Protection Of Cultural Landscapes Research Articles

Paysages culturels chinois: de l’idéal de l’équilibre entre l’homme et la nature aux formes écologiques de la vie

Abstract: Thus far, human development has been achieved at the cost of the destruction of cultural landscapes. With advent of industrial civilization, people have gained happiness and conveniences, but also confronted various cultural landscape predicaments. Environmental philosophy, a contemporary philosophy that regards the relationship between humans and nature as a fundamental issue, has focused on the protection of cultural landscapes. An analysis of ancient Chinese environmental philosophy demonstrates that ancient thinkers cared about everything in heaven and earth, and explored issues, such as a harmonious development between humans and nature, offering a novel approach to the preservation of Chinese cultural landscapes. Using Taoist environmental philosophy as an exemplar, this article provides a preliminary analysis of the definition of cultural landscapes, development of environmental philosophy and Taoist environmental philosophy. Building upon this foundation, it explores the role of environmental philosophies, such as “unity of heaven and man” in construction of ecological civilization, providing fresh perspectives for cultural landscape conservation.

Cultural landscape resilience evaluation of Great Wall Villages: A case study of three villages in Chicheng County.

The Great Wall Villages (GWVs) are linked to the Great Wall in history, culture, and ecology. The cultural landscape resilience of Great Wall Villages (CLRGWVs) is distinctly significant. However, it is influenced by urbanization, pollution, and a lack of awareness of cultural landscape protection. Therefore, conservation and development practices still lack scientific strategies and guidance. This study proposes a new assessment system to quantify CLRGWVs, an analysis of the main influencing factors of resilience, and optimization paths to maintain sustainable development. Based on the socio-ecological system, this research designed the assessment with three criteria, eleven factors, and thirty-three indexes from the perspective of CLRGWVs. Furthermore, a demonstration test was constructed in Ningyuanbao Village, Dushikou Village, and Longmensuo Village in Chicheng County, Hebei Province, China. The results showed that there is some disparity between the three GWVs, with the resilience score of Dushikou Village being the highest in terms of resistance and learning. In contrast, Ningyuanbao Village's resilience score is the lowest since resistance, recovery, and learning capacity are lower than in Dushikou and Longmensuo. Some influencing factors were found to be highly related to adaptive capacity. Lastly, some low-resilience aspects were identified as critical improvement targets for which corresponding optimization strategies should be proposed. This could be applied to streamline resilience optimization paths according to local conditions. This paper provides new ideas and directions for dealing with the sustainable development of villages and the conservation of cultural landscapes. It will also help villages deal with the relationship between socio-economic development and the conservation of cultural landscapes.

One nature – many values for all: Gauja National Park

The ideas underlying nature conservation have changed over time, from a very narrow view regarding the protection of specific species to the integration of nature conservation into the context of global development. Different coexisting perceptions of natural values can also be observed within the same area, in this case the Gauja National Park. The establishment of the park was implemented within the framework of a different political regime, in the 1970s, in which the protection of cultural landscapes was prioritised. While today the state’s official stance represents the modern ideas of nature conservation, public opinion about nature protection is ambiguous. By studying the historical context and implementing other research methods, an insight was gained into the society’s coexisting, often different visions of what is valuable in nature. Ethical considerations, which are often expressed both in the media and in the opinions of the residents, show a lack of understanding of the existing nature protection system and its methods.

Research on the traditional zoning, evolution, and integrated conservation of village cultural landscapes based on “production-living-ecology spaces” – A case study of villages in Meicheng, Guangdong, China

AbstractUsing traditional remains and the evolution of cultural landscapes as bases for overall protection and “production-living-ecology spaces” (PLE spaces) as carriers, we have established a regional and holistic research path, “evaluation – zoning – zone evolution – integrated conservation,” to cultural landscape protection. The traditional cultural landscape of more than 97% of all administrative villages in Meicheng was evaluated, and the overall Hakka cultural landscape was divided into three zones of low, medium, and high traditional values. The study found that the different impacts of urbanization on geographical space were leading contributors to the generation of different spatial zones. To accommodate the evolving trends of the zones, three conservation modes and their corresponding protection strategies have been proposed: construction with traditional elements; parallel conservation and development; and authenticity preservation. Meanwhile, the regional artery-tributary pattern has been constructed to foster interconnection across hubs, artery-tributary systems, and different zones. Cultural tourism routes should be established, and regional courier roads and greenways should be linked, to ensure the alignment of traditional landscape networks with modern Hakka cultural landscape networks, featuring traditional elements to facilitate integrated regional conservation of the Hakka cultural landscape.

