Abstract
One of the primary objectives of physical geography is to determine how natural phenomena produce specific territorial patterns. Therefore, physical geography offers substantial scientific input into territorial planning for sustainability. A key area where physical geography can contribute to land management is in the delimitation of landscape units. Such units are fundamental to formal socio-economic zoning and management in territorial planning. However, numerous methodologies—based on widely varying criteria—exist to delineate and map landscapes. We have selected five consolidated methodologies with current applications for mapping the landscape to analyse the different role of physical geography in each: (1) geomorphological landscape maps based on landforms; (2) geosystemic landscape maps; (3) Landscape Character Assessment; (4) landscape studies based on visual landscape units; (5) landscape image-pair test. We maintain that none of these methodologies are universally applicable, but that each contributes important insights into landscape analysis for land management within particular biogeophysical and social contexts. This work is intended to demonstrate that physical geography is ubiquitous in contemporary landscape studies intended to facilitate sustainable territorial planning, but that the role it plays varies substantially with the criteria prioritized.
Highlights
Sustainability is primarily concerned with environmental change, but is increasingly recognised as an inherently political concept, both in its formulation and implications [1]
We focus here on the aspects of physical geography concerned with landscape mapping, and examine their roles in the delineation of landscape units for territorial planning
The methodological diversity in landscape cartography must be considered in the context of the wide diversity of landscapes on the planet, as well as the processes that form them [132]
Summary
Sustainability is primarily concerned with environmental change, but is increasingly recognised as an inherently political concept, both in its formulation and implications [1]. In the sense of sustainable human-development, it is based on three overlapping concerns (see Figure 1): (1) environmental change and its anthropogenic drivers and adaptation thereto; (2) poverty and other forms of economic inequality [2,3]; and (3) injustice, power disparities, and the gap between really existing democracy and its popular definition, with respect to management of and access to material resources [4,5] This conception of sustainability as an integrating concept, in turn, has drawn attention to the need to address the ontological and epistemological disciplinary gaps between the social and natural sciences to adequately understand the social production and consumption of scientific knowledge and the complex relationships between humans, social systems, and their biogeophysical reality [1,6]. Tlihteirsatiunrteegsrhaoteudldapbpe ruoancdherisntoogdeoagsraapnhyimaplsoortapnrot vcioduenstearnpoiimntpotortaontht ecrouscnhtoeorwlseoigfhtthotou,ghotn tthhaet oadnveohcaantedf,udrtehteerrminignitshteicdiudaeloislotigcicspallitpobseittwioenesn tshcaietnpcuerapnodrtpthoilroesdoupchey,coanmdphleuxmsaonciitayl asynsdtenmatsutroe a[1h4]a.nTdhfiuslinotfeegsrsaetnedtiaalpepnrvoaircohnimn egnetoaglrfaapchtoyrsal(seo.gp.r,oDviiadmesoanndi,m19p9o9r)ta[n1t5]coournbtieorlwogeiigcahlt dtoe,toernmthineaonntes ohfanhdu,mdeatner“mniantiustriec”id(ee.ogl.o,gWicaillspoons,it2io0n02s)th[a1t6]p,uarnpdortotno trhedeuoctehceormhpalnedx,sovcairailosuysstfeomrms tsooafhraanddicfuall coofnesstsreuncttiiaolneisnmv-iraos-npmheilnotsaolpfhaicctaolr-scr(ieti.qgu.,eDthiaamt doenndy, t1h9e99e)xi[s1t5e]ncoer obfioalnogobicjaelctdiveeterremaliintyanatnsdotfhheruemfoarne a“nnyatfuorrem” o(fen.go.n, -hWumilsaonnn, at2u0r0e2a)pa[r1t6f]r,omanadsocoianl cothnecepotthoferit [1h7a]n, da,ndvsaorciioaul smofnoirsmmsthoaft derascdriicbael ncoonns-thruumctaionnnisamtu-raes-apshpilroosdoupcheidcabl-ycrsioticqieutey [t1h8a]t. deny the existence of an objective reality and thereOfourre aapnpyrofoarcmh tooftnhoenin-hteugmraatnionnaotuf rheuampaanrtafnrodmphayssoiccaial lgceoongcreappthoyfisitth[1e7r]e,foanredcsooncsiiasltemnot nwisitmh pthoastitdioenscsrtihbaetnmonan-hduamteatnhenaintutergeraastiponroodfutcheednbaytusroaclieatnyd[1so8c].ial sciences, with regards to sociaOl aunrdapecporoloagcihcatlostuhsetaininteagbrialittiyon[1o4f,1h9u,2m0]a.nInantedrmphsyosficmalogreeopgrraagpmhyatiisc tchoenrceefornres cwointhsistteernrittowriitahl mpoasnitaigoenms tehnattamndanpdlaantenitnhge sintutedgierastfioornsoufstthaiennabatiluitrya,ltahnisdpsoosciitaiol nsciisencocness,idpearretdicutolabrelyewssietnhtiraelg[a2r1d–s23to]. sociaTl haendpuecroploosgeicoafl tshuisstarienvaibewilitiys [t1o4,h1i9g,2h0li]g. hInt ttheermdsifofefrmenotrwe payrasgimn awtihciccohnpcehrynssicwalitahntderhriutomraianl gmeaongargapemhyenatre ianntdegrpatleadnnininlgandstsucadpieesstufodriessufosrtasiunsatbaiilnitayb,le ttheirsritoproiasiltmioannaigsemcoennts—idie.ree.,dlantdo-ubsee peslasennntiinagl [2a1n–d23i]t.s implementation—by considering the role of physical geography (PG) in five
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