Abstract
Rapid urban development increases the consumption of materials, energy, and water, resulting in an overproduction of waste and emissions. These cause many environmental threats, such as ozone layer depletion and rain acidification, leading to climate change. Therefore, the question arises on how to improve the effectiveness of tools that strengthen environmental protection. This discursive article presents an approach stressing the role of landscape in environmental protection in Poland. It indicates that landscape protection is an ecological, not just an aesthetic activity, as it is often considered in Poland. The landscape reflects all changes occurring in individual elements of the environment resulting from urban development. Through landscape transformations, one can track the growth and accumulation of adverse effects in the chain of environmental changes. Knowledge regarding the dynamics and scope of these transformations can improve ecological design and technologies. Therefore, the landscape condition should be treated as an indicator of sustainable development. If so, one could hypothesise that effective landscape protection contributes to minimising environmental and climate changes. The relationships between the landscape and environmental/climate threats discussed in this article prompt combining some tools related to these threats, which may ensure both effective landscape protection and sustainable development, leading to reduced climate change. The possibilities and benefits of integrating these tools are presented here as well. General considerations are supplemented with references to the situation in Poland to support the need for implementing a more policy-oriented and interdisciplinary approach to landscape protection.
Highlights
The sustainable design of urban structures is related to many factors
The benefits briefly outlined indicate that SEA, environmen‐ tal impact assessment (EIA), landscape and visual impact assessment (LVIA), life cycle assess‐ ment (LCA), and material flow analysis (MFA) should be used together to assess environmental impacts in terms of various stages of the lifecycle, spatial scope, magni‐ tude, and significance
The potential of these combined tools indicates that in‐depth research should be undertaken to strengthen bridging ideas and improve the effectiveness in environmental, landscape and climate protection, which is a crucial issue, especially in Poland
Summary
The sustainable design of urban structures is related to many factors. Among them, the energy aspect (zero‐ energy buildings, energy efficiency), strongly associ‐ ated with preventing the depletion of natural resources and the greenhouse effect, is currently one of the most important issues. Urban Planning, 2021, Volume 6, Issue 3, Pages 295–305 gic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmen‐ tal impact assessment (EIA), including landscape and visual impact assessment (LVIA), together forming an environmental assessment (EA) system; life cycle assess‐ ment (LCA); material flow analysis (MFA); and many more They all strive to support the design and decision‐ making process in terms of reducing adverse environ‐ mental effects. If we consider saving energy, minimising the use of resources, and limiting the amount of waste and support‐ ing environmental protection crucial to pro‐ecological planning, it is legitimate to state that landscape protection should be included in it It does not bring measurable and direct effects, it may be con‐ sidered a sustainable development indicator. In the final sec‐ tion (Conclusions), the arguments favouring a landscape approach in planning for the environment and reducing climate change are summarised
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