The Authenticity of the Hidden Christians’ Villages in Nagasaki: Issues in Evaluation of Cultural Landscapes

Located in the north-western part of Kyushu, “Hidden Christians Sites in the Nagasaki Region” were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. This serial property consists of twelve sites, including the Christian villages that bear unique testimony to a cultural tradition nurtured under a long period of religious prohibition. Based on fieldwork research at Kirishitan villages in Hirado City, this paper shows how the global conservation strategies affect the local people and the sustainability of their cultural tradition. Comparing UNESCO and Japanese cultural landscape protection policies, I argue that the evaluation and selection of sites that begin at the local authorities and stakeholders’ level, is eventually reduced to tangible properties ready-made for tourist consumption. Here, the evaluation subsides under the UNESCO authenticity criteria and narrow governmental interests towards the cultural tradition it is supposed to protect. Therefore, for the protection of cultural landscapes and the living traditions, the decisions by cultural heritage protection authorities should be carefully made, based on scientific research of a cultural tradition, and in the interest of the tradition’s living successors.

“Scenes” updating the cultural landscape of villages along the Grand Canal under the all media communication*

The rural cultural landscape along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal encompasses such tangible objects as water conservancy legacy projects, rural settlements, rural ecology and productive and natural landscape as well as such intangible contents as rural culture, conventions, handcrafts, biography and legends, forming unique linear legacies that boast high research values. The present paper made a field investigation into the typical villages along the South Canal and analyzed the current problems to explore the local cultural landscape resources and environmental conditions. It proposes to probe into the thinking philosophy to upgrade and design the “scenes” in the rural cultural landscape along the Grand Canal from the perspective of all media communication in hopes of broadening the idea of rural cultural landscape protection along the canal and offering references for the protection and inheritance of the characteristic rural culture thereof.

The Possibilities of Open-Cast Mining in Landscape Parks in Poland—A Case Study

Landscape parks are one of the most important tools for nature conservation in Europe. Cultural landscape protection, coupled in particular with rural tradition of land use plays a very important role. A common feature of these popular protected areas is the fact that they are established legally, in accordance with the principle of sustainable development. Activities carried out in the landscape parks are not entirely subservient to nature conservation. This makes them different from national parks and natural reserves. In Poland, landscape parks together with their buffer zones cover more than 13% of the country’s territory, which frequently causes conflicts among mining entrepreneurs and limits their activities. Mining in landscape parks in Poland is not forbidden by domestic law; however, detailed guidelines in this respect are determined by the assembly of a given province. Additionally, the process of applying for an extraction licence could be burdened with the threat of social protests, which may result in extending it by many years, and because of which a project may fail to be completed. Optimal solutions to these obstacles are already proposed by “Czatkowice” Limestone Mine (Małopolska Province). This case study presents an efficient practice of a smooth and effective decision-making process of obtaining a new mining licence in a landscape park. It also outlines certain aspects of the social licence to operate (SLO) as well as some appropriate methods of acting in complicated environments and spatial conditions.

Protected Landscapes in Spain: Reasons for Protection and Sustainability of Conservation Management

Landscape conservation efforts in many European countries focus on cultural landscapes, which are part of the cultural identity of people, have a great heritage significance, improve the living standards of local populations and provide valuable cultural biodiversity. However, despite a wide arrange of protective measures, the management of preserved areas is seldom effective for the protection of cultural landscapes. Through a multi-approach analysis, we characterise the main heritage attributes of 17 Protected Landscapes in Spain and assess their management effectiveness by quantifying the evolution of the spatial pattern inside and outside protected landscapes. Our method has proven useful to quantitatively describe the spatial-temporal patterns of change of the protected and unprotected landscapes studied. We highlight the following results: (i) the concepts of uniqueness and naturalness are not appropriate to preserve cultural landscapes; (ii) the land protection approach currently adopted is not useful for the protection of cultural landscapes, particularly of the most rural ones; (iii) the landscapes studied with greater rural features can be considered as “paper parks”. We recommend that different protection measures focused on the needs and desires of the rural population are taken into account in order to protect cultural landscapes that are shaped by traditional rural activities.

