Traditional Cultural Landscape Research Articles

Cultural landscape design and protection of Lifang Village, Shuangbai County, Yunnan, China, in the context of rural revitalization

Rural landscapes serve as crucial foundations for enhancing the quality of the human environment, showcasing local regional culture, and fostering local industrial development, thus representing the cornerstone of rural economic and social advancement. Against the backdrop of national efforts to implement rural revitalization strategies, traditional cultural landscapes continue to face varying degrees of degradation and disappearance. Tourism has emerged as a popular strategy for promoting the development of traditional villages in developing countries. Moreover, the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry in Chinese ethnic minority villages holds immense significance in advancing local economies, cultures, societies, and environmental protection, serving as a potent means to realize the rural revitalization strategy. This article delves into the cultural landscape of Lifang Village in Shuangbai County, Yunnan province, China. Anchored in a comprehensive understanding of Lifang Village’s political, economic, cultural, social, and ecological contexts, it aims to enhance the humanistic, ecological, industrial, residential, and infrastructural landscapes of the village. The objective is to develop Lifang Village into an integrated complex that seamlessly merges ecology, culture, and landscape, thereby crafting a Yi village distinguished by its local regional characteristics. Through meticulous analysis and synthesis of the local cultural, social, and ecological environment, the article seeks to extract and integrate elements of local distinctiveness, thematic culture, traditional heritage, and classic cultural facets. Ultimately, the aim is to cultivate a sense of identity and belonging within Lifang Village, bolstering villagers’ well-being and contributing to the preservation and inheritance of the exceptional traditional culture of ethnic minorities.

Exploring cultural landscape narratives to understand challenges for collaboration and their implications for governance

ABSTRACT Ongoing land use change, including both land abandonment and agricultural intensification and expansion, not only present a threat for biodiversity and ecosystem health but also for the persistence of cultural landscapes. However, farmland abandonment and the resulting loss of traditional cultural landscapes is an under-researched topic in the literature. Our work in a transdisciplinary action research project in the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve suggested that challenges to preserve the cultural landscape are rooted in diverging landscape understandings and future aspirations. Dealing with and integrating different perceptions and viewpoints is a key challenge in landscape governance. Narratives as storylines about a topic or an issue have a structural and temporal dimension and can help understand land-use conflicts and different viewpoints. We adopted a social constructivist perspective on landscape to engage with meanings and perceptions (including values) that constitute landscape to diverse stakeholders. To understand these differences in meaning, we drew on Q-methodology and conducted 38 interviews with key stakeholders. We elicited three co-existing and partly overlapping landscape narratives. These differ with regard to meanings of the term cultural landscape, including how stakeholders characterise the landscape, how they appreciate it, and what they perceive as threats. We show how such differences in meanings and values attributed to the landscape translate to different problem framings and future aspirations and thus present a barrier for collaborative management and governance. We highlight how participatory vision development could help address narrative tensions and argue that a more integrative perspective would better include cultural aspects.

Mutual influence of tourism and transport on the territory of "Sayan crossroads"

In our study, we focused our attention on identifying general patterns and specific regional features of the development of tourism, transport infrastructure and the interests of indigenous peoples on the territory of the Sayan Crossroads. Regional and federal authorities consider it necessary to develop tourism in the areas under consideration in order to improve the quality of life of the local population. A sharp increase in the number of tourists, as well as the transport development of the territory without taking into account the opinion of the local population, can lead to serious contradictions and conflicts, contribute to the degradation and destruction of traditional cultural landscapes. Thus, in the system "local population - transport - tourism" there are complex multi-aspect and multi-vector connections and mutual influences. These connections have both common fundamental patterns and their own regional and local features. All of them must be understood and taken into account when planning the sustainable development of the territory. Field work was carried out in the Okinsky district of Buryatia, Todzhinsky kozhuun of Tyva, in the Khankh somon of Khubsugul aimag of Mongolia in 2021-2022. Keywords: Okinsky district, Todzhunsky kozhuun, Todzha, Oka, Sayan crossroads, tourism, transport infrastructure

Cultural landscape characteristics and zoning of traditional villages in Huizhou City

Traditional villages and cultural landscapes harbor rich historical information, representing a crucial agricultural heritage. This systematic categorization of these zones is essential for scientifically identifying their distinctive characteristics and values, thereby focusing protection efforts effectively. This paper focuses on Huizhou City, a typical multicultural area, examining its rich traditional villages and cultural landscapes through a comprehensive index system covering four levels and 22 factors. To categorize the city’s diverse cultural landscape, K-means cluster analysis is employed, resulting in the identification of five traditional village cultural landscape zones, namely the northern mountain valley, the central plain of the Dongjiang River basin, the south-central plain of the Xizhi River basin, the southern coastal area, and the eastern mountainous hills. Each zone exhibits different spatial patterns and landscape characteristics. While this paper offers a preliminary analysis, future research should integrate advanced data analysis methods to comprehensively examine the cultural landscape to guide dynamic protection strategies and facilitate the adaptive reuse of traditional villages.

