Interpretation Of Landscape Research Articles

Geomorphology of the Arrábida Chain (Portugal)

Geomorphological maps are crucially important in geomorphology studies, allowing the representation of topographic and geological data in an interpretative, dynamic and appealing way. In this paper, a medium-scale (1:70,000) geomorphological map is presented with the objective of facilitating the analysis and interpretation of the Plio-Quaternary landscapes of the Arrábida Chain, central-west Portugal. The map results from the combination of field and laboratory techniques, including aerial-photo interpretation, digital terrain data analysis and the morphometric study of landforms.

Heritage, amenity, and the changing landscape of the rural American West

The production landscapes that once dominated the rural American West are being transformed into amenity landscapes intended largely for consumption by in-migrants and visitors. However, once people settle in the rural West, a newly realized amenity may be recognized: the region's relic cultural landscape. This paper builds upon a 2007 study that used resident-employed photography to assess the varying environmental perspectives of, and social interactions between, newcomers and long-established ranchers in a rural Colorado valley. Photographs taken by both lifelong ranchers and newer nonagricultural residents highlighted two relic landscapes in the valley: its cemetery and one-room schoolhouse. This study investigates these particular cultural landscapes, their histories, meanings, and what their futures in this region may hold, given the in-migration. Using archives, landscape interpretation, and interviews with key informants, this paper analyzes how newcomers may appropriate these relic landscapes and further develop them as cultural amenities in their new environment. Simultaneously, long-established ranchers may defend these landscapes of their own heritage against such co-optation. The interests of newcomers in these historic relics impacts how they are, and will continue to be, managed, possibly creating new opportunities for social interaction among these groups.

Excavating the Roman peasant II: excavations at Case Nuove, Cinigiano (GR)

This report details the survey, excavations and materials analysis carried out at Case Nuove (GR) in Tuscany, a site identified by surface survey as a possible rural house, but which excavation and materials analysis suggest was a small-scale agro-processing point of late Republican date. Through accompanying analysis of pollen and land-use data, the article considers the problems this type of site — the stand-alone agro-processing point — presents for interpretations of the Roman landscape.

Water, Climate, and the Limits of Human Wisdom: Historical-Geographic Analogies Between Early Mughal and Modern South Asia

The expanding literature on climate change and water resources in South Asia includes a small number of works that stress the role of human wisdom—past, present, and future. Some studies draw attention to the “dying wisdom” of traditional water systems, whereas others seek wiser conceptual models for addressing climate change and water stresses. This article examines the historical geography of hydroclimatic adjustment in early Mughal India, with an emphasis on state formation in chronicles of the late sixteenth century. Notwithstanding claims of wisdom then, as now, water and climatic hazards had limited episodic salience in Mughal chronicles. Even so, Mughal sources identify indirect forms of human adjustment, ranging from land revenue policies to infrastructure investment, administrative reform, human mobility, and landscape interpretation that bear comparison with current deliberations.

Lectura transdisciplinar de paisajes cotidianos, hacia una valoración patrimonial. Método de aproximación

Within the context of a complex, trajectory-based and democratic conception of landscape, this paper offers an expert and mediator methodology for the interpretation of scenery. It explores multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary topics to conclude with the generation of transdisciplinary findings. Such a methodology has been tested in different areas of Andalusia and other regions of Spain and France and even in the Colombian Coffee Belt. The application of this procedure is presented with an example that may be replicated in the interpretation of some important landscapes of Sierra de Huelva or Sierra de Aracena, Spain. This research aims to demonstrate the replicability of an interpretative and transdisciplinary method that is still being tested.

THE PALLADIOLIBRARY GEO-MODELS: AN OPEN 3D ARCHIVE TO MANAGE AND VISUALIZE INFORMATION-COMMUNICATION RESOURCES ABOUT PALLADIO

Abstract. The paper describes objectives, methods, procedures and outcomes of the development of the digital archive of Palladio works and documentation: the PALLADIOLibrary of Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio di Vicenza (CISAAP). The core of the application consists of fifty-one reality-based 3D models usable and navigable within a system grounded on GoogleEarth. This information system, a collaboration of four universities bearers of specific skills returns a comprehensive, structured and coherent semantic interpretation of Palladian landscape through shapes realistically reconstructed from historical sources and surveys and treated for GE with Ambient Occlusion techniques, overcoming the traditional display mode.

