The spatial nature of both landscape planning and landscape ecology indicates a common bond. However, the way of regarding the landscape (the formal object) of both disciplines differs. The nature of landscape planning is to intervene purposively in the landscape. Planners are agents of change. To bring about transformation based on imaginations, planning is considered fundamentally as an art, and is inherently normative and value laden. In contrast, the formal object of landscape ecology is to understand and describe the landscape, its structure, function and changes. Ecologists and geographers are scientists using the landscape to generate and test hypotheses in the process of theorising. In identifying what distinguishes planning and design from landscape ecology and other spatial sciences, planning goes beyond the mere explanation of spatial phenomena. It has primarily to do with synthesis, rather than analysis. In this sense, planners wish to know what motivates the objects of their planning, and what forces being about changes. Based on this knowledge, planners propose interventions. Even when the focus of a public art brief is on 'landscape-making' there is seldom a difference made between the landscape that already exists, the historical landscape (whether fact or folklore) and the landscape-ness that is imposed. This indiscriminate interchange can cause confusion and can be detrimental to understanding the distinct nature of both site-specific and landscape-specific work. Landscape brings culture into ecology.
Landscape management is the interdisciplinary manipulation of spatial variation in ecosystems at a variety of scales. It requires an understanding of the biophysical and cultural factors which produce scenic heterogeneity. This understanding is the basis of landscape ecology.
Landscape ecology can be defined by several of its core themes:
The most important theme is that culture changes landscapes and culture
is embodied by landscapes. Both aspects of this dynamic relationship are
encompassed by landscape ecology, but neither side of the equation has been
examined sufficiently to produce cultural theory.
The
following broad principles have been proposed to guide landscape management, but
none of them have been researched sufficiently to produce cultural principles
(Joan Iverson Nassauer
Landscape Ecology vol. 10 no.
4 pp
229-237 (1995).
1.
Human landscape perception, cognition, and values directly
affect the landscape and are affected by the
landscape.
2.
Cultural conventions powerfully influence landscape pattern in both inhabited and
apparently natural landscapes.
3.
Cultural concepts and values attached to nature are different from
scientific concepts of
ecological function.
4.
The appearance of landscapes communicates cultural values.
This leaves us with a
set of practical
options for future landscape management:
To better understand the process forming the present landscape, so we
can model
the future changes and what results can be expected from specific
actions.
To involve the people, the civic society, into the process, not just at
a late stage, but
from the beginning, including their ideas and concepts into the process
of managing
the landscape and make them wardens of the
landscape.
To better evaluate the true value of the diversity of landscapes,
bio-diversity as well
as cultural diversity, to make it easier to argue for an intelligent and
sustainable
management
And to allow for individual strategies for individual landscapes. This
is
difficult to achieve in a time of pressing need for standardisation and
easy to apply
methods in a globalising world and enlarging European Union, but
diversity needs
divers methods or it will inevitably change to
uniformity.
Managing natural beauty
The British Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are among the most attractive and fascinating landscapes of England and Wales. Their beauty is the result of many centuries of human influence on the countryside and the daily interaction of people with nature. The history of these outstanding landscapes is therefore fundamental to their present-day appearance and to the importance which society accords them. If these essential qualities are to be retained in the future, as the countryside continues to evolve, it is vital that the heritage of AONBs is understood and valued by those charged with their care, management, and conservation.
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