A method to evaluate the algorithmic complexity of landscapes is developed here, based on the notion of Kolmogorov complexity (or K-complexity). The K-complexity of a landscape is calculated from a string x of symbols representing the landscape's
features (e.g. land use), whereby each symbol belongs to an alphabet L, and can be defined as the size of the shortest string y that fully describes x. K-complexity presents several useful aspects as a measure of landscape complexity: a) it is a direct
measure of complexity and not a surrogate measure, well supported by the literature of Informatics; b) it is easy to apply to landscapes of ‘small' size’ c) it can be used to compare the complexity of two or more landscapes; d) it allows calculations
of a landscape's changes in complexity with time; e) it can be a descriptor not only of the landscape's structural complexity, but also of its functional complexity; and f) it makes possible to distinguish two landscapes with the same diversity but with different
Two theories exist relating to preferences for landscapes : 1)preferences are innate ; 2)preferences are determined by culture. The AA. evaluate relationships among preferences for landscapes and childhood landscapes. Results are based
on a questionnaire sent out to 2000 people in Sweden, and on a qualitative study comprising 19 people. In conclusion, people prefer landscapes experienced during childhood, but seem to attach more easily to qualities that are suggested to have an innate significance.
Landscape pattern indicators or metrics provide simple measures of landscape structure that can be easily calculated with readily available data and software. The A. provides here a review of landscape measures that may better link landscape pattern
and function, ranging from approaches that extend existing metrics by incorporating a more functional component (e.g. core area measures, least cost distances) to those rooted in graph, network, and electrical circuit theory. There is a need for landscape
metrics because they are seen by many land managers and stakeholders as simple, intuitive tools for assessing and monitoring changes in landscape pattern and, by extension, the effects on underlying ecological processes. Future needs include : (1
) the development of more user-friendly landscape analysis software that can simplify graph-based analyses and visualization; and (2) studies that clarify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, including the potential limitations and biases in graph
Researching militarized landscapes : a literature review on war and the militarization of the environment
Conflict ; Inter-disciplinary approach ; Landscape ; Militarization ; Research ; War ; environment ; landscape ; militarization ; military environmentalism
The article critically assesses literature on militarized landscapes. It argues that alongside increasing public and media attention, militarized landscapes are a burgeoning area of inquiry in a variety of disciplines, including geography, history
, earth sciences and archaeology. It is structured around the areas of preparing for war, the battlefield, and the homefront. The challenge is to explore how war and landscapes reciprocally reproduce each other across time and space.
Social landscape metrics : measures for understanding place values from public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS)
Geographical information system ; Landscape ; Landscape ecology ; Landscape structure ; Metrics ; PPGIS ; Participation ; Perception ; Social landscape ; Social metrics ; landscape perception ; place values ; public participation
The AA. introduce the concept of social landscape metrics that quantify human perceptions of place resulting from the use of PPGIS. They present and explain a set of social landscape metrics that measure the composition and configuration of human
perceptions of landscapes from multiple study areas using empirical data from PPGIS studies. They distinguish between two classes, present methods to develop them, and describe some of their applications to land use planning and management.
Once its mineral working operations cease, a quarry begins functioning in harmony with the landscape as a former mineral working site. That is when the biotic and abiotic elements arrive at a state of equilibrium. The scenic function of a quarry
should be interpreted as a set of elements, composed of escarpments, cliffs, spoil heaps, the state of exploitation. The paper discusses the impact of quarries on the landscape and their potential value for geotourism.