Integrating multi‐receiver electromagnetic induction measurements into the interpretation of the soil landscape around the school of gladiators atCarnuntum

SummaryRecently, the unique foundations of a school of gladiators were discovered in theRoman town ofCarnuntum (40 km southeast ofVienna,Austria) by applying a combination of non‐invasive archaeological prospection techniques such as magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, aerial photography, airborne laser scanning and airborne imaging spectroscopy. Although the well‐preserved remains of the building complex were revealed down to a depth of 1.8 m by high‐resolution near‐surface geophysics, some questions about the surrounding soil landscape remained unanswered. Therefore, a proximal soil sensing procedure based on a survey with a multi‐receiver electromagnetic induction (EMI) instrument was conducted to interpret the surroundings of the school, covering an area of 5.6 ha. We investigated the usefulness of integrating the complementary apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and apparent magnetic susceptibility (MSa) measurements for the mapping and investigation of this soil landscape. The multipleECameasurements allowed the identification of zones with low‐conductive gravel outcrops, and zones where silty‐clayey soils were deposited on top of the underlying gravel. AnEC‐depth slicing procedure enhanced the contrast between small soil features, such as frost‐wedge pseudomorphs and drainage gullies, and their background, and provided indications about the depth extent of these features. TheMS‐depth slices showed the foundations of the school of gladiators, an aqueduct and grave monuments. After combining these results with the topography, an integrated visualization of the school in its soil landscape was obtained. This study demonstrated the potential of multi‐receiverEMIsoil surveys to map and interpret the soil landscape and to discern small natural as well as archaeological features.

Environmental conditions vs. landscape. Assessment of the factors that influence small mammal fauna distribution in Southern Iberia during the latest Messinian by mean of stable isotopes

Tropical conditions during the late Miocene in southwestern Europe influenced the continental environments. Although there are previous qualitative environmental interpretations of these continental landscapes during the late Miocene, quantitative environmental and paleohydrological data are scarce. A very long sequence of small mammals allowed to date the different continental drainage stages of the Granada Basin from latest Tortonian to the Holocene and to reconstruct qualitatively its environmental evolution. The study of the isotopic record of these fossil small mammals and sediments in the stratigraphic sequence of a latest Messinian paleo-lake in the Granada Basin has provided quantitative environmental and paleohydrological data, in order to know if the fluctuations in the faunal distribution were mainly influenced by the paleogeographic configuration, such as changes in the landscape of the basin, or by the climatic conditions. Open habitats with C3 plants predominated. Estimated quantitative data suggest an oxygen isotopic composition of meteoric waters ranging from −4.9 to −3.9‰, past temperatures from ~2.5°C to 4.7°C higher than the current ones, and summer relative paleohumidity from ~60% to ~70%. In this context, changes in the landscape, such as the reduction of the lacustrine system caused by tectonic activity, would affect taxa with high dependence on humid conditions.

Reading the landscape

Assertions of a ‘naughty world’ (Kennedy, 1979) point to the importance of place-based knowledge in informing landscape interpretations and management applications. Building upon conceptual and theoretical insights into the geomorphic character, behaviour and evolution of rivers, this paper outlines an approach to the practice of fluvial geomorphology: ‘reading the landscape’. This scaffolded framework of field-based interpretations explicitly recognizes the contingent nature of biophysical interactions within any given landscape. A bottom-up, constructivist approach is applied to identify landforms, assess their morphodynamics, and interpret the interaction and evolution of these features at reach and catchment scales. Reading the landscape is framed as an open-ended and generic set of questions that inform process-form interpretations of river landscapes. Rather than relying unduly on conceptual or theoretical representations of landscapes that suggest how the world ‘should’ ideally look and behave, appropriately contextualized, place-based understandings can be used to detect where local differences matter, thereby addressing concerns for the transferability of insights between locations and the representativeness of sample or reference sites. The approach provides a basis for scientifically informed management efforts that respect and work with the inherent diversity and dynamics of any given river system.

Commotion, Collaboration, Conviviality: Mediterranean Survey and the Interpretation of Landscape

Over the last three decades, Mediterranean survey projects have established a broadly agreed methodology, a wide awareness of the invaluable contribution made by intensive survey, and a wealth of data from across the region. Where they have made less progress is in the interpretation of artefact density figures and other findings to go beyond the dots on the map and gain insights into past human lives, the complexity of past landscapes, and the relationship between people and the environment. The key to this is engaging with theories that connect humans and non-humans. In this article I use the term commotion to suggest the constant and continually changing lines of mobility and interaction that constitute the landscape. Collaboration is the ongoing creation and transformation of place through the elaborately intertwined work of people, animals, plants, soils, water, weather, rocks and landforms. Conviviality stands for the life-giving creativity and transformation that is constantly proliferating from the intricate association and interaction with other beings, both human and non-human. My examples come from the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project, an interdisciplinary and multi-period project carried out on the northern edge of the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus.

