The shared landscape: what does aesthetics have to do with ecology?

This collaborative essay grows out of a debate about the relationship between aesthetics and ecology and the possibility of an “ecological aesthetic” that affects landscape planning, design, and management. We describe our common understandings and unresolved questions about this relationship, including the importance of aesthetics in understanding and affecting landscape change and the ways in which aesthetics and ecology may have either complementary or contradictory implications for a landscape. To help understand these issues, we first outline a conceptual model of the aesthetics–ecology relationship. We posit that: 1. While human and environmental phenomena occur at widely varying scales, humans engage with environmental phenomena at a particular scale: that of human experience of our landscape surroundings. That is the human “perceptible realm.” 2. Interactions within this realm give rise to aesthetic experiences, which can lead to changes affecting humans and the landscape, and thus ecosystems. 3. Context affects aesthetic experience of landscapes. Context includes both effects of different landscape types (wild, agricultural, cultural, and metropolitan landscapes) and effects of different personal–social situational activities or concerns. We argue that some contexts elicit aesthetic experiences that have traditionally been called “scenic beauty,” while other contexts elicit different aesthetic experiences, such as perceived care, attachment, and identity. Last, we discuss how interventions through landscape planning, design, and management; or through enhanced knowledge might establish desirable relationships between aesthetics and ecology, and we examine the controversial characteristics of such ecological aesthetics. While these interventions may help sustain beneficial landscape patterns and practices, they are inherently normative, and we consider their ethical implications.     

Anthropogenic landscape changes in Central Europe and the role of bioindication

Anthropogenic landscape changes in Central Europe occurred in several stages. Characteristic features include an acceleration in the sequence of changes, a continual increase in the scope and complexity of ecologic problems, growing destabilization of the natural household and a rising proportion of irreversible changes.Various bioindication techniques are excellently suited for detecting and evaluating landscape changes, as reflected in a large number of case studies. Of these, a number are classified by the authors according to the following criteria: landscape features/components, structure of the test area, and time framework for the studies.Thorough changes must be brought about in man's relation with nature to remedy the aggrevated environmental situation, with these priorities: making human thinking and action compatible with the environment, transforming material production along ecological lines, and applying ecological principles to landscape management, for example in the form of landscape planning.     

Incorporating biological information in local land-use decision making: designing a system for conservation planning

Human settlement is a formidable agent of change affecting fundamental ecological processes. Decisions governing these land-use changes occur almost exclusively at the local level and, as a result, they are made at many different locations and times. Consequently, it is difficult for ecologists to provide needed scientific support for these choices. We built an information system designed to support conservation decisions at local scales by offering data over the Internet. We collaborated with local stakeholders (e.g., developers, planners, politicians, land owners, environmental activists) to design the system. This collaboration produced several generalizations about effective design of information systems to support conservation. The most important of these is the idea that ecological data and analysis must be understood by those who will be affected by the decisions. Also, planning for conservation is a process that uses scientific data, but that ultimately depends on the expression of human values. A major challenge landscape ecologists face is to extend general landscape principles to provide specific scientific information needed for local land-use planning.     

Resilience, experimentation, and scale mismatches in social-ecological landscapes

Growing a resilient landscape depends heavily on finding an appropriate match between the scales of demands on ecosystems by human societies and the scales at which ecosystems are capable of meeting these demands. While the dynamics of environmental change and ecosystem service provision form the basis of many landscape ecology studies, enhancing landscape resilience is, in many ways, a problem of establishing relevant institutions that act at appropriate scales to modify and moderate demand for ecosystem services and the resulting exploitation of ecosystems. It is also of central importance for landscape sustainability that institutions are flexible enough to adapt to changes in the external environment. The model provided by natural ecosystems suggests that it is only by encouraging and testing a diversity of approaches that we will be able to build landscapes that are resilient to future change. We advocate an approach to landscape planning that involves growing learning institutions on the one hand, and on the other, developing solutions to current problems through deliberate experimentation coupled with social learning processes.     

Can a problem-solving approach strengthen landscape ecology’s contribution to sustainable landscape planning?

