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"Nature provides humans with a variety of goods and services that are the basis for human well-being: Food, drinking water, fuels and medicines, protection against floods and soil erosion, as well as climate regulation or carbon storage are considered ecosystem services.

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"The Biodiversity Strategy aims to put Europe's biodiversity on the road to recovery by 2030 - for the benefit of people, the climate and the planet. "

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_de

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Learning how to implement ecosystem services in environment management and territorial development

Here, you can choose the level of learning according to your knowledge of Ecosystem Services or your specific interests and activity

You have just a little knowledge about ecosystem services. You want to use them for decision making and participation in governance processes, without having technical skills or previous experience.

You had the occasion to discover what ecosystem services are. You want to become more able to use them in your activity, especially in taking decisions about environmental management and territorial development.

You have already used ecosystem services as an instrument to manage environmental and territorial development. You want to learn more about the methodology that is currently used.

Any doubt?
Do you want to evaluate your level?

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AlpES E-Learning Tool | How to implement ecosystem services (IT)

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Learning how to implement ecosystem services in environment management and territorial development Here, you can choose the level of learning according to your knowledge of Ecosystem Services or your specific interests and activity You have just a little knowledge about ecosystem services.

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Highlights

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Mountains are biodiversity (BD) sanctuaries and major ecosystem service (ES) providers.

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Here, first SCP analysis with weighted BD and ES components in a mountain region.

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Results show putting too much weights on ES can have detrimental effects on BD.

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Protected areas not optimally located to ensure prioritization of both ES and BD.

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Future: comprehensive coverage of BD (e.g. soils) and ES (e.g. non-monetary) needed.

Abstract

As anthropogenic degradation of biodiversity and ecosystems increases, so does the potential threat to the supply of ecosystem services, a key contribution of nature to people. Biodiversity has often been used in spatial conservation planning and has been regarded as one among multiple services delivered by ecosystems. Hence, biodiversity conservation planning should be integrated in a framework of prioritizing services in order to inform decision-making. Here, we propose a prioritization approach based on scenarios maximising both the provision of ecosystem services and the conservation of biodiversity hotspots. Different weighting scenarios for the α-diversity in four taxonomic groups and 10 mapped ecosystem services were used to simulate varying priorities of policymakers in a mountain region. Our results illustrate how increasing priorities to ecosystem services can be disadvantageous to biodiversity. Moreover, the analysis to identify priority areas that best compromise the conservation of α-diversity and ecosystem services are predominantly not located within the current protected area network. Our analyses stress the need for an appropriate weighting of biodiversity within decision making that seek to integrate multiple ecosystem services. Our study paves the way toward further integration of multiple biodiversity groups and components, ecosystem services and various socio-economic scenarios, ultimately fuelling the development of more informed, evidence-based spatial planning decisions for conservation.

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Integrating ecosystem services within spatial biodiversity conservation prioritization in the Alps

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Mountains are biodiversity (BD) sanctuaries and major ecosystem service (ES) providers. * Here, first SCP analysis with weighted BD and ES components in a mountain region. * Results show putting too much weights on ES can have detrimental effects on BD. * Protected areas not optimally located to ensure prioritization of both ES and BD.

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Cantonal landscape development concept, Bern (CH)

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Cantonal landscape development concept, Bern (CH)

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The cantonal landscape development concept aims to preserve the beauty and diversity of the Bernese landscapes in their quality and to further develop them while strengthening the natural and cultural characteristics typical of the region.

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Evaluation and Protection of Alpine Open Spaces

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Real estate policies in mountain regions to keep open spaces free from building activities

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Real estate policies in mountain regions to keep open spaces free from building activities

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In Switzerland, the following policies are being implemented in order to stop urban sprawl in mountain regions:

- Since the revision of the Spatial Planning Law in 2014, all municipalities whose building zone are "overdimensionated" (in relation to their needs for the next 15 years) are obliged to reduce it. In the Alpine cantons, the majority of the municipalities have too much "building zone" for housing purposes (mostly for second homes or tourism projects). By transfering properties from the building zone to the agricultural zone, many open spaces can be saved from being built.

- In 2012, the Swiss people accepted on a votation the "Second home initiative" that aimed at stopping the building of second homes in the country. With the Second Home Law of 2015, municipalities with a second home share of > 20% of the total housing stock may not build second homes anymore and have to find solutions to make second homes to first home.

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The pastoral agriculture plays a major role in maintaining open spaces in Alpine regions in their biological functions. Without local agriculture, open spaces are mostly replaced by forests. Maintaining open spaces help at promoting the biodiversity diversity of mountain regions and sustaining local economies.