Rural tourism in Europe from a landscape perspective: A systematic review

This systematic review offers a comprehensive analysis of the current state of knowledge regarding tourism in European traditional multifunctional cultural landscapes (TMCLs) from a landscape perspective. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, this study aims to identify the principal contextual themes, geographical patterns, and drivers of change in TMCL tourism research from a theoretical landscape perspective. The outcomes of this systematic review revealed that the study of tourism in European TMCLs is still in its early stages, characterized by a scarcity of studies and a limited representation of countries within the existing literature. The analyzed papers underscore a restricted focus on local stakeholder preferences and carrying capacity, with only one study acknowledging the concept of landscape services. Conversely, government initiatives and local community engagement emerge as the most influential drivers of change in the tourism sector. In view of these findings, this study accentuates the significance of embracing a holistic approach to tourism that integrates living systems thinking and regenerative tourism as key priorities. Consequently, the study suggests that future research prioritize investigating local stakeholder preferences, carrying capacity, and other contextual variables to overcome the current limitations of the literature and shape tourism towards a more resilient and sustainable future. The results of this systematic review provide valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the field of tourism in TMCLs. Additionally, they serve as a foundational basis for future research endeavors in this domain.

제주도의 토착지식을 활용한 장소 기반 시민성교육

This paper examines the need and possibility of the convergence between school geography education and traditional geographical knowledge. To this end, it empirically analyzes that indigenous knowledge is a knowledge inherent in liberal community citizenship in Jeju Island’s haenyeo community and traditional residential cultural landscape, and that indigenous knowledge of Jeju Island is highly valuable to pass on to future generations as well as the current generation. Ultimately, this emphasizes that the scope of geography education should include not only objective and scientific geographical knowledge that is empirically verified and universally accepted by students, but also traditional geographical knowledge for cultural appropriateness that provides a distinct cultural identity and explanations that are suitable for local emotions and views.

Detection and Monitoring of Woody Vegetation Landscape Features Using Periodic Aerial Photography

Woody vegetation landscape features, such as hedges, tree patches, and riparian vegetation, are important elements of landscape and biotic diversity. For the reason that biodiversity loss is one of the major ecological problems in the EU, it is necessary to establish efficient workflows for the registration and monitoring of woody vegetation landscape features. In the paper, we propose and evaluate a methodology for automated detection of changes in woody vegetation landscape features from a digital orthophoto (DOP). We demonstrate its ability to capture most of the actual changes in the field and thereby provide valuable support for more efficient maintenance of landscape feature layers, which is important for the shaping of future environmental policies. While the most reliable source for vegetation cover mapping is a combination of LiDAR and high-resolution imagery, it can be prohibitively expensive for continuous updates. The DOP from cyclic aerial photography presents an alternative source of up-to-date information for tracking woody vegetation landscape features in-between LiDAR recordings. The proposed methodology uses a segmentation neural network, which is trained with the latest DOP against the last known ground truth as the target. The output is a layer of detected changes, which are validated by the user before being used to update the woody vegetation landscape feature layer. The methodology was tested using the data of a typical traditional Central European cultural landscape, Goričko, in north-eastern Slovenia. The achieved F1 of per-pixel segmentation was 83.5% and 77.1% for two- and five-year differences between the LiDAR-based reference and the DOP, respectively. The validation of the proposed changes at a minimum area threshold of 100 m2 and a minimum area percentage threshold of 20% showed that the model achieved recall close to 90%.

