Mediterranean experience and practice in Landscape Character Assessment

Abstract

Increasingly there is a move from site based to landscape based conservation delivery. This is a result of a paradigm shift in ecology associated with the rapid changes of the 20th century and growing concern about their impact on landscape quality. Relevant policy measures at the European level soon followed these changes calling for the management of all landscapes. Landscape character is a distinct, recognisable and consistent pattern of elements in the landscape that makes a landscape different to another. Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) is a technique used to classify, describe and understand the evolution and physical and cultural characteristics of a landscape. LCA uses a range of data sources to identify and describe areas of common character and can operate at a range of scales i. e. continental, national and regional. The emerging landscape classifications are based on the use of GIS and statistics in order to map landscapes, evaluate their character and apply the framework for decision making and planning. The aim of this paper is to review the use of LCA in the Mediterranean context. The paper provides an overview of LCA, describes the existing landscape classifications in the Mediterranean and evaluates the applicability of the method for landscape identification, pressure identification, monitoring change and nature conservation. The review demonstrates that landscape mapping and assessment is still limited in the Mediterranean. Where undertaken the existing typologies have not been produced in a consistent way across the Basin, with little emphasis given on the cultural imprints, while there are few examples that demonstrate the ecological validity of such a framework. This partly reflects the fact that landscapes are still low in the political agenda as demonstrated by the very small number of European countries in the Mediterranean that have ratified the European Landscape Convention.