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An inspiring quotation from the project "At home in the Metropolis Switzerland" (Daheim in der Metropole Schweiz)

Nature is increasingly under pressure because of societal needs. Nature is on the battlefield between very different stakeholders. Nature is a mirror of our values: Every individual searches for his "piece" of nature.

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Alpine tourism in times of climate change, Instagram and Covid pandemic?

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Alpine tourism in times of climate change, Instagram and Covid pandemic?

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Cities and city regions are getting warmer, and it is expected that the number of urban inhabitants seeking cooler places in mountain regions will increase. This puts pressure on open spaces. Moreover, Instagram hashtags created an uncontrolled flow of tourists to a very small amount of "instagramable" places in the Alpes (example of the Cresta lake in Switzerland). The Covid-19 pandemic accelerates this trend, as many inhabitants of Alpine countries stay home for holidays. Plus, there is an increasing demand for wild camping, Mountainbikes, hiking holidays, etc.
What is the future of alpine tourism, and how should tourism policies be rethinked in order to safeguard the ecological functions of open spaces and to tackle the increasing (and legitime) demand of our modern societies for more contact with the nature?

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What do we do with abandoned ski resorts?

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What do we do with abandoned ski resorts?

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Transport, tourism and winter sport infrastructure represent a threat for the ecological quality of open spaces in the Alpine regions as well as an economical risk for municipalities, as maintaining them in time of climate change become a financial burden for them.

The question of abandoned infrastructure is for the Swiss prealpine and alpine cantons at stake. Currently, 15 ski lifts around the country are abandoned and others should close permanently due to climate change. Even if the Federal Law demands that unused infrastructure get demolished after permanent closure, neither the Confederation nor the cantons nor the municipalities nor private actors want to invest money to dismantle the infrastructure. Now, a federal deputy claimed that the Federal Council set up a federal fund to help cantons dismantle unused ski lifts and resore the open spaces.

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/seilbahn-ruinen-trotz-rueckbaupflicht-bleiben-skilifte-oft-ueber-jahre-stehen

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Biodiversity strategy of the canton of Lucerne

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Biodiversity strategy of the canton of Lucerne

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The Swiss canton of Lucerne (Central Switzerland) aims at promoting biodiversity on its territory (in the South prealpine landscape). Document only in German.
One key aspect of the strategy is to set up a monitoring of the existing biodiversity.

https://lawa.lu.ch/-/media/LAWA/Dokumente/njf/Biodiversitaet/Planungsbericht_Biodiversitaet.pdf

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"Landscape" means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors

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ASFOs constitute an alternative tool to overcome property fragmentation and, consequently, the abandonment and underuse phenomena without changing the property of the grounds.

Vigneti di San Rocco is the first ASFO established within the Lombardy Region. (Italian only)

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The project TERRA VI.VA regenerates abandoned terraced lands, identifying and implementing measures to decrease the risks caused by the lack of care and management. It strengthens the relationship between the local community and agricultural terraces, improving and regenerating their cultural and productive dimensions.

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TERRA VI.VA. - recupero ambientale ed economico di TERRAzzamenti a Viganella, Valle Antrona

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Il progetto si propone il recupero funzionale di una parte del sistema terrazzato della Valle Antrona nel territorio del Comune di Viganella (VCO), attraverso la realizzazione di interventi agronomici pilota, di interventi di ripristino strutturale e di attivazione di forme coordinate di gestione dei terrazzamenti.

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The project combines actions to protect and improve the ecological network, supporting the multi-functionality.

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🎬Guarda il video!

È ora disponibile il video documentario di progetto di Marco Tessaro "Flora, fauna e altre vite". 15 minuti di emozioni e natura, non perderlo! Flora, fauna e altre vite from Marco Tessaro on Vimeo.

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Il progetto e gli obiettivi - Natura Varese

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🎬Guarda il video! È ora disponibile il video documentario di progetto di Marco Tessaro "Flora, fauna e altre vite". 15 minuti di emozioni e natura, non perderlo! Flora, fauna e altre vite from Marco Tessaro on Vimeo.

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Revitalisierung der Fließgewässer Südtirols | Riqualificazione fluviale in Alto Adige 

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Revitalisierung der Fließgewässer Südtirols | Riqualificazione fluviale in Alto Adige 

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The Autonomous Province of Bolzano promotes river renaturation, enhancing the natural capital, decreasing the risk factors, and increasing recreational attractiveness.