Research on the Changes in Cultural Landscape of Tourist-Type Traditional Chinese Villages from the Perspective of Cultural Memory: Taking Anzhen Village in Chongqing as an Example

With the development of rural tourism, rural culture in China has suffered from development problems. Existing studies focus more on how to protect rural culture, ignoring the dynamic changes in rural culture. Therefore, cultural memory offers an important perspective to review the dynamic process of cultural changes. This paper uses the concept of cultural landscape to explore the changes in rural culture from the perspective of cultural memory. The research methods of historical data analysis and field investigation are used. The change process of the cultural landscape in Anzhen Village is explored. Firstly, the clan-style group life in the traditional human–land relationship is the germination of cultural memory. Secondly, typical Chongqing residential mansions become ways of spatial expression of the local cultural landscape. Thirdly, the group interpretation of the settlement landscape becomes the continuation of local memory. Fourthly, the migration of living settlements in the dual influence of modern transportation and administrative divisions is the deconstruction of local memory. Fifthly, the touristic reconstruction of the traditional cultural landscape is summarized as memory reconstruction. In addition, the factors affecting the changes in the cultural landscape are analyzed from both internal and external aspects. The discussion on the dynamic changes in the cultural landscape provides a theoretical and practical basis for the analysis, protection, and inheritance of rural culture.

Understanding the relationship between tourists’ perceptions of the authenticity of traditional village cultural landscapes and behavioural intentions, mediated by memorable tourism experiences and place attachment

ABSTRACT Traditional village tourism development is influenced by cultural landscape authenticity and tourists’ behavioural intentions. Data was collected from 347 tourists through field surveying. Structural equation modelling was used to explore interactions between traditional village cultural landscape (TVCL) authenticity, memorable tourism experiences (MTE) and place attachment (PA) in driving tourist behavioural intentions. TVCL authenticity, MTE and PA significantly affect behavioural intentions; MTE and PA have significant partial mediating effects on TVCL authenticity and behavioural intentions. The study emphasises the role of cultural landscape authenticity in traditional village tourism, enriches authenticity theory, and promotes rural tourism development and sustainable protection forms.

Modern zoning plans versus traditional landscape structures: Ecosystem service dynamics and interactions in rapidly urbanizing cultural landscapes

Cultural landscapes provide abundant and diverse ecosystem services (ES) for human-wellbeing. However, many traditional cultural landscapes worldwide are currently undergoing rapid urbanization. In decision-making concerning sustainable urbanization, tradeoffs frequently occur between different objectives (i.e., between multiple ES) and between different pathways or urbanization strategies (e.g., following modern zoning principles or traditional landscape structures). This study aims to examine the dynamics and interactions between multiple ES under different strategies for the urbanization of cultural landscapes. A case study was conducted in Nansha, China. Three scenarios—business-as-usual, zoning plan-based, and traditional landscape structure-based—were developed to reflect the most common urbanization strategies, each parameterized with identical land-use quantities. Land-use change from 2020 to 2035 under different scenarios was simulated using the PLUS model (integrated Random Forest and Cellular Automata models). The traditional landscape structure-based scenario used the settlement pattern before urbanization to predict the chances of future urban areas’ occurrence. Eleven ES indicators were used to examine ES dynamics and interactions in the simulation outcomes. The results showed that the amount of ES provided by the landscape declined and significant tradeoffs occurred between cultural and non-cultural ES. The business-as-usual scenario resulted in the greatest decrease in ES. The zoning plan-based scenario did not offer a significant improvement over the business-as-usual scenario. The traditional landscape structure-based scenario was the most effective in limiting ES decline, which also mitigated the tradeoff between urban development and flood regulation and fostered synergy between urban efficiency and ecotourism opportunity. Based on these findings, we recommend that traditional landscape structures should be emphasized in the development of cultural landscapes.

'That Chuitt River is Ours': Traditional Cultural Landscapes and the National Historic Preservation Act

'That Chuitt River is Ours': Traditional Cultural Landscapes and the National Historic Preservation Act

National Park or Cultural Landscape Preservation? What the Soil Seed Bank Reveals for Plant Diversity Conservation

National parks play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity, mainly excluding human influence following the IUCN approach. However, in Europe, they are often characterized by a high percentage of traditional cultural landscape elements, which require active management. This calls into question whether the national park protection strategy is always appropriate. Here, we follow this question by taking the soil seed bank of various habitats of the Asinara National Park (Sardinia, Italy) as an example. Asinara is a suitable model region, as the island mainly consists of traditional cultural landscape elements, but the main conservation goals include afforestation plans and nature development promotion, which creates a trade-off between the conservation of forest vs. cultural landscapes. We investigated the soil seed bank, standing vegetation, and environmental factors in different cultural and natural habitats. Since the highest species richness and diversity were revealed for cultural vegetation units, they need to be of primary concern regarding the preservation of the island’s phytodiversity. Given the main objective of the conservation of biodiversity in the Asinara National Park, we conclude that a biosphere reserve with an adapted sustainable land-use management might be more suitable than a national park to account for both natural and cultural landscape preservation. This conclusion applies to many other European national parks.

