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Ten connected landscape propositions
Landscape Planning, 1 (1974) 373-374 0 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
Views and Ideas The section views and ideas is intended for short contributions, within the scope of the journal, which are not research papers or fullbodied review articles. These may be brief reports on current trends, ideas for research topics, critical notes, discussions of published works (other than book reviews), background information to understanding problems encountered in landscape planning and management, etc. Submission of manuscripts by readers of the iournal is welcomed.
TEN CONNECTED LANDSCAPE PROPOSITIONS (1) Landscape suitability - Landscapes differ in their capacity to supporb human activity. Given a particular use or catagory of uses, some places are more suitable than others. (2) Landscape resilience - Landscapes differ in their capacity to accept and sustain human interaction. Given a particular use, some places are more fragile than others. (3) Landscape pattern language - There is a profound need for a shared understanding of landscape capacities and the probable consequences of human interaction. Our evolving understanding of the basic relationships which produce richly supportive environments may be recorded as patterns. These shared patterns are the foundations of community and a language for healthy change. (4) Conservation and development - The name of the aggregate of these shared patterns of understanding is conservation, which also means wise use and management. All planned change, i.e. development, must be evaluated against this metaphysical, humanistic base which can also be called enlightened self interest. Development should be synonymous with healthy, economic and socially desirable interaction with our natural systems. (5) Landscape context - Overcoming the “tragedy of the commons” effect in the use of our land, air and water is a strategic necessity. A shared understanding of the carrying capacity of a system, place or area provides a required landscape context for local community and private decision-making. (6) Currying capacity - Carrying capacity is an evolving cultural model for describing limits for human interaction with natural systems. These limits are empirical and best approximations of landscape resilience. In its simplist form carrying capacity is an expression of a functional limit between a user and a resource in order to maintain a continually available and healthy supply. More complexly it is a measure of the probable limits of interaction of a group of users in a place or area.
374
(7) Small is beautiful and necessary - The scale and rate of development should be such that it encourages and ,promotes community participation. Environmental alterations should be small enough and slow enough to enable full comprehension and the assessment of probable consequences. (8) Landscapes as natural and cultural history - Existing landscape patterns are a record of natural events through geologic time adjusted and extended by more recent cultural activity. These patterns are a behavioral reflection of our societal, local community and private values, translated through policies and participation into places. It is in this sense that a landscape is a three dimensional expression of our culture. Environmental health and cultural health are one and the same. (9) Understanding landscape forces - The forces which affect landscape change often originate far from the area or place of their actual application. They are widely varied in efficacy and in the scope of their consequences. Reading the cultural landscape requires the ability to decipher and untangle the web of multi-scaled and simultaneous pressures acting on places. Strategies for dealing with landscape forces must recognize their diversity of origin, scale and capacity to effect change.
(10) Planning and managing landscape change - Landscape planning and management are processes for dealing with the complexity of changing areas and places. Within a context of environmental and cultural health they must provide an orchestration of means for integrating the plurality of values and activities in an evolving cultural landscape. Pre-emptive zoning hinders this healthy integration of interests and uses in places and must give way to more complex, management-oriented divisions of the landscape. JEROME
DIETHELM
(Eugene,
Oreg., U.S.A.)
note: any comments readers may have on this contribution be welcomed and should be sent to the Editorial Office.
Editor’s
would
Views and Ideas The section views and ideas is intended for short contributions, within the scope of the journal, which are not research papers or fullbodied review articles. These may be brief reports on current trends, ideas for research topics, critical notes, discussions of published works (other than book reviews), background information to understanding problems encountered in landscape planning and management, etc. Submission of manuscripts by readers of the iournal is welcomed.
TEN CONNECTED LANDSCAPE PROPOSITIONS (1) Landscape suitability - Landscapes differ in their capacity to supporb human activity. Given a particular use or catagory of uses, some places are more suitable than others. (2) Landscape resilience - Landscapes differ in their capacity to accept and sustain human interaction. Given a particular use, some places are more fragile than others. (3) Landscape pattern language - There is a profound need for a shared understanding of landscape capacities and the probable consequences of human interaction. Our evolving understanding of the basic relationships which produce richly supportive environments may be recorded as patterns. These shared patterns are the foundations of community and a language for healthy change. (4) Conservation and development - The name of the aggregate of these shared patterns of understanding is conservation, which also means wise use and management. All planned change, i.e. development, must be evaluated against this metaphysical, humanistic base which can also be called enlightened self interest. Development should be synonymous with healthy, economic and socially desirable interaction with our natural systems. (5) Landscape context - Overcoming the “tragedy of the commons” effect in the use of our land, air and water is a strategic necessity. A shared understanding of the carrying capacity of a system, place or area provides a required landscape context for local community and private decision-making. (6) Currying capacity - Carrying capacity is an evolving cultural model for describing limits for human interaction with natural systems. These limits are empirical and best approximations of landscape resilience. In its simplist form carrying capacity is an expression of a functional limit between a user and a resource in order to maintain a continually available and healthy supply. More complexly it is a measure of the probable limits of interaction of a group of users in a place or area.
374
(7) Small is beautiful and necessary - The scale and rate of development should be such that it encourages and ,promotes community participation. Environmental alterations should be small enough and slow enough to enable full comprehension and the assessment of probable consequences. (8) Landscapes as natural and cultural history - Existing landscape patterns are a record of natural events through geologic time adjusted and extended by more recent cultural activity. These patterns are a behavioral reflection of our societal, local community and private values, translated through policies and participation into places. It is in this sense that a landscape is a three dimensional expression of our culture. Environmental health and cultural health are one and the same. (9) Understanding landscape forces - The forces which affect landscape change often originate far from the area or place of their actual application. They are widely varied in efficacy and in the scope of their consequences. Reading the cultural landscape requires the ability to decipher and untangle the web of multi-scaled and simultaneous pressures acting on places. Strategies for dealing with landscape forces must recognize their diversity of origin, scale and capacity to effect change.
(10) Planning and managing landscape change - Landscape planning and management are processes for dealing with the complexity of changing areas and places. Within a context of environmental and cultural health they must provide an orchestration of means for integrating the plurality of values and activities in an evolving cultural landscape. Pre-emptive zoning hinders this healthy integration of interests and uses in places and must give way to more complex, management-oriented divisions of the landscape. JEROME
DIETHELM
(Eugene,
Oreg., U.S.A.)
note: any comments readers may have on this contribution be welcomed and should be sent to the Editorial Office.
Editor’s
would