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Enhancement and protection of paths and spaces used in the past by the inhabitants of the mountains. The revival and the adaptation to the present of certain activities, such as the transhumance of sheep, leads to the protection of the territories, the expantion of nature and to an economic variety as in tourism, industry and crafts.

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Durante le stagioni migliori, non meno di 50-60.000 pecore lasciavano le pianure della Crau e della Camargue per raggiungere le montagne piemontesi. Numerosi "pastori-allevatori" che oggi risiedono in Provenza provengono dalle valli occitane, in particolare dalla Valle Stura.

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I pastori piemontesi in Provenza | La Routo

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Durante le stagioni migliori, non meno di 50-60.000 pecore lasciavano le pianure della Crau e della Camargue per raggiungere le montagne piemontesi. Numerosi "pastori-allevatori" che oggi risiedono in Provenza provengono dalle valli occitane, in particolare dalla Valle Stura.

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The ecosystems service approach on land use

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Full Reports

The Working Group assessment reports are between 500-800 pages in length, with a volume of summaries of about 120 printed pages. Learn more
Current States & Trends
Scenarios
Policy Responses
Multiscale Assessments

Synthesis Reports

The first set of assessment reports consists of an overall synthesis and 5 others that interpret the MA findings for specific audiences. Learn more
Overall synthesis
Biodiversity
Desertification
Business & Industry
Wetlands and Water
Health

Statement of the MA Board

The MA Board of Directors has developed an interpretation of the key messages to emerge from the assessment, entitled Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-Being.
Learn more
Download the Statement
About the MA Board of Directors

A Framework for Assessment

In late 2003, the MA and Island Press published Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment. This volume lays out the assumptions, processes and parameters that were used in the MA. Learn more

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The Working Group assessment reports are between 500-800 pages in length, with a volume of summaries of about 120 printed pages. Learn more Current States & Trends Scenarios Policy Responses Multiscale Assessments The first set of assessment reports consists of an overall synthesis and 5 others that interpret the MA findings for specific audiences.

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Nature-Based, Outdoor Tourism success and Regional and environmental Policy --> Challenge in natural resources management

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To preserve and safeguarding the quality of sites, landscapes and natural environments, the departmental councils (local authority) are implementing an active policy of land acquisition or contractual management.

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Open space can be part of a protected areas. Each country has its own regulation, but some are in common (Natura 2000 in EU). Those PA aims to avoid biodiversity loss, human nature connection, cultural background, help to reduce natural hazard....

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Read more about the World Parks Congress 2014 outcome the Promise of Sydney.

What is a protected area?

A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. (IUCN Definition 2008)

Protected areas - national parks, wilderness areas, community conserved areas, nature reserves and so on - are a mainstay of biodiversity conservation, while also contributing to people's livelihoods, particularly at the local level. Protected areas are at the core of efforts towards conserving nature and the services it provides us - food, clean water supply, medicines and protection from the impacts of natural disasters. Their role in helping mitigate and adapt to climate change is also increasingly recognized; it has been estimated that the global network of protected areas stores at least 15% of terrestrial carbon.

Helping countries and communities designate and manage systems of protected areas on land and in the oceans, is one of IUCN's main areas of expertise. Together with species conservation, this has been a key focus of attention of IUCN's work and of a vast majority of IUCN Member organizations. Effectively managed systems of protected areas have been recognized as critical instruments in achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme

IUCN's Programme on Protected Areas has a long heritage in the Union, with a headquarters-based core team and regional staff, and a closely coordinated programme of activities with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). An IUCN-commissioned External Strategic Review of the IUCN Programme on Protected Areas was concluded in 2010, making far-reaching recommendations for the revised objectives and functions of a new Global Programme on Protected Areas (GPAP). These included the establishment of a separately managed World Heritage Programme, the appointment of a new Director, Trevor Sandwith, in 2011, and the strengthening of the programme through prioritized budget support.

The Global Programme acts as the focal point for the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, which provides voluntary specialist expertise to the programme. We are working towards a single unified work programme for the Secretariat, Commission and Members during the 2017-2020 Quadrennial period, that will clearly outline the complementary roles and responsibilities.

Priorities and programme areas

The Global Protected Areas Programme implements the IUCN Programme for 2017-2020 across all programmatic elements. Protected Area systems are both ENDS (protected areas directly conserve genetic resources, species, ecosystems and ecosystem processes) and MEANS (to enable many other thematic conservation objectives through in situ implementation, governance and equitable sharing). The priorities of the GPAP will help deliver IUCN's 2017-2020 Global Programme. Within the three programmatic elements of IUCN's new quadrennial programme, GPAP has three priority areas as outlined below.