Studies of landscape aesthetics indicate that farmers have a unique perspective (seeing beauty) in the same landscapes that other publics find monotonous and boring. The paper uses Bourdieu’s theory of capital to explore why farmers hold
this perspective. Interpretations farmers place on tidy features such as straight lines and evenly coloured fields are explored through a cross-cultural study between Germany and Scotland. Results show how farmers read agricultural landscapes for signs of skilled
Landscape Degradation Modelling: An Environmental Impact Assessment for Rural Landscape Prioritisation
EIA ; Environment ; Environmental degradation ; Environmental management ; Haizuka Dam ; Impact study ; Japan ; Landscape ; Landscape Degradation Model ; Methodology ; Modelling ; landscape compartments ; rural landscape
Landscape Degradation Assessment (LDA) of rural areas can play a crucial role in landscape planning. Japan lacks quantitative and cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) methodologies, especially in the area of LDA. Although a decision
for rural landscape planning, increase the scale of the assessment of project size to a more strategic local level, and enhance effective communication with decision-makers, a new EIA procedure is proposed with the development of a Landscape Degradation
Model (LDM) for rural areas in Japan. The procedure is based on the equation, LD=Σ kI/V, where LD represents the degradation coefficient of the landscape compartments, Σ kI represents the cumulative impact of human activities, and V quantifies
the vulnerability of a habitat. The value of LD provides a means for supporting decisions aimed at the quantitative prioritisation of working units and developing respective conservation plans. This methodology is a holistic approach to rural landscape reclamation
An Inventory Approach to the Assessment of Main Traditional Landscapes in Sicily (Central Mediterranean Basin)
Agricultural landscape ; Cultural landscape ; Farming system ; Italy ; Mediterranean area ; Plots of land ; Rural landscape ; Sicilia ; Traditional agriculture ; agro-forestry systems ; cultural landscape ; ecological-cultural diversity ; land use
change ; landscape character
EU policy for the conservation of cultural landscapes is of particular importance for a region such as Sicily (Italy) which is the site of many Mediterranean traditional cultural landscapes as well as new landscapes created by contemporary
agriculture. Such variety of landscape, however, is not supported or confirmed by specialised inventories that identify and classify the typical Main Traditional Landscape (MTL). On the basis of these considerations, the objective of the present paper
to identify Sicilian MTLs was modified by experiences developed on the mainland, with entries such as: bocage/semi-bocage, coltura promiscua, Mediterranean open field, mountain landscape, huerta and terrace landscape. Using different spatialised data layers
Landscape ; Landscape analysis ; Landscape change ; Landscape dynamics ; Landscape ecology ; Madrid ; Spain ; change index ; ecological change ; land use ; landscape mosaics
Landscape is organised in mosaics: sets of patches with a defined pattern of boundaries through which patches interact. Changes in patches cause changes in mosaics. Landscape change has two components: a quantitative one, referring to the areas
in which changes happen, and a qualitative one, referring to the degree of similarity among the mosaics substituting each other. The quantitative component informs on the magnitude of the change: the total area in which landscape mosaics have changed
; the qualitative one informs on the significance thereof: the ecological differences between the mosaics substituting each other. This paper presents an index for quantifying landscape change and for discriminating between magnitude and significance therein
. It was tested by study of changes in the landscape mosaics in Madrid, Spain. Results show that the index developed is useful for this purpose. This enables objective comparison of different landscape changes presenting different combinations of magnitude
This paper explores farming landscapes in Orkney, Scotland, focusing particularly on local responses to the rise of the environmental movement and agri-environmental schemes. It argues that where institutional designations of nature tended to invoke
a generalised temporal stasis, local and regional understandings of landscape emphasise specific histories, transience, and movement. Seeking these regional senses of landscape through an ethnographic approach, the paper presents some personal histories
of responses to nature conservation that have a context in local cultural understandings of landscape. The continuing importance of the udal land tenure heritage in Orkney in relation to this is described. Finally, the ways that farmers and recreational walkers
move around farm land are presented as further evidence for the importance of localised concepts of landscape in contrast to institutional designations of nature, while recognising that environmentalists themselves have come to take on aspects
of such concepts. Agri-environment schemes seeking to be relevant in particular landscapes should propose the kind of active, participative management that the farmers engage in with the rest of their land.
Are There Counter-Landscapes? On Milk Trestles and Invisible Power Lines
Estonia ; Ideology ; Landscape polities ; Peasantry ; Power ; Resistance to change ; Rural landscape ; Social geography ; Social practice ; Soviet collective farming ; contested landscapes ; ethnographic field work
The paper takes its starting point from the duality in the Estonian rural landscape shaped by social practices. On the one hand, the changes and management of landscapes follow a political decision. At the same time, the old patterns of semi-legal
—their functions, meanings and the values behind this symbol. The article is based on ethnographic field work carried out between the years of 2001 and 2002 and traces the phenomenon of how living landscape transforms into deserted landscape; in other words, how
story becomes history. The paper shows how the milk trestle landscape functioned as a prolongation of the former landscape behind the ideological layers of the Soviet landscapes.
2012
[b1] Centre for Landscape and Culture, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University
The paper offers an interpretation of Landscape Urbanism. It attempts to decode the prolix language in which L U is presented and to identify a number of ‘tenets’ which most of its adherents would hold. The second part of the paper questions some
of these tenets, asking whether L U’s attack on the urban–rural binary is well conceived and whether it is a helpful contribution to the problems raised by worldwide urbanisation. It concludes that there are a number of inconsistencies and lacunae which landscape
Post-industrial landscape – return to rural affairs ?
