Claire Portal

The Shape of a City: Geomorphological Landscapes, Abiotic Urban Environment, and Geoheritage in the Western World: the Example of Parks and Gardens

Recognition of geodiversity and of its heritage aspects has resulted in new perceptions of abiotic forms and landscapes. While protected natural areas are often the preferred sites for the study of these new forms of heritage, the urban environment appears to be less subject to scientific study, protection, and geoheritage enhancement. And yet, since the building of the very first cities, natural and artificial abiotic nature has constituted an essential component of urban landscapes. A heritage approach to abiotic forms first developed in the 1990s. It involves a reinterpretation of urban forms and of relationships between towns and geomorphological landscapes, which goes beyond the dual constraint/resource view of nature in urban sites: landforms have gradually become viewed as a new form of heritage associated with history, the urban landscape, and contemporary multidisciplinary studies into “nature in the city.” The objective of this article is to analyze the emergence of this heritage dimension in the abiotic city/nature landscape relationship. We will begin by demonstrating that urban sites do in fact display landscape features, which have been taken into account since antiquity, and that the representations of abiotic forms have evolved at the same pace as temporalities inherent in urban change. Secondly, to illustrate these new perceptions, we will undertake an analysis of the geomorphological landscapes of urban parks and gardens which are so emblematic of the Western world. A typology of the geomorphological heritage landscapes which make up abiotic urban nature will then be discussed, locating urban forms at the interface between nature and culture.