1. Valuing and conserving biodiversity
Protected areas .... conserving nature
GPAP will measure progress towards the attainment of biodiversity conservation targets in the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, especially the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, where national governments have committed to establishing protected area systems that are ecologically representative and that conserve areas that are important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, that are well-connected, effectively and equitably managed, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape. IUCN GPAP working together with UNEP-WCMC and the CBD Secretariat, will report on the status of protected areas globally through the Protected Planet Report, the first issue of which was released in 2012 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.
Achieving quality and effectiveness
IUCN WCPA has for many years championed the cause of enhancing management effectiveness, and has been supported in this endeavour by decisions of the CBD where national governments have agreed to undertake management effectiveness assessments as a routine component of their national assessment and reporting systems. Management effectiveness assessments measure the extent to which all of the necessary systems and processes are taking place in protected areas, and identify areas for improvement. There remains, however, a need for an international standard that would attest to the success of protected areas in meeting their objectives, including their biodiversity, social and economic objectives. IUCN GPAP is therefore investing in a new global standard, the IUCN Green List, that will list those protected areas that meet minimum standards of effectiveness.

2. Governing nature's use and sharing its benefits equitably
Protected areas ... respecting people
No protected area system could be established or managed without the participation and involvement of people. In this programme area, there will be a focus on two main themes. Firstly, the programme will work towards much greater implementation of issues regarding protected area governance, including the assessment and recognition of the variety of governance types for protected area systems, and the diversity and quality of governance at the system and site levels. These embrace the full suite of protected areas conserved by governments, by indigenous peoples and local communities, by private actors and many cases where these are combined as shared governance, including through multiple agency governance at the landscape scale and transboundary governance across the boundaries of sovereign states. Secondly, the programme will focus on the issue of social assessment for protected areas, the recognition of the rights to benefits, and the distribution of costs and benefits of the establishment and management of protected areas. The entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing will have implications for social assessment for protected areas.

3. Deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges
Protected areas ... offering solutions
Maintenance of ecosystem resilience is an essential prerequisite for maintaining resilient socio-economic systems in the face of global change, and an expanded connected network of well-managed conservation areas is the most robust proven solution to confront these problems. Simply put, large healthy protected ecosystems conserve biodiversity and address climate change impacts directly and indirectly. Evidence of their value in many sectors is increasing in quality and substance, including for health promotion, food security, water provision, disaster and risk reduction, poverty alleviation and for dealing with the causes and impacts of climate change on ecosystems and society. Protected areas, especially when considering the full suite of management categories and governance types, is the foundation for maintenance of ecosystem integrity and for restoration efforts at the scale of the landscape and the seascape.

Finally, all of these priorities were a focus of the 6th IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 where the host country and host state (Australia and New South Wales) will provide a platform for the IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme in its widest sense, to envisage the future beyond 2025 and begin now to design responses that will ensure that protected areas are a positive and relevant force and priority for investment in the decade that follows. MORE

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: THE CROSS-CUTTING ELEMENT

GPAP will facilitate the development of resource materials, develop the curricula for education and training of protected area professionals and develop standards for the the attainment of competent protected area professionals. Key products that support this priority are the IUCN WCPA Best Practice Guidelines in every sphere of protected areas management, including new and emerging issues, the newly re-launched PARKS journal, and a series of quick guides and fact sheets on new topics. IUCN GPAP will partner with the CBD Secretariat and many education and training institutions to provide this support, including through the EU-funded BIOPAMA project.

_____________________________________________________________________

→ Global Protected Areas Programme: OUR WORK
→ World Heritage → World Commission on Protected Areas

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Read more about the World Parks Congress 2014 outcome the Promise of Sydney. A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

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Aarewasser, flood protection in Switzerland

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Aarewasser, flood protection in Switzerland

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The project aarewasser (item shows just one part) ist the flood protection project for the alpine river Aare, that has been realised/is still beeing realised. The project focusses successfuly on leaving more open space for the river Aare to protect the settlements and communes from floods. By the way in these open spaces result interresting habitats to promote biodiversity.

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Develop a sustainable touristic experience

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Develop a sustainable touristic experience

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Aktuelles

Save the date: Pärke-Markt, 20. Mai 2022, Bundesplatz Bern

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La Route Verte: Entdecken Sie sechs Naturpärke mit dem E-Bike

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Schweizer Pärke - für mehr Biodiversität

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Ab in die Schweizer Pärke

Tauchen Sie ein in die faszinierenden Welten der Schweizer Pärke!

Entdecken Sie vielfältige Lebensräume, ursprüngliche Landschaften und lebendige Traditionen. Unvergessliche Naturerlebnisse und charakteristische Kulturgüter warten auf Sie.