ИСТОРИКО-КУЛЬТУРНЫЕ ТЕРРИТОРИИ: АДМИНИСТРАТИВНО-ПРАВОВЫЕ РЕЖИМЫ ОХРАНЫ В ЗАКОНОДАТЕЛЬСТВЕ ОБ ОБЪЕКТАХ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ

This article examines the problems of classification and establishment of administrative and legal regimes for the protection of various historical and cultural territories provided for by the legislation on the state protection of cultural heritage objects. As a result of the analysis of international legal acts, it is concluded that some provisions of the Russian legislation do not fully comply with international rules. The problem of legal regulation in terms of such territorial (planar) objects of cultural heritage as works of landscape architecture and landscape gardening is highlighted. Examples of a number of foreign countries with significant experience in establishing historical zones and cultural landscape protection are given. The indicated experience makes it possible to identify the redundancy of some provisions of the Russian legislation relating to historical settlements and historical and cultural reserves. The article offers the author's definition of historical and cultural territories, and also puts forward a number of proposals to change Federal legislation, in particular, to adjust the concept of a landmark and its types of objects, the legal regime of a landmark, to make changes to the legislation on museums- reserves, as well as to abolish the rules relating to historical and cultural reserves. The paper identifies promising areas for further research on this topic and ways to improve legislation on the protection of cultural heritage.

Cultural landscape protection at Lake Victoria, a managed water supply

ABSTRACTLake Victoria is a freshwater lake in south western New South Wales, Australia which holds water from the Murray River. It is owned by the South Australian government to ensure downstream supply of water to South Australia. The pastoral landscape is arid and comprises the Lake, 32 km in circumference, and the surrounding dune systems. The dunes contain many Aboriginal burials and artefacts especially on the eastern side of the Lake. Changing legislative requirements for protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage led to the introduction of new management approaches at Lake Victoria. These included: preparation of a cultural landscape plan of management, a revised Lake operating strategy and the creation of an overseeing advisory committee with a majority of Aboriginal members. Over two decades, this commitment to cultural landscape management has been successful in conserving the place’s cultural heritage values. The steps undertaken, the outcomes and challenges ahead are discussed.

Levende cultuurlandschappen als Werelderfgoed

Continuing landscapes as World Heritage The World Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO in 1972, in a period of growing awareness of the international dimensions of environment and heritage. However, it was also a period in which European visions of heritage were still dominant, for example on themes such as authenticity and the distinction between nature and culture. The World Heritage List, resulting from the Convention, put the initiative for inscriptions by state parties, leading to a bias towards unproblematic and tourism-oriented objects. In all these aspects, almost half a century of discussions brought changing ideas. The European emphasis on material authenticity and the division between nature and culture were challenged by practices from Asia and Africa. The role of the nation state became less important by global exchanges of ideas and by local and regional initiatives. The protection of cultural landscapes, particularly that of ‘living’ or ‘continuing’ landscapes, was only possible by a movement from protection towards ‘management of change’. The problem of management of such landscapes is illustrated in five case studies of cultural landscapes that are, or prepare to be, World Heritage Sites: Dresden, the rice terraces of the Cordilleras, the Beemster polder, the Altes Land near Hamburg and the Dutch/Belgian Colonies of Benevolence. The conclusion is that change within World Heritage Sites is possible but needs to be done with caution and with a sense of quality, preferably by involving landscape architects. Rather than the authentic remains of an original situation, the argument should be based on ideas such as layeredness of landscapes and path dependency in developments.