The need to avert unacceptable and irreversible environmental change is the most urgent challenge facing society. Landscape ecology has the capacity to help address these challenges by providing spatially-explicit solutions to landscape sustainability problems. However, despite a large body of research, the real impact of landscape ecology on sustainable landscape management and planning is still limited. In this paper, we first outline a typology of landscape sustainability problems which serves to guide landscape ecologists in the problem-solving process. We then outline a formal problem-solving approach, whereby landscape ecologists can better bring about disciplinary integration, a consideration of multiple landscape functions over long time scales, and a focus on decision making. This framework explicitly considers multiple ecological objectives and socio-economic constraints, the spatial allocation of scarce resources to address these objectives, and the timing of the implementation of management actions. It aims to make explicit the problem-solving objectives, management options and the system understanding required to make sustainable landscape planning decisions. We propose that by adopting a more problem-solving approach, landscape ecologists can make a significant contribution towards realising sustainable future landscapes.     

园林绿化在城镇扩容中的发展与提高

发展与提高园林绿化建设,发挥其景观功能与生态性,保护与改善城市生态环境,防止城市扩容对环境的不利影响,有效改善日益严重的城市环境污染问题是现代城市建设的一个重要内容.当今,人们对人居环境提出更高的要求.在城镇扩容中,其园林规划要更加人性化、标准化,景观工程更加艺术化.     

The general ecological model of the Slovak Socialist Republic — Methodology and contents

Development of the general ecological model (EM) of the CSSR has been included in the state program for environmental policy - the Ecoprogramme of the CSSR — at a scale of 1:1 000 000 for the entire Czechoslovak territory and at a scale of 1:500 000 for the Czech Socialist Republic (CSR) and the Slovak Socialist Republic (SSR). The objective of the first EM stage was to make a survey of spatial differentiation of the major ecological problems of the country. The EM consists of four parts, three analytical and one synthetic. These parts are:

1. The ecological state (value) of the current spatial structure of the landscape.
2. Ecological stress factors in the landscape.
3. Protection of nature and natural resources. From the spatial synthesis of these three groups (from their spatial encounters), the following synthetic group of conditions was obtained:
4. Regional ecological problems, a system of ecologically stable areas, environmental stress factors and factors endangering the ecological stability of the landscape, the natural resources and the human environment.

     

城市河道景观生态设计初探

随着经济的快速发展,城市现代化的不断加快,人们对环境的要求也越来越高,对城市中的河道建设也相应的提出新的要求和新的内容;如今生态建设是社会经济发展不可或缺的重要因素,在现代城市河道景观建设突出景色的同时,维持河流的原生态也显得尤为重要。文章在阐述生态河道的基础上,分析当前河道建设存在的生态问题,通过景观规划原理和景观生态学理论,对生态河道的景观设计做一定的总结和进一步探讨。     

生态设计在城市景观设计中的应用

概述生态设计理念发展历程,讨论我国景观设计中的生态问题与解决方法,以及当代景观设计的生态设计原则、常用手法。     

Exploring the relevance of a landscape ecological paradigm for sustainable landscapes and livelihoods: A case-application from the Northern Territory Australia

Global change is exacerbating the need for more effective mechanisms and approaches for working towards economic, social/cultural and environmental sustainability. It is now well recognised that science for sustainability will require integrated problem-focussed research that is by nature trans-disciplinary. Resolutions to both global and regional scale issues must involve participation of a diverse number of stakeholders. One region that would benefit greatly from such an integrated approach is the Northern Territory of Australia. This area is home to some of the most pristine savanna landscapes in the world and it is also occupied by one of the oldest living human cultures which are still in existence today. However, in recent years there has been increasing pressure to develop this region. The Northern Territory is also facing problems associated with having a growing Aboriginal population with deepening health and social problems. So as well as needing to facilitate adaptation in response to global change and development for economic prosperity of the region, there is an obligation to alter management practices to reduce social disadvantage. In light of this, it will be important that future landscapes are multifunctional and designed to ensure the preservation of biological and cultural diversity, as well as having provision for the livelihoods of the people that live within them. This article recommends the adoption of a landscape ecological approach for strategic development and sustainable planning, which captures and incorporates the values and identities of the different stakeholders, as well as engaging them in a continuous, adaptive process of planning and management, and in doing so discusses the importance of human ecological holism as part of the conceptual framework for landscape ecology.     