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Unser Newsletter erscheint 2-4 Mal jährlich und enthält Informationen rund um die Schweizer Pärke und ihre Angebote.

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Netzwerk Schweizer Pärke, Bern, www.parks.swiss

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Mehr anzeigen Tauchen Sie ein in die faszinierenden Welten der Schweizer Pärke! Entdecken Sie vielfältige Lebensräume, ursprüngliche Landschaften und lebendige Traditionen. Unvergessliche Naturerlebnisse und charakteristische Kulturgüter warten auf Sie. Zur interaktiven Karte Aktuelle Veranstaltungen Unser Newsletter erscheint 2-4 Mal jährlich und enthält Informationen rund um die Schweizer Pärke und ihre Angebote.

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Mit dem Inventar Weißzone liegt nach mehrjährigen Vorarbeiten eine umfassende und fachübergreifende Dokumentation der ursprünglichen, naturnahen und wenig erschlossenen Natur- und Kulturlandschaften Vorarlbergs vor.

Das Inventar, erschienen in der Schriftenreihe Raumplanung, umfasst zwei Teile. Der erste Teil gibt Aufschluss über den Hintergrund des Projekts, die Methode zur Identifizierung von wenig erschlossenen Landschaftsräumen und die zusammenfassenden Ergebnisse und ist eine „Lesehilfe" für den zweiten Teil, dem eigentlichen Inventar.

Der zweite Teil umfasst auf knapp 700 Seiten eine Beschreibung von 83 Landschaftsräumen einschließlich der darin stattfindenden Nutzungen. Die Gebiets- und Nutzungsbeschreibungen werden durch regions- und themenspezifische Exkurse ergänzt.

Mit dem Inventar Weißzone steht nun eine Planungsgrundlage für den alpinen Raum Vorarlbergs zur Verfügung, die insbesondere für raumplanungsrelevante Entwicklungen von Bedeutung ist. Festzuhalten ist, dass damit keine rechtlichen Vorgaben verbunden sind.

Die Beschreibungseinheiten der 83 Weißzonen können durch Anklicken eines Gebiets in der Karte einzeln als PDF heruntergeladen werden.

Das Inventar Weißzone im Vorarlberg Atlas

Das Literatur- und Datenverzeichnis zum Inventar kann hier eingesehen werden.

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Mit dem Inventar Weißzone liegt nach mehrjährigen Vorarbeiten eine umfassende und fachübergreifende Dokumentation der ursprünglichen, naturnahen und wenig erschlossenen Natur- und Kulturlandschaften Vorarlbergs vor. Das Inventar, erschienen in der Schriftenreihe Raumplanung, umfasst zwei Teile.

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Description of 83 landscape areas in Vorarlberg / Austria including their land-use. Supplemented by regional and local excursions (historical land-use etc.)

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The sociospacial qualities of the landscape

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The sociospacial qualities of the landscape

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On the urbanes.land platform, we discuss the qualities of "urban land" and establish connections to our current research focuses. What spatially linked, social qualities does the countryside offer?

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The perspective of the city constitutively presupposes peripheries - whereas from the perspective of the land, which today we usually perceive as landscape, peripheries do not exist. Cities are referred to via attributes such as the public sphere, specific characteristics, intrinsic logic, subjectivity, use value, integrating effects, openness, encounter. The land has lost all these aspects and an exclusively aesthetic perspective on landscape cannot replace them.

And yet it might be a mistake to bring up periphery at all, to think in terms of peripheries, as in other abstract spatial categories such as 'rural' or 'suburban', which emphasise the separating aspects. Virtually no one today who wants to explain the phenomenon of the city, primarily relies on the abstract terms 'centre' and 'urban space'. Rather, they describe actual places and characteristics; instead of separation, they tend to highlight the dialogue of figure, spatial structure, form and sustainable economy as well as social coherence. The city is the medium of:

Density and mix of residents, construction and infrastructure, social, cultural and economic interactions;

Accessibility and openness of urban environments, the diversity and variety of cultures and individual lifestyles, as well as social cohesion, responsibility, hospitality, integration, inclusion and civilization - i.e., taken together, progress, innovation and prosperity;

Development and permanence of the urban fabric and building structures, identity, peculiarity and legibility, but also renewal, sustainability and sufficiency.

