Historical town centers have a different layout and functions than do contemporary urban districts. The urban layout and architecture of medieval towns constitute tangible cultural heritage that ...shapes the local landscape. The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate historical spatial structures in small towns, and to describe their role in the evolution of the regional cultural landscape.The study examined medieval towns in the region of Warmia in north-eastern Poland. An attempt was also made to explore the impact that historical towns exert on the local cultural landscape. The study demonstrated that a medieval urban spatial layout makes a fundamental contribution to the local landscape and regional identity. The study also revealed that well-preserved historical structurescan drive local development and effectively promote regions.
La Unesco ha reconocido ocho paisajes culturales con viñedo como Patrimonio Mundial, todos ellos en Europa. Tanto los reconocidos como paisajes basados exclusivamente en el viñedo como los que lo han ...sido, además, por otros elementos, parecen destacar por su arraigo en la tradición, pero también por su adaptación a las exigencias del medio ecológico y a las del mercado. Con estas bases, resulta difícil proteger viñedos y prácticas culturales ancestrales –algunas en trance de desaparición– por su falta de funcionalidad y adaptación al mercado global, a pesar de que encierran saberes y tradiciones encomiables que, de alguna manera, conviene proteger, reconocer y a las que se debe otorgar algún marchamo de cultura y patrimonio mundial. Mediante el análisis de los expedientes de los viñedos de la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial, de los que han sido rechazados, así como de los que aspiran a incorporarse y de los que reúnen condiciones para hacerlo, extraemos unas ideas básicas para aspirar a la inclusión en la Lista, al tiempo que defendemos una protección para los paisajes vitícolas de gran valor cultural en peligro de desaparición, pues la evolución del viñedo moderno, entre la estética y la funcionalidad, ha borrado a menudo su carácter de “tradicional”, que solo se ha recuperado como mero adorno y recuerdo de un pasado perdido.
Traditional rural landscapes host a biocultural heritage acquired by rural societies, developed in a secular adaptation with nature. Hedgerows play a key role in preserving biocultural diversity and ...associated ecosystem services. Despite their benefits, in some European regions inappropriate hedge management has led to a drastic degradation of hedgerows, with significant effects on natural and biocultural diversity, landscape connectivity and sustainable flow of ecosystem services. In Central Spain, an ancient hedgerow landscape constitutes a valuable natural and cultural heritage recognized by the establishment of different protection categories. We quantify the main tendency of change of this landscape over time, detecting a process of rural social-ecological decoupling both inside and outside protected areas. The hedgerow network has progressively been degraded and destructured together with the decline and local extinction of woody species, all of them of traditional use and some recorded in red lists for species conservation. This reveals weaknesses in the design and management plans of protected areas that should be effective in conserving the heritage of cultural landscapes and their valuable biocultural diversity and provision of ecosystem services. There is a need to elaborate regulations for the protection of hedgerow landscapes in the Spanish legislation, based on social-ecological relationships.
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•We studied an ancient hedgerow network of medieval origin in Central Spain.•There is a process of rural social-ecological decoupling of the hedgerow landscape.•The hedgerow network has been degraded both inside and outside protected areas.•Multiple use hedge species decline affecting the provision of ecosystem services.•New regulations for the protection of hedgerow landscapes are needed.
The aim of the article is to depict the issue of commemorating foreign partnerships of municipalities present in the public space. The municipalities of the Gniezno district were selected as a case ...study. The author initially verified the following hypothesis: although foreign cooperation is an optional and secondary task of municipalities, their authorities commemorate it as a manifestation of their international ambitions. The source base was: secondary data, first-hand sources (information from town halls), as well as photographic documentation made during field trips. The identified commemorations took various forms: welcome boards at the entrance to the municipality, monuments, and the name of the square. They were established in locations important to the municipalities. In the case of one of the monuments, state diplomacy and paradiplomacy merged.
Homegarden is part of an interesting cultural landscape in tropical areas, such as on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. Sasak is a native tribe in Lombok Island. Plants that grow in open spaces around ...the home are called homegarden plants. The owners of homegarden use them for a variety of purposes. There hasn't been much research done on the flora of Lombok Island. The diversity of plants in homegarden around Mandalika, Lombok Island has not been documented until now. This research was conducted to determine the diversity of homegarden plants and their use by the Sasak tribe community in villages around Mandalika, Pujut District, Central Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The research was conducted using a purposive sampling method. Based on the research, there are 97 families, 304 genera, and 428 plant species. Homegardens in villages around Mandalika, Lombok Island have a high diversity of plant species. Homegarden plants are used for food, ornamental, animal feed, shade, medicine, rituals, industrial, handicrafts, and building materials. Homegardens have the potential for development of sustainable tourism in villages around Mandalika, Lombok Island.
