PECSRL 2018: European landscapes for quality of life, 3-9 September 2018, Clermont-Ferrand and Mende, France

Abstract

This article presents a review of the 28th session of the biannual conference of the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape which was organized in cooperation with the COST action TU1401 “Renewable energy and landscape quality”, building the final conference of the later, after a previous cooperation at the 27th session. The conference was held in Clermont-Ferrand and Mende, around the Chaîne des Puys UNESCO landscape. The landscape, although in France, is one of the remote landscapes in Europe, and was explored by means of the study tours which built the transfer between the first part of the conference in Clermont-Ferrand and the second one in Mende. These tours were various, but emphasized a dimension already present in the session, the agricultural landscape as rural landscape. The agricultural landscape stays also in connection with the geo-products of the UNESCO geopark, and contributes to the quality of life. As management committee substitute in the COST action, a networking scheme funded at European level, the author attended the sessions related to the topic of the action and presented a contribution highlighting the romantic of historic renewable energy landscapes. Their perception contributes to the quality of life as well. Other participants from Romania participated to a dedicated session on Eastern Europe.