Valuing ecosystem services in community-based landscape planning: introducing a wellbeing-based approach

The challenge of incorporating the concept of ecosystem services in landscape planning has been widely acknowledged, yet values of ecosystem services are not well considered in current landscape planning and environmental governance. This is particularly the case when local stakeholders are strongly involved in decision making about adapting the landscape to future demands and challenges. Engagement of stakeholders introduces a variety of interests and motives that result in diverging value interpretations. Moreover, participative planning approaches are based on learning processes, implying that the perceptions of value evolve during the planning process. Current valuation approaches are not able to support such process. Therefore we argue that there is a need for a novel view on the mechanism of integrating valuation in the different stages of community-based landscape planning, as well as for tools based on this mechanism. By revisiting the original conception of ecosystem services and redefining the value of an ecosystem service as its comparative importance to human wellbeing, we develop a conceptual framework for incorporating ecosystem service valuation that captures the full spectrum of value and value changes. We acknowledge that in the social interactions during the planning process values are redefined, negotiated and reframed in the context of the local landscape. Therefore, we propose a valuation mechanism that evolves through the phases of the cyclic planning process. We illustrate the use of this mechanism by proposing a tool that supports stakeholder groups in building a value-based vision on landscape adaptation that contributes to all wellbeing dimensions.     

哈尔滨市曙光滨水公园的生态敏感性分析

在进行区域景观规划与设计时,首先应对规划区域进行生态敏感性分析。因高敏感区的环境承载能力低,对人类活动的干扰敏感性强,因此要根据不同的敏感性进行合理规划。生态敏感性分析作为理论成熟、应用广泛的技术方法,能够为城市规划提供科学有效的依据。该研究的公园地形起伏较大,全园坡向多样化,且马家沟河由北向南穿越项目场地,这些都成为公园景观规划与设计的限制性因素。采用GIS技术、层次分析法(AHP)和加权叠加法等方法,确定全园敏感因子及其权重。结果表明:高程、坡向、水域是曙光滨水公园的3个生态敏感性单因子;公园的高程处于中度和低度敏感等级,坡向处于中度敏感和不敏感等级,水域处于低度敏感与不敏感等级之间;3个生态敏感性单因子按不同权重叠加后,曙光滨水公园的生态极敏感、高度敏感、中度敏感、低度敏感和不敏感区域面积分别占园区总面积的0.54%、11.33%、37.47%、29.06%、10.80%;滨水公园的综合性生态敏感性等级为中度敏感和低敏感,利于景观规划设计与建设开发。     

Aspects of landscape or nature quality

Landscape or nature quality has become a key concept in relation to nature policy and landscape planning. In the first part of the article it is argued, that these qualities should not be conceived as mere expressions of private or subjective preferences. Even though there may not be any `objective' or `scientific' method dealing with them, they are still values which can be shared, reflected on, and discussed in a reasonable way. The connoisseurs are introduced as experienced persons, who are particularly capable of identifying different kinds of qualities, bridge builders between cognition and evaluation. The second part of the article deals with four central sets of landscape or nature qualities: qualities related to species diversity, qualities related to the `atmospheres' and characters of places, pictorial qualities, and qualities related to narrativity. It is argued that experience of these and similar qualities are an important part of human flourishing, and that they should therefore all have a prominent place in landscape planning.Finn, Arler, M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy. Research Fellow, associated with the interdisciplinary research group `Boundaries in the Landscape', sponsored by the Danish Research Councils. Teaches environmental ethics at the Human Ecology course at Aalborg University, Denmark.     

生态园林在城市滨水景观设计中的应用研究

城市滨水景观具有特殊性,而园林设计是其最重要的组成部分。城市滨水景观设计,不能仅仅停留在美学角度的"风景如画"上,应该从更深、更广的层面去理解和把握,特别是要从景观生态的角度,从人与自然共生的角度去分析,其中的关键是要重视城市滨水景观园林巨大的生态功能和游憩功能。生态园林强调发挥生态、社会、美化等综合功能,注重生态效益,维护和改善城市生态环境质量,从"自然的"和以生态为中心着手,用环境保护的最新成果去指导城市滨水景观规划设计,达到可持续性发展的要求。     

Landscape services as a bridge between landscape ecology and sustainable development