Pagan places

Focused on religiogeographic practices in contemporary western paganism (neopaganism), this paper aims to fill a gap in the existing literature through a critical assessment of how neopagans imagine, delimitate, and interact with space, place, and territory. Employing a novel categorization of religious space along four overlapping geographies (numinous, poetic, social, and political), this essay addresses the need for geographers to produce publicly relevant studies that analyze religiously rooted ideologies and define cultural interpretations of places, terrains, and landscapes. Furthermore, I put forth a tentative research agenda for subsequent studies of how neopagans conceive of and interact with real and imagined geographies.

Challenging Assumptions in Urban Restoration Ecology

This paper presents a critical examination of core assumptions of Restoration Ecology (RE) and Urban Restoration Ecology (URE) with a focus on reinstatement of native/indigenous vegetation in urban areas. RE’s widely utilized and imposed land use approach reconstructs questionable historic interpretations of natural landscapes. RE misappropriates various terms and ideologies central to its paradigm, thereby excluding non-native biodiversity. Despite decades of theory, research, and practice, RE suffers a noteworthy risk of failure. RE applies rural conservation practices to urban environments, which often presents difficulties in terms of scale and suitability for fauna. RE is optimistic or misrepresentative regarding economics, maintenance, and risk in urban environments. This paper briefly discusses an alternative focus, which includes a broader concept of restoration. More substantially, this paper explores multi-functional landscape techniques that: respond to novel states in urban environments; that address present and future needs and scenarios; deliver tailored ecosystem services; and provide resources and productivity specifically relevant to urban contexts.

Natural causes: the sculpture of Michael Lyons

Three exhibitions by Michael Lyons form the basis of this reflection on his long-term artistic development. Reference is made to R. Krauss's notion of the ‘expanded field’, here radically re-imagined to begin with Picasso's cubist experiments of 1912-14, inaugurating the tradition of welded steel sculpture to which Lyons's work belongs. Lyons's use of ‘natural’ organizational principles is contrasted with the industrial, urban aesthetic associated with Smith and Caro. By integrating overt symbols with geometric elements, or gestalts, Lyons complicates the viewer's experience of the sculpture. Increased symbolic content in current work suggests a shift away from observed nature towards a more mythologized interpretation of landscape, a concern that pervades his most recent cast metal sculptures.

Landscape as a Ritual Object: Exploring Some Thoughts on Organized Space in the Great Bend Region in Southwestern Arkansas

This paper proposes a testable model to explore humanistic interpretations of landscapes that have been deliberately arranged, organized, executed, and modified based upon a particular suite of highly integrated political, social, economic, and ideological rules and aspirations about space. This model examines the landscape as a ritual object, embedded with cosmological meaning, purpose, and vision. Using data from archaeogeophysical surveys, excavations, and surface collections, some thoughts on organized space in the Great Bend region in southwestern Arkansas are presented with respect to regional site distributions, cardinal directionality, and intra-site spatial relationships as they exist across the cultural landscape.

Plastic Eternities and the Mosaic of Landscape

In recent years nonrepresentational theory has been applied with increasing frequency to landscape studies. This paper responds to this trend in two ways. First, through a close reading of John Wylie and Mitch Rose's writings, I critique the application of nonrepresentational theory to landscape interpretation. While nonrepresentational theory has, crucially, highlighted the importance of performativity, affect, excess, and relationality, it has been imperfectly translated to landscape studies. Landscape studies grounded in nonrepresentational theory overburden the landscape with philosophical and theoretical propositions, which has the effect of exonerating landscapes from their temporal, spatial, and visual circumstances. Second, drawing mainly on the work of Catherine Malabou and Bruno Latour, I suggest that different metaphors and concepts are needed to improve landscape studies: plasticity and a revamped, historical account of relationality. The aim of this paper is to establish a means of visualizing the dynamics of landscape and their historical mutability, with the intention of producing readings that are more ecumenical, and avoid the theoretical reductionism found in current nonrepresentational accounts of landscape.