This dialogue is always a combination of people and city forms, of history and society. Negotiations on urban structures, from which their spatial qualities should emerge, are invariably based on floor plans and spatial concepts. Today, urban development in any large city is supported by legible 'historical layer' analyses, informal framework planning and visualisations, public forums and publications. This form of the city is even described as its landscape - so that the Stadtlandschaft (urban landscape), an abstract category since Bruno Taut, Hans Scharoun and Le Corbusier, today is used again to describe its specific peculiarity. By contrast, landscape in rural and suburban areas only appears as a category in today's planning practice - typically as a protected area, regional green corridor or as an area with regional planning objectives in formal landscape and regional plans (in England, Landscape Character Assessments do exist after all, but this type of spatial analysis is not applied in Germany, where the European Landscape Convention was not ratified).

The renaissance of the urban form, which in the city even includes the landscape form, is thus neither a contradiction in itself, nor does it signify a reactionary idealization of former urban misery or its relations of domination. Rather, careful renewal and critical reconstruction focus on the - ecologically sustainable - release of new social and economic forces in the context of historically developed structures. Developed in the urbanistic theory and confirmed by practice, it is not only social conditions but also spatial forms that contain or even engender social qualities.

Transformation - The Land and Urban Land

In the face of ongoing social structural change and the necessity of certain global transformations, it is no longer acceptable to attribute fundamentally different ways of life, life opportunities and spatial responsibilities to The City!, and to suburban and rural areas respectively. The aim of a collective ecological responsibility for a future that is democratically based, as formulated in the social contract for a Great Transformation, relates to all types of space and also addresses The Land!. Urban ways of life, processes of civilisation, social integration, creative innovation, resource efficiency, even if they originate from the social and spatial structures of the city, are to be aimed for indivisibly - for all parts of the population - and everywhere - 'in the whole space' - today and in future. This goal does not eliminate the categorical difference between city and land; simultaneously the question of how to address these issues in suburban areas must be answered specifically, and not generally. The same basic ecological and social objectives must be pursued everywhere, following the parameters for a new urban contract for the European City, but under the structural conditions and possibilities of the European Cultural Landscape.

As landscape architects we are interested in landscape as a morphological structure and social everyday space. Following Henri Lefebvre's theory of the social production of space, we recognise in landscapes - viewed as historical subjects, not as pictorial sceneries - the potential of a mediating level between private living environments and global infrastructures. Landscape as 'tissu paysage' can reconstruct social forms and spatial subjects in rural and suburban spaces that have degenerated into functional categories. Our investigations are therefore always of equal morphological and social interest. Our research approaches focus on spatial-social structures in rural and suburban areas and address the issue from three different perspectives: the concept of meta-culture, the concept of public sphere and the concept of use value.

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The socio-spatial qualities of the landscape - Transforming Peripheries Magazine

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The perspective of the city constitutively presupposes peripheries - whereas from the perspective of the land, which today we usually perceive as landscape, peripheries do not exist. Cities are referred to via attributes such as the public sphere, specific characteristics, intrinsic logic, subjectivity, use value, integrating effects, openness, encounter.

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Landschaftsvertrag - a new social contract on landscape

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Landschaftsvertrag - a new social contract on landscape

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Beyond the urban and rural cores the development of the landscape is still characterised by functionalist planning procedures. Thus, land uses and infrastructures are developed according to principles of priority areas, taboo and buffer zones, exclusive criteria and distance regulations. Spatial structural concepts are generally lacking, as is a regional public sphere.
This book focuses on the question of how dialogical discourses, models and procedures on spatial structural qualities from urban and village centres can be transferred to the planning of rural and suburban areas. The basis for this is a new social contract on landscape.

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Seit den 1980er Jahren hat sich in der Stadt- und Dorferneuerung aus dem kritischen Rationalismus eine neue Planungskultur entwickelt: Die Prinzipien von Funktionstrennung und Expertenplanung sowie des Totalumbaus wurden abgelöst durch die behutsame Erneuerung und kritische Rekonstruktion - alles gründend auf öffentlichen Diskursen zur Stadtform und Dorfgestalt und kultiviert in informellen Rahmenplanungen, kooperativen Wettbewerbsverfahren, Stadtforen sowie Bürgergutachten.
Jenseits der urbanen und ländlichen Kerne dagegen ist die Entwicklung der Landschaft noch immer von funktionalistischen Planungsverfahren geprägt. So werden Landnutzungen und Infrastrukturen nach Prinzipen von Vorranggebieten, Tabu- und Pufferzonen, Ausschlusskriterien und Abstandsregelungen entwickelt. Räumliche Strukturkonzepte fehlen in der Regel ebenso wie eine regionale Öffentlichkeit.
Im Zentrum dieses Buchs steht die Frage, wie sich dialogische Diskurse, Leitbilder und Verfahren über räumliche Strukturqualitäten aus den urbanen und dörflichen Kernen auch auf die Planung ländlicher und suburbaner Räume übertragen lassen. Die Basis dafür ist ein neuer Gesellschaftsvertrag zur Landschaft.