Cartographic display ; Cultural landscape ; Geographical information system ; Industrialization ; Land use ; Landscape ; Post-industrialization ; Scenario ; Typology
The post-industrial landscape is the legacy of the period of industrialization. Industry has changed the landscape through active relief shapes, production, transport and residential facilities through changes in water regime, air quality and other
impacts of industrial activities. This paper aims to demonstrate the methods of identification, classification and post-industrial landscape typology on a topical level. A specifically constructed land use map, a regular square grid and GIS technology were
landscape type. The most possibly varied areas are ideal for modelling scenarios of future development. – (BJ)
Landscapes and Narratives : Compositions and the Walking Body
Routing Landscape : Ethnographic Studies of Movement and Journey
Human body ; Landscape ; Social geography
This paper explores how landscapes are narrated through the activity of walking. It follows the footsteps of walkers as they traverse different kinds of terrains in different circumstances and aims to examine how the walking body and the landscape
as entwined entities shape each other. The focus is on narrative compositions and how they appear in the landscape through the course of walking. The paper starts by exploring two different types of compositions and then analyses how walking narratives
are composed through the connections and disconnections of the walking body with the surroundings, creating a narrative landscape of absences and presences.
The paper deals with vertical landscape structure of the southern part of Vis Island, Croatia. Its aim is the determination of geocomplex types with a certain degree of stability and resistance to external influences. With the study of spatial
Landscape pattern metrics : an empirical study from 2-D to 3-D
Cartographic display ; China ; Comparative study ; Digital elevation model ; Guangdong ; Landscape ; Landscape ecology ; Model ; Mountain
Fourteen small watersheds in a mountainous area of the Northern Guangdong Province in China were selected as sample landscape units. Two metrics at the patch level, five metrics at the class level, and four metrics at the landscape level were chosen
as representative metrics. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the 2-D and 3-D landscape pattern metrics at the patch level, landscape level, and class level. The AA. interpret the differences as errors in the 2-D metrics
. The errors depend on the metric and the landscape type, and the errors for different landscape types were inconsistent. Whether these errors affect further interpretation of the role of pattern in landscape ecology remains uncertain.
The knowledge of the effectiveness of local landscape planning in Germany is in the main limited to particular cases and derives mostly from qualitative single case studies. This applies especially to the implementation of measures defined
by landscape plans. To fill that gap, the paper focuses on the implementation of those measures. Furthermore, it discusses the factors and framework conditions which are crucial for this implementation. The potential factors and conditions of influence were
be stated that landscape planning has positively influenced the development of nature and landscape in the investigated municipalities. A considerable number of measures had been implemented, although landscape planning as a supply-side instrument proposes
generally a very large number of measures. Factors with a positive effect on the implementation of landscape planning measures are pointed out.
Changes in the rural landscape of the Polish Sudety Mountains in the post-war period
Cultural landscape ; Land use ; Mountain ; Nature conservation ; Poland ; Rural community ; Rural landscape ; Sudety
In the post-war period, the area of the Sudety Mountains has been subject to two main trends regarding the transformation of the landscape in rural areas. In a first phase, it was possible to observe an abrupt depopulation process
areas, and the result has been disruption of the spatial order. Various actions are today underway with a view to the typical cultural landscape being reinstated and protected, with the rural aspect of the mountain landscape being promoted
Engineering the Rural Idyll: Road Construction and the Peri-urban Landscape in Belgium, 1925–1940
Belgium ; Landscape ; Periurban development ; Project ; Road ; Road network ; Twentieth Century ; Urban planning ; history ; interbellum ; landscape ; technology ; urbanism
As in many other Western countries, the road network in Belgium was subject to an extensive modernisation project during the interbellum period. This paper analyses how this project affected the relationship between the road and landscape
. In the absence of a comprehensive landscape project for road construction from the government, other parties played an important role in defining the road's relation to the landscape. Through their publications, images and discourses, an idealised image
of landscape—a rural idyll—became interwoven with the narrative of the modern road. We will first position this Belgian project vis-à-vis other road projects abroad, and describe why landscape was a non-issue for the Belgian government and its engineers
. Subsequently, we will examine how other parties—the road association, the construction industry, urban planners and architects—appropriated fragments of landscape to frame or support their own projects.