The Painter Werner Peiner, the Culture of the German Oil Industry, and the Nature of Hitler’s State

Abstract This article examines the monumental mosaics, large stained glass windows, and illustrated maps that the German painter Werner Peiner (1897–1984), now best known for his designs for the representative buildings of Hitler’s dictatorship, produced between 1931 and 1935 for Shell Oil and its German subsidiary. The discussion of these commissions, which emerged from Peiner’s social networks of the 1920s and contributed to his career as a state artist after 1933, explains their function as ideological images promoting the interests of a global corporation and affirming modern automotive technology using conservative, mythologizing tropes of paradisical nature, traditional cultural landscapes, and immutable national communities that the painter later employed in his work for Hitler’s state.

On the Synergy in the Sustainable Development of Cultural Landscape in Traditional Villages under the Measure of Balanced Development Index: Case Study of the Zhejiang Province

Regional balance has an important role in driving the sustainable development of the entire society. The fast, ever-increasing urbanization advances are widening the gap between urban and rural areas, which is an ongoing global problem attracting much attention all over the world. Currently, balanced development occupies the highest priority in social development goals in the Chinese society. It aims at driving sustainable development in rural areas and promoting the urban–rural synergistic development to establish a balanced relationship. In this study, we consider the Zhejiang Province as an example and explore the synergy of the sustainable development of the traditional village cultural landscape based on the balanced development index. Based on the growth synergy model and the fractal aggregation dimension model of the complexity theory, this study discusses the overall characteristics of growth and aggregation synergies of the cultural landscape in traditional villages in the Zhejiang Province. We propose the synergistic activation path for the sustainable development of the cultural landscape in traditional villages under the perspective of “cultural balance” in three aspects: space, society, and industry, with a view to provide a theoretical basis and guiding suggestions for promoting sustainable and regional balanced development of villages.

Ecological and historical factors behind the spatial structure of the historical field patterns in the Czech Republic

Historical field systems are an essential part of the traditional cultural landscape of societies with primarily agricultural subsistence. They embody many functions and values, as they affect the productional, ecological and hydrological functioning of the landscape, its cultural values, the way people perceive the landscape, and their impact on present-day farming. As an aspect of the historical landscape, field systems are a topic investigated in landscape archaeology, environmental studies, historical geography, landscape ecology, and related disciplines. Historical field systems can form many complex spatial structures, shapes and patterns. This paper focuses on identifying environmental and historical/cultural driving forces during the formation and the historical development of various field pattern types. We worked with 523 settlements established in the medieval to the early modern period (approx. 900–1600 AD) in the present-day Czech Republic. We have determined the proportions of different field pattern types in the examined cadastres and have statistically compared them with a variety of environmental and geographical predictors. Our results indicate a strong influence of environmental predictors (terrain undulation, cadastre size), the impact of specific historical events and associated social changes (e.g. land confiscations by the state in the seventeenth century), and a significant relationship between field pattern types and settlement layout types. Furthermore, we have observed the different adaptations of field pattern types to similar environmental conditions, as well as the impact of social and political factors on the processes of landscape formation. Our paper provides the first detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of traditional field systems on the scale of an entire modern state, and emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary research on cultural landscapes.

Artificial Intelligence in the Protection and Inheritance of Cultural Landscape Heritage in Traditional Village

To continue to protect and inherit the cultural landscape heritage of traditional villages, starting from the perspective of artificial intelligence (AI), literature review methods are used, and related theories are collected. Then, Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province in the traditional villages is taken as the research object. By analyzing the tourism income of this place from 2016 to 2020, the overall income of this county is relatively good. In fact, due to the weak protection of traditional villages in Wuyuan County, the lack of supervision awareness, the implementation of the “immigrant and relocation” policy, and the backward thinking of residents, the cultural landscape of traditional villages has collapsed and destroyed. Up to now, there are 113 ancient ancestral temples, 28 ancient mansion houses, 36 ancient private houses, 187 ancient bridges, and only 12 ancient villages. Finally, AI technology is applied to the cultural landscape of traditional villages. Through image restoration technology, traditional villages can be restored to a certain extent. Intelligent positioning and radio frequency (RF) technology can also realize real-time monitoring of traditional villages from the perspective of weather and service life to achieve the purpose of protecting cultural landscape heritage. Therefore, AI technology is applied in the protection and inheritance of traditional village cultural landscape heritage, which has great reference significance for the management of various historical and cultural heritage.

