Landscape Quality Assessment: from place to utopia

Dealing with the high complexity of global port cities allowed me to test a new approach to the issue of quality and value of places in hybrid and hyper dynamic urban landscapes. The ELC assigned the task of evaluating the quality of the landscape to perception, relying on society’s consensus. The method: to interpret “landscape quality objectives as (…) vectors of transformation” means to provide LCA with powerful tools. It implies a paradigm shift from a conception allowing landscape quality to be measured in quantitative terms, with thresholds and standards, as well as from the concept of “landscape protection” – a “Planning approach” implemented through the imposition of restrictions – to that of “landscape care” – a “Design approach” carried out through sustainable transformations.

2020

Landscape quality (LQ) is understood as the state in which its (landscape) spatial, functional and visual structure is found at a given time. To measure this landscape characteristic different research methods and data types are needed including GIS techniques and remote sensing data as well as interviews and questionnaires, results of social perception studies, analysis of documents, registers and statistical data, landscape visual studies and 3D drawings. Presented study aims to fully analyze the LQ of the Roztocze region based on above mentioned methods. To do so, the categorization of 24 quantitative indices was applied. Results indicated high structural and ecological values, medium visual values and values of spatial harmony and low cultural and perceptual properties of analyzed area. The study results also showed the great importance of spatial data and GIS techniques in LQ assessment.

Just published in May 2018 - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317621041 In this multi-authored book, senior practitioners and researchers offer an international overview of landscape character approaches for those working in research, policy and practice relating to landscape. Over the last three decades, European practice in landscape has moved from a narrow, if relatively straightforward, focus on natural beauty or scenery to a much broader concept of landscape character constructed through human perception, and transcending any of its individual elements. Methods, tools and techniques have been developed to give practical meaning to this idea of landscape character. The two main methods, Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) and Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) were applied first in the United Kingdom, but other methods are in use elsewhere in Europe, and beyond, to achieve similar ends. This book explores why different approaches exist, the extent to which disci...

Bagh-e Nazar, 2018

In landscape architecture, the concept of landscape has always been linked to two facets namely objectivity and subjectivity, and it has shown an inseparable bond between human and the environment. The tight-knit and intertwined relationship of the qualitative and quantitative issues makes it difficult to understand and, consequently, to evaluate the landscape concept. During the history of landscape, and especially in recent years, many efforts have been made to assess the landscape and its various aspects. Most research has attempted to separate objective aspects from the subjective ones and numerically evaluate each one separately in a landscape assessment. Previous studies have evaluated the physique of environment , and human perceptions of the environment, some strands of studies have assessed the landscape assessed from the environmental aspect and investigated it ecologically , Some researchers have considered it objectively regardless of humans and their minds while , some have s viewed it as merely subjective issue . To assess the concept of landscape, it is necessary to simultaneously evaluate the objective and subjective process and discover the relations between them. Therefore, this research is an attempt to collect and organize library documents, including different methods of landscape evaluation in various objective and subjective fields, and to analyze them deductively and, and to study the existing methods, and suggest a model for landscape assessment.

Ecological Indicators, 2010

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

In an EU concerted action a checklist with criteria for the development of sustainable rural landscape was created. The idea of the concerted action was to bring together experts from various disciplines involved in management of the countryside. They represented disciplines from ␤, ␥ and ␣ oriented sciences, ranging form environmentalists over sociologists to cultural geographers. They were all asked to list their (discipline's) criteria and parameters for a sustainable management of the landscape. From all these criteria and parameters a checklist has been established. This checklist is presented in this paper, accompanied by an explanation of its basic concept that draws upon Maslow, its context, its methodology and its use. Finally summaries are presented of the ways the checklist, in various stages of its development, has been used in several European country countrysides. It can be concluded that the checklist is a useful tool for valuing the contribution of farms viz. farming systems to the regional development and the sustainability of the landscape. It was found that organic farms included in the sample of our research often performed rather well in that perspective as compared to the non-organic farms in that region.

Sustainability , 2019

We introduce a field survey method to assess the conservation condition of landscapes. Using a popular rapid assessment format, this study defines observable “stressed states” identified through the use of general metrics to gauge landscape degradation. Fifteenmetrics within six thematic categories were selected through a literature review and extensive field trials. Field tests on the Greek island of Samothraki show a strong correlation between a single expert’s scores and five assessor’s scores at 35 landscape sites. Only three of the metrics did not maintain a high consistency among assessors; however, this is explained by the difficulty of interpreting certain anthropogenic stressors (such as livestock grazing) in Mediterranean semi-natural landscapes with culturally-modified vegetation patterns. The protocol and proposed index, with five conservation condition classes, identified areas of excellent and good quality, and reliably distinguished the most degraded landscape conditions on the island. Uncertainties and difficulties of the index are investigated, and further research and validation are proposed. The protocol effectively goes beyond a traditional visual aesthetic assessment; it can be used both by experts and non-scientists as a conservation-relevant multi-disciplinary procedure to support a holistic landscape diagnosis. The combination of an on-site experiential survey and its simple integrative format may be useful as a screening-level index, and for promoting local participation, landscape literacy and educational initiatives.