Analysis of Journal Papers about Studies of Ancient Chinese Villages

Based on CNKI database, the author has retrieved that, from 1989 to 2015, 318 papers about ancient village studies have been published in core Chinese journals. With literature statistical methods, the author analyzes and classifies the year and the number of studies, research themes, journals in which the papers are published, main creative units of such literature, core author group distribution and teases out there are 318 first authors and 12 main core authors as well as 11 core journals. The results show that ancient Chinese village landscape construction, ancient town settlement space type, traditional residential building space, village cultural landscape protection and sustainable development, reproduction of space environment of ancient villages, ancient village landscape planning, protection and development of ancient villages, the development and protection of the ancient village landscape are the hot spots in ancient villages researches in China and have made great achievements and progress.

Evaluation of the Sustainability of Tourism in Ihlara Valley and Suggestions

Study area of the present study, Ihlara Valley is located within the borders of Cappadocia region in central Anatolia. With its physical structure and cultural landscape, Ihlara Valley is an important international tourist destination. In addition to this, the area is under national protection as a specially protected environment area. Churches carved on the rock walls of Ihlara Valley, caves and frescos are some of the cultural landscape values in the region. In the present study, the purpose is to evaluate the sustainability of tourism activities in Ihlara Valley and to develop suggestions for the area to have sustainable tourism. Whether the tourism activities in Ihlara Valley are sustainable or not was evaluated based on the sustainable tourism criteria proposed by Gebhard et al. (2008). These four main criteria include 18 sub-criteria and in the present study, 11 of these criteria were found to have low values, 6 of them have medium values and only 1 of them has a high value and particularly the values found for the sub-criteria involved in the main criterion of management and monitoring are low, which shows that the tourism activities in the region are not sustainable. In the second part of the study, suggestions were developed for tourism to be sustainable in Ihlara Valley by evaluating the protection status of the cultural landscape that is one of the important components of sustainable tourism, tourist satisfaction and development of the local community through analytic hierarchy process method. Keywords: Sustainable tourism, protection of cultural landscape, sustainable economic development, sustainable tourist satisfaction, local people, analytic hierarchy process

Does Greek Conservation Policy Effectively Protect the Cultural Landscapes? A Critical Examination of Policy’s Efficiency in Traditional Greek Settlements

The paper discusses the role of Greek conservation policies in protecting the cultural landscape with focus on traditional Greek settlements. Drawing on secondary data but also on empirical evidence the paper examines the contribution of above policies to the protection of cultural landscapes.
 The first part focuses on the legislative framework, providing a critical examination regarding the way that cultural landscape is approached. The second part discusses the effects of this policy on a group of traditional settlements in central Greece, presenting the achievements and drawbacks of conservation policy as viewed by experts and residents in the area.

The assessment of land cover in the Nowy Targ commune with particular focus on the area of Natura 2000

Summary The rural landscape in Poland has been changing for the past several dozen years. The changes are visible in the land use and land cover. Technological progress, changes in people’s outlook and a low profitability of agriculture resulted in transformations of rural landscapes, especially in the areas of high level of land fragmentation, as it is the case in the south part of Poland. These changes are accompanied by growing awareness of environmental or cultural landscape protection related issues. Recent years have also brought new forms of environmental protection, for example the programme Natura 2000, being the result of agreements with European Union. The network of Natura 2000 cover the areas of special protection of birds, habitats, and according to the Act on Nature Conservation – areas of special interest for the Community. The goal of this form of protection is a preservation of valuable or engendered elements of biodiversity. The question arises then whether in the era of landscape transformations and changes of land cover qualifying a particular area as part of Natura 2000 network has any influence on the way of land use. The aim of the article is an analysis and evaluation of land cover changes, also in the areas covered by Natura 2000 programme, within the piedmont commune of Nowy Targ in Malopolskie Voivodeship. Moreover, a thesis is proposed that submontane lands, specifically used, due to large terrain height differences, are faced with less intense urbanization pressures and land transformations. Is it also the case of the Nowy Targ commune, covered in more than 22% by the Natura 2000 areas?

Study on Cultural Landscape and its Research Path of Cultural Geography: A Case Study of Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Landscape

The based on research of complexity of cultural landscape and the present situation of China's cultural landscape protection, this paper redefines the methods of cultural landscape, from the perspective of new culture geography's academic claims. It also analyzes the three cultural landscape research entrances: time and spatial process, race identity and the relationship concept of human and land, and landscape as the veil. Taking Tibetan Buddhist cultural landscape as research object, this paper proposes the research path. Firstly, the basic research of cultural landscape dominated by the cultural turn could guide landscape texts reading. Secondly, from the cultural landscape change analysis, we could find the forces of cultural landscape. At last, it puts forward Multiple Integrity to guide the practice of cultural landscape protection and development.

