UNISCAPE called for papers with the aim to select contributions to be included in the Conference publications, concerning the topics described by the three thematic sessions.
[download the abstracts of the selected papers for publication]
A. LANDSCAPE POLICY AND GOVERNACE
The European Landscape Convention, signed in 2000 and entered into force in 2004, is nowadays ratified by 40 Countries. For the first time in history, all these countries, with rich and diverse cultural roots and institutional frameworks, agree on a legal definition of landscape and common goals for landscape policies.
The implementation of the ELC has had an impact on legislations, on governance and administrative processes, and on spatial planning systems, ushering in innovations as well as presenting challenges. This session will focus on innovations and impacts of the ELC on national frameworks, and current challenges at regional and local levels; and to show to what extent the ELC has contributed to creating a baseline and a common language.
TOPIC 1 | Landscape policies and juridical issues in implementing the ELC
A comparative perspective is always challenging. Nevertheless, this session proposes to review legislation and regulation across European Countries, under the following themes:
The legal definition of landscape and its multifaceted perspective, and the implications for institutions and related competences at the national level;
The relationship between landscape, cultural heritage, environmental law and urban planning law; Landscape protection systems and related categories of designation;
The role of landscape planning within the spatial planning system (sectoral/Integrated Local/ Regional);
Landscape Monitoring systems, related bodies, how they function and the processes applied.
TOPIC 2 | Landscape democracy and rights
Participation and its content: the right to landscape?
The ELC is an initiative of the CoE Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, managed by the General Directorate of Democracy. Since its inception, democracy and participation are key principles of the ELC, yet remain the most challenging to be implemented. Recently, the concept of “common goods” has brought new insights, but is still to be debated as a legal topic.
From an institutional perspective, it would be interesting to see how and to what extent the States reply to the call for participation by ad hoc procedures.
KEYWORDS |LANDSCAPE POLICIES | LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE | JURIDICAL ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING THE ELC | LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND REGULATION | LANDSCAPE RIGHT AND PARTICIPATION
Landscape as a continuous project assigns a decisive role to the integrated prefiguration of territory and of the spaces of life and production. The conformation of living space, of city and territory, as well of the formal process and integration between the different ecosystems, gives rise to ever wider, even global, responsibilities with regard to achieving a balance between the different determining factors.
It is evident how in the design, implementation and protection of landscape, including policies, good practices and perspectives, design tools have been prefigured over the last 20 years in to protect and adapt landscape in relation to changing environmental, economic and cultural conditions.
Making landscape is here intended in the sense of its production and its continuous transformation depending on a project, that is to say on a complex prefiguration of places, resources, spaces, nature, constructions, physical and cultural relationships, elaborated by design experts able to integrate competences on the basis of a shared vision of the future, from which the actions, processes and forms of the territory can derive their sense.
The interest focuses specifically on a landscape project that:
• infrastructures, conforms and produces sustainable realities;
• cares and takes care of the territory over the long term of transformation;
• cultivates visions and new imaginations;
• defines itself at different scales and in the continuous relationship between them;
• is inclusive and never finished because it is always open to new relationships, new processes and progressive adaptations.
TOPIC 1 | Infra-Structural Landscapes
The landscape project expressed through an active infrastructure, able to take care of places, to conform and produce sustainable realities, enhancing resources and production systems, to feed coordinated actions between interventions of transformation of the territory, irrespective of administrative boundaries. An open project that does not aim at completion of an arrangement, but at the creation of an articulated system capable of being inclusive and of welcoming progressive adaptation to continuously changing conditions.
TOPIC 2 | Landscape Time Designed
The making of the landscape over a long period of time, where time is considered as an agent of an open and adaptive form, capable of taking on the processes that qualify the landscape. The project unavoidably articulates its intervention across different scales of action that activates multiple relationships and an integrated vision. In this case, the ability of the project to overcome a one- dimensional vision of the territories to formulate possible relationships between innovation and tradition, to implant and cultivate integrated visions, feeding imaginations.
KEYWORDS | LANDSCAPE MAKING | CARE | TRANSITION | FORMS OF TIME | OPEN PROJECT
According to the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe concerning the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention (CM/Rec(2008)3), LANDSCAPE OBSERVATORIES can significantly contribute to the continuous and systematic observation of the landscape and to the exchange of information serving the protection, management and planning of European Landscapes.
During the last 20 years and as a consequence of their direct connection to the specific needs and expectations of the places where they operate and of the communities for whom they work, landscape observatories have redefined or incorporated new functions to the ones initially foreseen. Thus, in addition to the description of the condition and evolution of landscapes, the exchange of information and experiences, the definition of indicators to assess the effectiveness of landscape policies and analysis of trends and prediction of forward-looking scenarios, landscape observatories are now engaged in a wide palette of tasks that are often related to their origin, evolution or assigned role.
On the 20th anniversary of the ELC, UNISCAPE wants to open a critical, imaginative and constructive discussion about the contribution of Landscape Observatories in the implementation of the ELC. What has been learnt during the last years? What have been the main successes and failures? What can be the contribution of landscapes observatories in the future? What steps would be needed to achieve those future contributions?
TOPIC 1 | Landscape Observatories: concept, models and main contributions
This topic invites academic reflections on the Landscape Observatory concept and its evolution, the role of Landscape Observatories in landscape protection, management and planning and comparative analyses/studies of different landscape observatory models (structure, functions, methods, assigned roles, etc.). These reflections can be accompanied by an analysis of the main contributions generated by Landscape Observatories during their previous or current activity, either on a general level or with respect to some specific topics or studies. Descriptive but also propositive and critical approaches are welcome as well as references to existing theory in the presented topics.
TOPIC 2 | Landscape Observatories: post 2020 agenda and future roles
This topic welcomes reflections on the potential contribution of Landscape Observatories in the detection of emergent landscape dynamics and in the definition of potential solutions for new or acute challenges affecting European Landscapes such as land-use transformations, demographic and sociological shifts, climate change adaptation and mitigation, the need for new models of governance, sustainable development, etc. In addition, the contributions are invited that elaborate on the factors and models that could support a more effective involvement of Landscape Observatories in the evolution of the landscape. Critical analysis and identification of potential solutions for the presented topics are welcome.
KEYWORDS? | LANDSCAPE OBSERVATORY | LANDSCAPE PLANNING | LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT | LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE | PUBLIC PARTICIPATION