‘No Chinatown, please!’: contesting race, identity and postcolonial memory in Kuala Lumpur

From the 1980s onwards, the Malaysian government embarked on a policy to Malaynise and Islamise the urban landscape of Kuala Lumpur. At the same time, the historical Chinese oldest quarter of the city experienced various measures threatening to erase Chinese urban history and turn the area into a ‘Chinatown’, arousing strong resistance from the Chinese community. This paper examines the spatial struggle of the Malaysian Chinese community and its contesting of the state-sponsored representation and creation of ‘Chinatown’ in Kuala Lumpur in the 1990s. It argues that the making of ‘Chinatown’ symbolised the minoritisation of the Chinese. To challenge the conception of the post-colonial city which focuses on giving voice to the once-colonised nation whilst keeping the ethnic minority groups in the shadow of the nation, this paper explores a contested vision of Kuala Lumpur with the inclusion of the marginal Chinese urban spaces. It examines how the Chinese used the contested Chinatown to negotiate their cultural identity, to challenge the state's version of nationalism and multiculturalism, and to call for a more inclusive interpretation of the urban landscape of Kuala Lumpur.

Volume Expansion Measurements in Metallic Liquids and Their Relation to Fragility and Glass Forming Ability: An Energy Landscape Interpretation

Recent studies of Cu-Zr glasses have reported a rapid variation in the amorphous phase density near the optimal glass forming compositions, supporting the belief that the densest liquids are also the best glass formers. Here, we show that the measured densities of the Cu-Zr liquids at higher temperatures are not peaked sharply near these compositions, but the volume expansivities are. Theoretical studies have shown that the expansivity correlates with fragility near T(g); the experimental results presented here show that at high temperature they become anticorrelated. From energy landscape arguments, this indicates the existence of a crossover temperature for the expansivity-fragility correlation that scales inversely with the liquid fragility. These results lead to an improved understanding of the high temperature properties of liquids that form glasses and suggest a new method for identifying the best glass forming compositions within an alloy system from the properties of the equilibrium liquids.

The Outside Inside: Combining Aerial Photographs, Cropmarks and Landscape Experience

This paper seeks to make a contribution to current debates concerning the dislocation in landscape research between experiential approaches and quantitative techniques of landscape analysis. It focuses upon a group of archaeological sites that are caught in the centre of this divide: plough-levelled sites recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The application of experiential landscape analysis to plough-levelled sites is explored, along with the value of incorporating information derived from the study of the aerial photograph. It is contended that richer, more rounded, interpretations of landscape are possible when combining aspects of quantitative and qualitative landscape research.

Interpretation of Sustainable Landscapes Affects Student Perception of Sustainable Landscape Features

This research examines student perception of sustainable landscaping at the University of Delaware (UD), Newark and the impact of interpretation on student perception of the landscape. Students living on UD’s Laird Campus were surveyed before and after an interpretive campaign designed to describe the benefits of sustainable landscaping. The results of this study found that the majority of students surveyed perceive the landscape to be attractive, sustainable, well maintained, and functional, providing encouragement for the use of sustainable landscaping practices on university campuses. Reduced mowing (once per year), as it is implemented on Laird Campus, was identified as the sustainable practice least likely to be considered acceptable by students. Sustainable landscaping interpretation improved student awareness and acceptance of sustainable landscaping practices. Greater levels of engagement with the interpretation campaign increased students’ awareness and acceptance of sustainable landscaping. In contrast to students’ increased awareness and acceptance of sustainable landscaping practices, students’ perception of the landscape’s appearance did not significantly improve after the interpretation campaign, suggesting the need for future interpretation campaigns to directly address aesthetic issues in addition to interpretation of environmental benefits.

Writing the desert: the ‘Tifinagh’ rock inscriptions of the Tadrart Acacus (southwestern Libya)

The mountain ranges of the Tadrart Acacus and Messak in southwestern Libya (central Sahara) are widely known for their outstanding rock art inventory and some key prehistoric sites. This paper illustrates the preliminary outcomes of current investigations on the ‘Tifinagh’ inscriptions of the Tadrart Acacus the recording of which has recently increased thanks to the support of ‘Endangered Archives Programme’ of the British Library. Its aim is twofold: first, to outline the main steps of the project, placing these within the most relevant issues related to the phenomenon of writing in the Sahara, and second, to describe the results that have been achieved to date and to foresee possible avenues of development. In fact, although difficulties in both dating and decipherment have been repeatedly stressed through the years, we emphasise that Tifinagh texts can play an important role in the process of landscape interpretation. A proper ‘written landscape’, where humans left readable signs of their passages or their stays, can integrate other archaeological approaches pursued so far in the Tadrart Acacus and its surroundings.