Assessing, mapping, and quantifying cultural ecosystem services at community level

Numerous studies underline the importance of immaterial benefits provided by ecosystems and especially by cultural landscapes, which are shaped by intimate human–nature interactions. However, due to methodological challenges, cultural ecosystem services are rarely fully considered in ecosystem services assessments. This study performs a spatially explicit participatory mapping of the complete range of cultural ecosystem services and several disservices perceived by people living in a cultural landscape in Eastern Germany. The results stem from a combination of mapping exercises and structured interviews with 93 persons that were analyzed with statistical and GIS-based techniques. The results show that respondents relate diverse cultural services and multiple local-level sites to their individual well-being. Most importantly, aesthetic values, social relations and educational values were reported. Underlining the holistic nature of cultural ecosystem services, the results reveal bundles of services as well as particular patterns in the perception of these bundles for respondent groups with different socio-demographic backgrounds. Cultural services are not scattered randomly across a landscape, but rather follow specific patterns in terms of the intensity, richness and diversity of their provision. Resulting hotspots and coldspots of ecosystem services provision are related to landscape features and land cover forms. We conclude that, despite remaining methodological challenges, cultural services mapping assessments should be pushed ahead as indispensable elements in the management and protection of cultural landscapes. Spatially explicit information on cultural ecosystem services that incorporates the differentiated perceptions of local populations provides a rich basis for the development of sustainable land management strategies. These could realign the agendas of biodiversity conservation and cultural heritage preservation, thereby fostering multifunctionality.

TRADITIONAL LATVIAN COUNTRY HOUSE. COURLAND REGION EXAMPLE

The traditional way of life concerns not only treatment of things, but important is also the environment of traditional management. Development plans have to define the context of the cultural landscape protection and management of premises and areas around the old rural homesteads, having regard to land rights, and should be targeted for biodiversity conservation process. Such areas are not only of local but also of global importance. A highly measurable art is the skill to use and involve the ancient country estate in the landscape and ancient heritage of the most valuable items in the modern landscape, synthesis of the modern landscape of cultural value. As a result, visual character of poor quality is reduced, by giving new modernist trends to Courland traditional country yard landscape areas. Traditional country house landscape for contemporary original, harmonious environment, which is malleable in balance with man and nature, under the umbrella of cultural landscape values. Scientific research results provide an important contribution to the future of rural municipal administrative territorial development to enhance, restore or create new sustainable landscapes, based on balanced and harmonious relationships between economic activities, social needs and cultural environment.

Cultural landscape evaluation and possibilities for future development – a case study of the island of Krk (Croatia)

Agricultural landscapes that resulted from many centuries of traditional agricultural cultivation are an important part of the cultural heritage in the European Mediterranean areas. Since a systematic study in the Republic of Croatia aimed at inventarisation and protection of cultural landscapes has not been carried out yet, the main purpose of this paper was to, based on a case study that took place on the island of Krk, show the method of agricultural landscape evaluation and possibilities for future development and protection of outstanding agricultural landscapes. The evaluation of all 12 identified agricultural landscape types was conducted and six of them were singled out as outstanding cultural landscapes. Possible structural changes of those landscapes were considered and a proposal for a strategy of the preservation of the valuable landscape heritage on the island of Krk has been formulated. It was concluded that for field landscapes, the preservation is possible through agricultural production modernization. Those outstanding agricultural landscapes that are not profitable, but have a great cultural and historical value, should be maintained through regular procedures for cultural monuments with 100% subsidy.

Kazimierz quarry – protection of cultural landscape

The article concerns for question of protection of Kazimierz quarry, winning limestone. It is located near Kazimierz Dolny at Vistula River. It characterize history of Kazimierz quarry reaching XIV century as well as the description of landscape and geological values. Particular attention concerns necessity and ways of protection of quarry as classic example cultural landscape.