Quantifying the ecosystem service of non‐native weed seed predation in traditional terraced paddy fields

AbstractWeed seed predation is an important ecosystem service in paddy areas. To conserve and sustainably utilize this service, it is necessary to quantify the seed predation and reveal the relative contributions of seed predators. In this study, we quantified the extent of postdispersal seed predation of Lolium multiflorum Lam., a non‐native invasive grass weed, on levees of terraced paddy fields located in a traditional cultural landscape (satoyama landscape) of Japan. We investigated the temporal variability in seed predation of L. multiflorum during summer after the seed shed, and estimated the total seed loss due to predation on the levees of terraced paddy fields for 2 years. Furthermore, the relative contribution of invertebrates and vertebrates to the seed predation was estimated based on exclosures. The total seed loss due to predation during 4 months (from late June to late October) was consistently high (>99%) in both years (the maximum proportion of seed predation per 2 weeks = 80.0–86.7%). The seed predators were likely to be mainly invertebrates such as crickets and ground beetles. This study revealed that the seed predation intensity was consistently high and can be an important depletion factor for the seedbanks of weeds such as L. multiflorum on the levees of terraced paddy fields. The high intensity of seed predation by invertebrates might suppress the invasion and population expansion of L. multiflorum on the levees of terraced paddy fields.

Do Traditional Livestock Systems Fit into Contemporary Landscapes? Integrating Social Perceptions and Values on Landscape Change

European traditional cultural landscapes are increasingly modified by rural abandonment and urban growth processes. Acknowledged as of High Nature Value for providing multiple ecosystem services while contributing to human well-being, the future of these social-ecological systems is uncertain. Here we aim to (1) explore dominant land use and cover (LULC) changes linked to extensive livestock farming across an urban-rural gradient defined by a large city (Madrid) over the last three decades; (2) identify and classify the main driving forces shaping these landscape trajectories and; (3) acknowledge the main landscape values for promoting landscape stewardship under participatory governance frameworks. For doing so, we combine mapping analyses (CORINE Land cover) with stakeholder perceptions and positions. Our results show a dual process of progressive abandonment of agroecosystems linked to traditional livestock farming and an ever-increasing urban growth over the last three decades as the most important driving forces. The growing urban sprawl in areas close to Madrid begins to be perceived as problematic for interviewees. The decline of extensive livestock farming in detriment of tourism, particularly evident in rural areas far from Madrid, is perceived as a threat to the cultural heritage and traditions of rural people. This decline is also perceived as a worrying increase of wildfire risk. Stakeholders stressed the need of valuing extensive livestock farming to prevent rural-urban migration, dynamizing rural economies, conserving landscapes and traditions while producing food-quality products. Interviewees advocated for science-based, stakeholder-inclusive and participatory landscape planning and co-management, leading to more context-specific, regionalized policymaking.

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.

Diffusion of Organic Agriculture in Russia: Features and Implications for Rural Development

—In recent decades, organic agriculture has played an increasingly prominent role in the global and Russian agricultural sector. This trend emerged in opposition to industrial agrarian production, in response to growing demands for environmental protection and social justice. The article analyzes the place of organic agriculture among the agrarian systems of the mid-20th–early 21st centuries, the specifics of its development in Russia, and the geographical patterns of this process. In contrast to European countries, large investors initially gave impetus to development of the sector in Russia; the main motives of pioneers were associated with healthy eating and to a lesser extent with environmental or social issues. From the standpoint of the theory of diffusion of innovation, the development of organic agriculture is in its early stages; however, the number of farms and land areas under organic production are steadily growing, service industries and sales channels are being formed, and an institutional environment has been arisen in the form of industry associations and national legislation. The location of farms with different specializations can be traced to the dependence on natural conditions and the agrarian history of the territory. Refineries gravitate towards Moscow as the largest sales market. The last part of the article discusses the implications of organic agriculture for the development of rural areas in Russia: mitigating socioeconomic contrasts between suburban and peripheral rural areas, preserving the traditional cultural landscape and supporting rural tourism, and promoting environmental ideology in the agricultural sector and in society.