Abstract
<p>This article presents a methodology and the results of the classification of the rural landscapes physiognomies conducted on the study area located in the municipality of Cekcyn, Poland. The study aimed to develop a landscape identification method that would combine natural, cultural, and visual criteria with which to implement the provisions of the European Landscape Convention. The realization of the European Landscape Convention in Poland is incomplete due to the lack of practical application of landscape assessment in land management and spatial planning at the commune level. The research was intended at helping to fill this void. The study develops a method using which it will be possible to protect the diversity and beauty of Europe’s rural landscapes more effectively. The goal has so far been of little scientific interest in Poland. The physiognomy of the studied area was analyzed with the use of commonly available spatial data and by means of field studies. Physical-geographical units and cultural characteristics have been designated based on spatial databases. Landscape patterns were identified by analyzing visual fields with the use of both GIS applications and field studies. This practice made it possible to determine physiognomic units of the landscape which are internally coherent and relatively homogeneous in terms of physical-geographical, cultural, and visual features. Identifying the landscape physiognomy within the designated landscape physiognomic units serves to harmonize spatial alterations in the area of rural communes in processes of land management and planning.</p>
Highlights
The European Landscape Convention shifted the focus from landscape protection to landscape man‐ agement of identified areas
The present article aimed to develop and test a methodology for visual landscape assessment in line with the holistic approach proposed in the ELC to be directly applied in spatial planning of rural municipalities in Poland
The study refers to the concept of landscape as physiog‐ nomy of an area, popularized in Poland (Bogdanowski, 1999; Bogdanowski et al, 1981, p. 8; Chmielewski et al, 2017, 2019), and merges map‐based and aesthetic meth‐ ods used by Polish researchers separately within the dis‐ ciplines of physical geography (e.g., Chmielewski et al, 2014; Sowińska & Chmielewski, 2008), as well as within architecture and urban planning (e.g., Forczek‐Brataniec, 2018; Myczkowski et al, 1998)
Summary
The European Landscape Convention (hereafter referred to as ELC, the international convention signed by the par‐ ties in Florence, 2000, ratified in Poland in 2005) shifted the focus from landscape protection to landscape man‐ agement of identified areas. Use and its historical variability are examined within this layer of analysis; A layer of visual characteristics, which defines the accessibility of the views, aspects of landscape exposure, and the spatial composition of the area (Bogdanowski, 1976; Böhm, 2016). Within this layer of analysis, it becomes possible to explain how the material attributes of the landscape, both natu‐ ral and cultural, become apparent to the observer The comparison of physical, geographical, and cultural characteristics, along with the perceived exposure and spatial composition, leads to the determination of some‐ what internally homogeneous areas called “landscape physiognomic units” (LPUs)
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