Abstract
ABSTRACTThe European Landscape Convention (ELC) has encouraged affiliated countries to develop several assessment methodologies to facilitate land management in an effort to develop compatible, integrative assessment techniques that can be applied in diverse geographic settings. Here we begin to address the question of how to develop comprehensive landscape assessments based on the criteria of the ELC by integrating landscape studies using biophysical and visual characteristics. We assessed visibility, quality, and fragility to determine aptitude for protection based on both biophysical and visual landscape units. We selected the Martin River Cultural Park (Aragon, Spain) as a study area because it is recognized as a site of cultural and geomorphological importance, it is situated in a signatory country to the ELC, but has not been subject to any landscape assessment. The resulting maps of aptitude for protection can be used to prioritize landscapes for protection based on their levels of quality and fragility.
Highlights
Geographic approaches to landscape studies are found more commonly in land management than in other fields (Naveh & Lieberman, 2013)
In keeping with our first objective, we conducted a visibility analysis of the MRCP that its status as an area of recognized cultural heritage and geomorphosites situated in a country adherent to the European Landscape Convention (ELC) requirements
The visibility analysis served as the starting point to achieve the second objective by evaluating the quality, fragility, and aptitude for protection of the area’s biophysical units
Summary
Geographic approaches to landscape studies are found more commonly in land management than in other fields (Naveh & Lieberman, 2013). The landscape is understood as a common patrimony, and legal standards are established to define it, incorporate it in territorial planning, and protect it when necessary (Déjeant-Pons, 2006; Fisher, 1995; Tress, Tress, Decamps, & d’Hauteserre, 2001). This has contributed to the proliferation of both scientific and technical landscape studies (Farina, 2009), often with divergent objectives and methodologies. This study is based on the integration of two such divergent landscape-analysis methodologies, both used in territorial planning, but with different theoretical assumptions, methods, and results. We have selected two widely used and proven frameworks in spatial planning, and enhanced the methodology of both
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