International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, 2015

Anna Miklošovičová was born in Bratislava, Slovakia on April 12, 1984. She studied at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of landscape ecology, where she finished all three degrees of university education (bachelor, master and doctoral degree) and also additional rigorous study (RNDr.). She studied environmental planning and management, specialised on abiotic parameters of landscape and their changes due to human activities. Her doctoral thesis was aimed on developing methodology for evaluation of rural landscape quality on the basis of selected indicators, which include objective and also subjective approaches of landscape quality evaluation. She works at the oldest university in the Slovak Republic, Comenius University in Bratislava. Nowadays, she started to work on the project "The Comenius University in Bratislava Science park (Slovakia)" for the activity Environ-medicine for the 21st Century-biotic and abiotic factors of the country and their influence. Previously, she worked on the European Union's programme TEMPUS No. 511390-TEMPUS-1-2010-1-SK-Tempus-JPCR which supports the modernisation of higher education in the EU's surrounding area. During the doctoral studies, she cooperated on various VEGA projects of Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education in Slovakia. She was also a responsible researcher of Comenius University grants for young scientific researchers. She was also participated in number of international summer/winter schools. Dr. Miklošovičová is a member of the European Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe) and also its regional organization IALE-SK (Slovakia). Martin Kaczara was born in Lučenec, Slovakia on March 16, 1985. He studied at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of landscape ecology, where he finished all three degrees of university education (bachelor, master and doctoral degree). He studied environmental planning and management, specialised on abiotic parameters of landscape and their changes due to human activities. The doctoral thesis was aimed on the typification of the abiotic environment of grasslands in light of their liability to soil erosion due to livestock grazing. He works at the oldest university in the Slovak Republic, Comenius University in Bratislava. Nowadays, he started to work on the project "The Comenius University in Bratislava Science park (Slovakia)" for the activity Environ-medicine for the 21 st Century-biotic and abiotic factors of the country and their influence. During the doctoral studies, he cooperated on several VEGA projects of Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of Ministry of Education in Slovakia,. He was also a responsible researcher of Comenius University grants for young scientific researchers.

desconhecido, 2011

Os Primórdios da Computação Apesar dos computadores eletrônicos terem efetivamente aparecido somente na década de 40, os fundamentos em que se baseiam remontam a centenas ou até mesmo milhares de anos. Se levarmos em conta que o termo COMPUTAR significa fazer cálculos, contar, efetuar operações aritméticas, COMPUTADOR seria então o mecanismo ou máquina que auxilia essa tarefa, com vantagens no tempo gasto e na precisão. Inicialmente o homem utilizou seus próprios dedos para essa tarefa, dando origem ao sistema DECIMAL e aos termos DIGITAL e DIGITO. Para auxílio deste método, eram usados gravetos, contas ou marcas na parede. A partir do momento que o homem pré-histórico trocou seus hábitos nômades por aldeias e tribos fixas, desenvolvendo a lavoura, tornou-se necessário um método para a contagem do tempo, delimitando as épocas de plantio e colheita. Tábuas de argila foram desenterradas por arqueólogos no Oriente Médio, próximo à Babilônia, contendo tabuadas de multiplicação e recíprocos. Acredita-se que tenham sido escritas por volta de 1700 a.C. e usavam o sistema sexagesimal (base 60), dando origem às nossas atuais unidades de tempo. O Ábaco Na medida em que os cálculos foram se complicando e aumentando de tamanho, sentiu-se a necessidade de um instrumento que viesse em auxílio, surgindo assim há cerca de 2.500 anos o ÁBACO. Este era formado por fios paralelos e contas ou arruelas deslizantes que, de acordo com a sua posição, representava a quantidade a ser trabalhada. O ábaco russo era o mais simples: continha 10 contas, bastando contá-las para obtermos suas quantidades numéricas. O ábaco chinês possuía 2 conjuntos por fio, contendo 5 contas no conjunto das unidades e 2 contas que representavam 5 unidades. A variante do ábaco mais conhecida é o SOROBAN, ábaco japonês simplificado (com 5 contas por fio, agrupadas 4x1), ainda hoje utilizado, sendo que em uso por mãos treinadas continuam eficientes e rápidos para trabalhos mais simples.

Боспорские исследования, вып. XLVIII / Отв. ред. В.Н. Зинько. Керчь-Симферополь: Керченская городская типография, 2024. C. 3-53

The paper deals with the detailed study of the inventory of the three burials from the ground necropolis Volna 1, excavated in the south–-north part of the Taman Peninsula (Temruk district of the Krasnodar region) in 2015 – 2018. The paper focuses on the graves from the excavations in 2016 (a burial of a child, a burial of a man, a burial of a woman), where samples of fine Attic pottery were found: with vase-painting (black-figure, Six’s technique), black-glazed and with coral-red glaze. The complex 211 was a grave of a child. In addition to the rests of the body and an iron object there were: an Athenian black-figure lekythos attributed to the Athena Painter decorated with the depiction of the death of Kaineus, late archaic bichrome phiale of ‘Achaemenid’ type and a black-glazed bowl. In the burial 172 there was a male corps in ‘rider position’, an iron stick, an iron sword and iron arrowheads, a bronze object (buckle or decoration), a proto-Thasos amphora, and two Attic vases: a phiala-mesomphalos decorated in Six’s technique (three running Minotaurs and letters) and a black-figure drinking cup, attributed to the Leafless Group (eye-cup with the depiction of Dionisus and members of thyasos). The human rests in the burial 273 were defined as female. There were in the grave: a bronze mirror, a bead, a spindle whorl, a black-glazed drinking cup, a black-figure lekythos decorated with palmettes, black-glazed and coral-red little bowls with holes. The authors of the paper suggest their ideas on the interpretation (both of the shapes and the subjects of the paintings) of the vases made by potters and painters of the Athenian Kerameikos and excavated in the burials on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus.