En-Route International Seminar – Landscape at Risk

LANDSCAPE AT RISK RECHARGED: THE NEW CONTEXT

The international seminar Landscape at Risk was originally launched in November 2019 and was scheduled to take place at the end of May 2020. Due to the pandemic the event had to be postponed, with its organization and format adapted to the new context. The seminar will now be held in June 2021 in blended mode, i.e. there will be a physical conference venue in Naples and participants who wish/are able to come to Naples are welcome. Otherwise it will be possible to participate and develop a presentation via the web.

During this long year the Organizational Committee has collected and selected the full papers, submitted them to double blind peer review and printed them in two volumes. Furthermore, we have conceived a new formula with many appealing events described below.

Post-pandemic landscapes at risk

The pandemic has changed our daily lives and habits: how we work, learn and interact. Social distancing guidelines have led to a more virtual existence, both personally and professionally. Landscapes have obviously been affected, not only in the way they are perceived but also as regards the intensity of the phenomena that usually put them at risk (i.e. abandonment, tourism) or our understanding of risks and the way to cope with them.

Participants are asked to provide, at the end of their presentation, some food for thought concerning post-pandemic landscapes at risk with reference to the topics they have covered. Considerations coming from participants will be included in the Selected Lectures on Landscapes at Risk described here below.

The European Landscape Convention (ELC) has yielded important results by promoting approaches oriented to landscape conservation and enhancement. Nevertheless, in the present context, risks and hazards threatening landscape resources have increased at an alarming rate: environmental risks intensified by unregulated urban development, climate change, excessive landscape exploitation or, on the other hand, landscape abandonment and depopulation.

Twenty years on from the enactment of the ELC, the seminar sets out to take stock of how much is still required to cope with all the different forms of risk threatening “the significant or characteristic features of a landscape, justified by its heritage value derived from its natural configuration and/or from human activity” (ELC, 2000).

The seminar aims to deal with all the different factors that can cause alteration, degradation, depletion or loss of material and immaterial assets that mark out landscapes. Therefore, risk is also understood as risk of alteration or interruption of the relationship between community and places which leads to creating landscape features in the first place.

The issue “Landscapes at risk” will be addressed in its many meanings, starting from landscapes affected by natural risks, moving to those suffering from shrinkage or gentrification, or even overexploitation and/or congestion, up to landscapes in transition.

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

The re-scheduled seminar will be held in June 2021 in blended modality, i.e. there will be a physical conference venue in a specially equipped building of the University of Naples “Federico II” and participants who wish/are able to come to Naples are welcome. Otherwise, it will be possible to participate and develop a presentation via the web.

Session Landscapes at Risk of Abandonment
Session Landscapes at Risk of Overexploitation and Tourism Southern Italian Landscapes at Risk Video
Campania Region Landscape Planning Presentation

CALL FOR ABSTRACT

Call for abstract is closed.

CALL FOR VIDEO

The UNISCAPE Napoli group intends to build up a media archive on Southern Italian Landscapes at Risk. For this purpose, a call for videos is launched. All the details and deadlines are provided in the attached file.

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES

In order to finalize the seminar programme, participants are asked to send confirm their physical or virtual presence by May 15th and submit their presentation to infouniscape@unina.it by May 28th 2021.

PROCEEDINGS AND FINAL BOOK

The papers submitted for the Landscape at Risk En-Route Seminar 2020 have already been peer-reviewed and published in the Special Issue No. 4 of Sustainable Mediterranean Construction, a journal indexed in Scopus (ISSN 2420-8213). Volume 1 was published in July 2020. Volume 2 is almost ready to be published.
At the end of the seminar, Selected Lectures on Landscapes at Risk will be published. It will host an extended version of best papers, as well as selected suggestions from the keynote speakers, roundtable speakers and all the participants, who are asked to provide, at the end of their presentation during the seminar, some food for thought concerning post concerning post-pandemic landscapes at risk with reference to the topics they have covered.