landscape change models through outlier analysis in the Muskegon watershed of Michigan

Abstract: Balancing natural resource protection and urban development is of concern to researchers, planners and citizens who are aware of the environmental, social and economic impacts of urban land use. Land-use change models can assist in finding this balance. An objective of this research was to build a better model of land-use change by integrating quantitative and qualitative techniques. A modelling approach is presented that combines statistical logistic regression with field-based outlier analysis. To this end, a collaborative effort between researchers, who are adept at building models, and local experts, who better understand the dynamics of landscape change in their communities, was undertaken. The findings indicate that this modelling approach is successful in improving overall model performance, as measured by pseudo r-squared value, and identifying additional drivers of land-use change, namely zoning, soil suitability and distance to highway interchange. Most importantly, this collaborative m...

Editorial: Water and Landscape

Abstract: Water is the most interesting object in a landscape … So various are the characters which water can assume, that there is scarcely an idea in which it may not concur, or an impression which it cann...

Introducing two landscape components from Turkey: Irim and Kesik

Abstract: A very particular set of landscape components, namely the irim and the kesik, found in the peri-urban rural area called Karabaglar, are considered. This area is in the contiguous land of the city of Mugla, in southwestern Turkey, and is administered by its municipality. It has a rural character, yet also includes summerhouses for the inhabitants of the city. Physical resemblance of the irim and the kesik to the hedgerow suggests similar functions, but a closer look reveals that they have a wider range of features and aspects. Functioning not only as a marker of agricultural land sub-divisions, they also play an important role in the hydrology of the area. While their specific traditional features can be used in designed landscapes, the intention here is, first, to introduce the irim, the kesik and the very special setting offered by Karabaglar, which are now under the pressure of urban encroachment. A comparison with the hedgerow is nevertheless useful in order to better understand related aspect...