The article reflects the results of the research conducted by the authors within the framework of the scientific project “Architectural image of the Motherland: Budapest, St. Petersburg, Harbin. ...European and national (local) aspects in Russian and Hungarian architecture – a comparative study of the turn of the 19th – early 20th centuries”. Based on archival data and materials from the authors’ field surveys, a systematic picture of the formation of the Russian cultural landscape of Port Arthur and Harbin is presented.
In recent decades, a significant number of works have been published in Russian ethnology, devoted to the study of various forms of religiosity of the population in direct connection with certain ...territories in different historical periods, which has become established in science as a special concept and approach called “religious landscape”. This approach turned out to be productive in identifying the peculiarities of the spread of Orthodox traditions in a certain territory, as well as in solving modern all-Russian problems of preserving the cultural heritage of rapidly disappearing villages. The article, based on a significant set of sources, reveals the features of the topography of chapels in the cultural landscape of the Veps of Shimozerye, Lodeynopolsky district, Olonets province, at the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, the motives for their construction, the dedication of chapels and their functions in the parish life of Vepsian villages. Nowadays, this deserted territory with destroyed Orthodox shrines is constantly visited by tourists. During the study, the motives for the construction of chapels were identified, which provide an explanation for their placement in the cultural landscape of Shimozerye: distance from the church, vow, appearance of an icon, reconstruction on the site of a lost shrine, consecration of ancient burials of the ancestors of a given settlement. The chapels were used exclusively for church services during local holidays, and played an important role in strengthening social and kinship communications and, ultimately, uniting Vepsian villages. Their use in funeral services, in comparison with other territories, has not been identified. An analysis of the chapel dedications revealed the dominance of the names of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Elijah the Prophet, the Savior, and the Mother of God, who were considered the patrons of agriculture among the Veps. Hence, chapels as places of communication with these patrons, played an important role in ensuring the peasants’ future harvest. Single dedications to the patrons of livestock (Saints Florus and Laurus), driving livestock to the chapels, reveal another function of the chapels and the holidays associated with them – the protection of livestock. In the past, the abandoned Shimozersky region had exeptional holidays that captured the intermingling of unique folk and Christian events, for example: the baptism of the Veps of this area and the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, lost in Russia; holiday of the harvest and the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
► We present a spatially explicit mapping of cultural ecosystem services. ► Respondents relate various types of cultural services to multiple local-level sites. ► Different types of cultural ...ecosystem services are correlated in specific bundles. ► Residents’ perceptions vary across several socio-demographic variables. ► There are specific patterns of connections between services and land cover types.
Numerous studies underline the importance of immaterial benefits provided by ecosystems and especially by cultural landscapes, which are shaped by intimate human–nature interactions. However, due to methodological challenges, cultural ecosystem services are rarely fully considered in ecosystem services assessments. This study performs a spatially explicit participatory mapping of the complete range of cultural ecosystem services and several disservices perceived by people living in a cultural landscape in Eastern Germany. The results stem from a combination of mapping exercises and structured interviews with 93 persons that were analyzed with statistical and GIS-based techniques. The results show that respondents relate diverse cultural services and multiple local-level sites to their individual well-being. Most importantly, aesthetic values, social relations and educational values were reported. Underlining the holistic nature of cultural ecosystem services, the results reveal bundles of services as well as particular patterns in the perception of these bundles for respondent groups with different socio-demographic backgrounds. Cultural services are not scattered randomly across a landscape, but rather follow specific patterns in terms of the intensity, richness and diversity of their provision. Resulting hotspots and coldspots of ecosystem services provision are related to landscape features and land cover forms. We conclude that, despite remaining methodological challenges, cultural services mapping assessments should be pushed ahead as indispensable elements in the management and protection of cultural landscapes. Spatially explicit information on cultural ecosystem services that incorporates the differentiated perceptions of local populations provides a rich basis for the development of sustainable land management strategies. These could realign the agendas of biodiversity conservation and cultural heritage preservation, thereby fostering multifunctionality.
In Spain, in the last 25 years (1996–2020), more than a million and a half hectares of irrigated land have been modernised with irrigation systems. Almost half of this irrigated surface is immersed ...in a second generation of modernisation in order to be more efficient and save water and energy. This represents a strategic issue in a climate crisis scenario, to assure the quantity and quality of the productions of these irrigable areas, bases of market supply, agro-industries and sources of employment. Throughout this process, innovation was experienced (pressure irrigation, deficit irrigation, accurate irrigation, fertigation and nutrient solution, energy self-consumption, new crop varieties, hydroponic cultivation with or without substratum, etc.). The drivers of these innovations are the harvesting-exporting companies and the irrigation communities. This research is a diachronic study of regional geography; data are provided by official statistics and through extensive fieldwork and interviews with managers. The objective is to explain the irrigation innovation techniques undertaken in the semi-arid environment of Southeastern Spain, one of the driest regions in Europe.
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