Zdeněk Lipský

Landscape Diagnosis on Different Space and Time Scales – A Challenge for Landscape Planning

Landscape diagnosis provides a bridge between scientific knowledge and socio-economic issues that is needed to meet the demands of sophisticated landscape planning and management. The diagnostic assessment of landscape functions (capacities, goods and services supported by the landscape) at different spatio-temporal scales is a valuable tool that can solve the transformation problem. A variety of landscape classification systems – including biophysical and landscape units – can be applied as a spatial reference system. Examples are described from the multitude of approaches to assess landscape functions that can be employed in landscape diagnosis. The theoretical and methodological aspects of the approach are illustrated using examples both from Germany and the Czech Republic. The examples focus on landscape functions such as groundwater recharge, regulation of water balance, and resistance to wind erosion. In addition, the rarity of and threats to landscape types, landscape aesthetic values, and the landscape character and landscape persistence are discussed.

Mapping and typology of unused lands in the territory of the town Kutná Hora (Czech Republic)

The paper presents results of the field mapping of abandoned lands in the administrative district of the city of Kutna Hora in the Central Bohemia, comprising 7 cadastral territories stretching over a total area of 33 square kilometres. Field mapping on the scale 1 : 10,000 was effectively corrected on the basis of the intepretation of detailed aerial photographs. The present survey provides a simple typology of all mapped areas of abandoned lands according to their origination, age and the character of their current vegetation communities. The results confirm a high diversity and relatively high share of abandoned lands in suburban landscape. They cover more than 17% of the surveyed territory and can particularly be found on the outskirts of the city, forming a transition from cityscape to rural landscape. They originated in all 3 defined time periods: before 1990, 1990–2000 and after 2000. Post-agrarian categories represent more than 63%, post-mining 10% and post-industrial 8% of all abandoned lands. The lands have crucial ecological and social functions. Their mapping and documentation can form an interesting basis for nature and landscape protection, as well as for the territorial and landscape planning.

Present Changes in European Rural Landscapes

Landscape changes represent an extremely wide as well as very important and topical issue in landscape sciences. The number of papers in scientific journals that focus on the topic of landscape changes has been increasing explosively during the last two decades . Among many conferences, workshops and seminars dealing with the topic of landscape changes, the seminar Landscape change and its ecological consequences in Europe held in Tilburg in 1995, from which the important report on the state of land use and landscape change in Europe in the 1990s was published (Jongman), should be mentioned. The importance of recent landscape changes and their consequences are further discussed in the monograph edited by Mander and Jongman . The international seminar organised in Norwegian Tromso in June 2006 has a concise title: Landscape Change: Learning from the past – Visions for the future.