Mit Beiträgen von unter anderen Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm, Wolfgang Haber, Werner Konold, Rolf Kuhn, Hansjörg Küster, Peter Latz, Martina Löw, Holger Magel und Jürgen Wenzel

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Seit den 1980er Jahren hat sich in der Stadt- und Dorferneuerung aus dem kritischen Rationalismus eine neue Planungskultur entwickelt: Die Prinzipien von Funktionstrennung und Expertenplanung sowie des Totalumbaus wurden abgelöst durch die behutsame Erneuerung und kritische Rekonstruktion - alles gründend auf öffentlichen Diskursen zur Stadtform und Dorfgestalt und kultiviert in informellen Rahmenplanungen, kooperativen Wettbewerbsverfahren, Stadtforen sowie Bürgergutachten.Jenseits der urbanen und ländlichen Kerne dagegen ist die Entwicklung der Landschaft noch immer von funktionalistischen Planungsverfahren geprägt.

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The harsh and varied landscapes are typical for the Alps and are part of their attractiveness. At the same time, they expose the Alpine population to a number of natural hazards. These hazards can potentially jeopardise human activities and lives, and they are becoming more frequent due to climate change. The number and scope of floods, rockfalls, landslides, avalanches and other natural hazards has been increasing. It is therefore important to raise awareness among the public and to share and coordinate measures among Alpine states. The damage caused by natural hazards must be prevented and limited with measures that are effective without massively impacting landscapes and ecosystems.

After the elaboration of the 7th Report on the State of the Alps on natural hazard risk governance, which was adopted by the XV Alpine Conference, the most recent activity is drafting a report on the contribution of prevention to contingency planning.

Protocols and Declarations

There is no Protocol on natural hazards. However, the topic is addressed in the following Protocols: Mountain Forests Protocol, Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development Protocol, Soil Conservation Protocol and Transport Protocol as well as the Action Plan on Climate Change in the Alps.

Thematic Working Bodies

Selected Documents and Publications

Projects

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The harsh and varied landscapes are typical for the Alps and are part of their attractiveness. At the same time, they expose the Alpine population to a number of natural hazards. These hazards can potentially jeopardise human activities and lives, and they are becoming more frequent due to climate change.

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In the period 2015-2030 about 11% (more than 20 million ha) of agricultural land in the EU are under high potential risk of abandonment due to factors, related to biophysical land suitability, farm structure and agricultural viability, population and regional specifics. The risk for around 800 thousand ha (0.4%), located in Southern and Eastern Romania, Southwestern France, Southern and central Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Poland, Latvia and Estonia, is particularly severe.

Economic factor and market instruments (including the EU Common Agricultural Policy) could largely mitigate those potential risks in a number, mostly Eastern countries and regions - Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Cyprus. The incremental abandonment within 2015-2030 is nevertheless projected to reach 4.2 million ha net (about 280 thousand ha per year on average) of agricultural land, bringing the total abandoned land to 5.6 million ha by 2030, the equivalent of 3% of total agricultural land. This would be an alarming trend, considering that the decrease in agricultural land over the same period of time is estimated to be three times smaller, around 1%.

Amongst EU Member States, Spain (in particular North / Northwest) and Poland (where the largest single loss at NUTS 3 level is projected for the Chelmsko-zamojski region - 85 thousand ha) are likely to face by far the greatest agricultural land abandonment in both absolute and relative terms. The two countries will account for 1/3 of EU total loss and Spain will be the only EU country to miss more than 1 million ha.

In absolute terms, France (South / Southeast), the United Kingdom, Germany (Western parts) and Italy (especially Sardinia) complement Spain and Poland in the group of the largest agricultural land abandonment in the EU, altogether responsible for more than 70% of losses. Owing to the large total agricultural land, the relative shrinkage will be less pronounced in Germany and especially - France, both countries standing below the 3% EU average. In relative terms, the Netherlands (notably South Limburg), Northern Portugal, Finland, Greece (particularly Korinthia and Lefkada island) and especially Slovakia (4.6% loss) are expected to be above the 3% EU average.