Landscape ecology is in a position to become the scientific basis for sustainable landscape development. When spatial planning policy is decentralised, local actors need to collaborate to decide on the changes that have to be made in the landscape to better accommodate their perceptions of value. This paper addresses two prerequisites that landscape ecological science has to meet for it to be effective in producing appropriate knowledge for such bottom-up landscape-development processes—it must include a valuation component, and it must be suitable for use in collaborative decision-making on a local scale. We argue that landscape ecological research needs to focus more on these issues and propose the concept of landscape services as a unifying common ground where scientists from various disciplines are encouraged to cooperate in producing a common knowledge base that can be integrated into multifunctional, actor-led landscape development. We elaborate this concept into a knowledge framework, the structure–function–value chain, and expand the current pattern–process paradigm in landscape ecology with value in this way. Subsequently, we analyse how the framework could be applied and facilitate interdisciplinary research that is applicable in transdisciplinary landscape-development processes.     

A hierarchical framework for the analysis of scale

Landscapes are complex ecological systems that operate over broad spatiotemporal scales. Hierarchy theory conceptualizes such systems as composed of relatively isolated levels, each operating at a distinct time and space scale. This paper explores some basic properties of scaled systems with a view toward taking advantage of the scaled structure in predicting system dynamics. Three basic properties are explored:(1) hierarchical structuring, (2) disequilibrium, and (3) metastability. These three properties lead to three conclusions about complex ecological systems. First, predictions about landscape dynamics can often be based on constraints that directly result from scaled structure. Biotic potential and environmental limits form a constraint envelope, analogous to a niche hypervolume, within which the landscape system must operate. Second, within the constraint envelope, thermodynamic and other limiting factors may produce attractors toward which individual landscapes will tend to move. Third, because of changes in biotic potential and environmental conditions, both the constraint envelope and the local attractors change through time. Changes in the constraint structure may involve critical thresholds that result in radical changes in the state of the system. An attempt is made to define measurements to predict whether a specific landscape is approaching a critical threshold.Research supported in part by the Ecological Research Division Office of Health and Environmental Research, US Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC05-840R21400 to Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc., and in part by the Ecosystem Studies Program, National Science Foundation, under Interagency Agreement No. NSF BSR 8315185 to the Department of Energy. Publication No. 3381, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.Dr. Johnson's participation was supported in part by an appointment to the Postgraduate Research Training program under contract DE-AC05-76OR00033 between the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN 37831.     

生态文明视角下我国风景区规划设计缺失环节探讨

从生态文明视角出发,通过问卷调查的形式,对我国风景区规划设计缺失环节进行探讨,提出风景区规划设计中应增加环境教育这一关键环节,并从环境教育的景观资源分类、功能分区、自导式解说游步道、体验活动、环境解说系统设计及环境教育管理机制等方面提出具体规划措施,对保护风景区自然景观及人文景观资源,实现景区生态旅游可持续发展具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Integration in land research for Third World development planning: An applied aspect of landscape ecology

In the practical application of landscape ecology to development planning it is essential that there be interdisciplinary collaboration. Three ways of developing this collaboration are discussed. These are (1) use of environmental concepts which directs specialists to focus on landscape interrelationships; (2) geomorphic differentiation to provide a common framework for analysis and (3) a unified methodology based on mathematical modelling, hypothesis testing, and application of statistical theory. Broader implications to policy and administration are also examined.     

Addressing the interplay of poverty and the ecology of landscapes: a Grand Challenge Topic for landscape ecologists?

We argue for the landscape ecology community to adopt the study of poverty and the ecology of landscapes as a Grand Challenge Topic. We present five areas of possible research foci that we believe that landscape ecologists can join with other social and environmental scientists to increase scientific understanding of this pressing issue: (1) scale and poverty; (2) landscape structure and human well-being; (3) social and ecological processes linked to spatial patterns in landscapes; (4) conservation and poverty, and (5) applying the landscape ecologist’s toolkit. A brief set of recommendations for landscape ecologists is also presented. These include the need to utilize broad frameworks that integrate social and ecological variables, build capacity to do this kind of work through the development of strong collaborations of researchers in developed and developing countries, create databases in international locations where extreme poverty exists, and create a new generation of researchers capable of addressing this pressing social and environmental issue.     

中小城市园林绿化规划设计思考

城镇化进程的加快,推动着城市园林绿化规划的快速发展。针对中小城市园林绿化规划发展现状、发展中存在的主要问题,提出相应的解决办法,以加快生态城市建设,促进城市经济社会的可持续发展。