Arable land is projected to account for the largest share of abandoned land, followed by pastures and permanent crops. This is proportional to the prevailing breakdown of agricultural land by types, where arable land is the largest group, while the permanent crops are the smallest one. Permanent crops will account for a significant, albeit not dominant share in abandonment in Southern Europe - Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

The bulk of abandoned agricultural land (4.8 million ha gross) is likely to remain unused within 2015-2030 because of negligible re-cultivation of once-abandoned land. Less than 600 thousand ha are only projected to convert into forests and natural areas, while the conversion into build-up area will be minimal - just 18 thousand ha.

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Agricultural Land Abandonment in the EU within 2015-2030 - EU Science Hub - European Commission

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In the period 2015-2030 about 11% (more than 20 million ha) of agricultural land in the EU are under high potential risk of abandonment due to factors, related to biophysical land suitability, farm structure and agricultural viability, population and regional specifics.

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3 different perspectives on  land take and the safeguarding of open spaces

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3 different perspectives on  land take and the safeguarding of open spaces

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- quantitative perspectice
- qualitative perspective
- structural perspective

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"Open spaces comprise areas outside housing/settlement areas, commercial/industrial areas and other special designated areas (e.g. golf courses and leisure parks) that are kept free from building developments of any kind, which are not predominantly developed (punctual, linear or planar infrastructure) and widely free of soil sealing. They are ideally free of traffic or largely reserved for non-motorised traffic and thus 'noise-free'."

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D.T1.1.1 open space definition_new layout

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"Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services such as water purification, air quality, space for recreation and climate mitigation and adaptation. […]”

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In a nutshell

Ecosystem services are the benefits that flow from nature to people. They can be provisioning (e.g. the supply of food, clean air and water and materials), regulating (e.g. water and climate regulation, nutrient cycling, pollination, or the formation of fertile soils), or cultural (e.g. recreation opportunities, or the inspiration we draw from nature). Natural ecosystems are multifunctional - they can provide a wide range of services simultaneously. The range and flow of these benefits depends largely on biodiversity and ecosystem condition.

A network of healthy ecosystems often provides cost-effective alternatives to traditional 'grey' infrastructure, offering benefits for EU citizens and biodiversity. This is why the EU promotes the use of nature-based green and blue infrastructure solutions.

In practice

Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services such as water purification, air quality, space for recreation and climate mitigation and adaptation. This network of green (land) and blue (water) spaces can improve environmental conditions and therefore citizens' health and quality of life. It also supports a green economy, creates job opportunities and enhances biodiversity. The Natura 2000 network constitutes the backbone of the EU green infrastructure.

Green infrastructure planning is a successfully tested tool to provide environmental, economic and social benefits through natural solutions. In many cases, it can reduce dependence on 'grey' infrastructure that can be damaging to the environment and biodiversity, and often more expensive to build and maintain.

The European Commission has developed a Green Infrastructure Strategy. This strategy aims to ensure that the protection, restoration, creation and enhancement of green infrastructure become an integral part of spatial planning and territorial development whenever it offers a better alternative, or is complementary, to standard grey choices.

Key references

In 2019, the Commission published two guidance documents to help planners, policymakers and businesses solve socio-economic challenges, while also protecting and restoring Europe's nature:
Studies and publications
Tap into the science supporting green infrastructure.
Discover some of the many forms and benefits of green infrastructure.

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Green Infrastructure - Environment - European Commission

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Ecosystem services are the benefits that flow from nature to people. They can be provisioning (e.g. the supply of food, clean air and water and materials), regulating (e.g. water and climate regulation, nutrient cycling, pollination, or the formation of fertile soils), or cultural (e.g. recreation opportunities, or the inspiration we draw from nature).

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“The land take indicator addresses change in the area of agricultural, forest and other semi-natural land taken for urban and other artificial land development. Land take includes areas sealed by construction and urban infrastructure, as well as urban green areas, and sport and leisure facilities. […]”

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The land take indicator address the change in the area of agricultural, forest and other semi-natural land taken for urban and other artificial land development. Land take includes areas sealed by construction and urban infrastructure, as well as urban green areas, and sport and leisure facilities.

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Was ist Umweltgerechtigkeit? Ist sie auch für Ihre Kommune relevant? Wie erreicht man sie mit welchen Akteuren?

Antworten auf diese Fragen und noch viel mehr finden Sie hier - viel Spaß beim „ Stöbern

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Was ist Umweltgerechtigkeit? Wie lässt sich in den Städten mehr Umweltgerechtigkeit schaffen und mit welchen Akteuren? Antworten auf diese Fragen und noch viel mehr finden sich in der Toolbox Umweltgerechtigkeit. Insbesondere kommunale Akteure können mit Hilfe der Toolbox schnell und praxisnah Informationen und Tipps rund um das Thema Umweltgerechtigkeit einholen.