This vademecum allows us to look at landscape in a different way. Landscape here is not considered as a static image, a picture painted by nature or designed by man. It is, instead, considered as the temporary result of social, economic and political movements, as a snapshot in the continuous interaction between patterns of human occupation and natural processes. Does this ‘deromanticize’ the landscape? Not necessarily, since images of the landscape can still please the eye. We only acquire another understanding of the origin, of the reason for this esthetic appeal. And it becomes clear that this seduction — unlike that of a painted landscape — is by definition not static, not permanent. This vademecum is an inspiration to see, to understand the landscape as the enjoyable product of constantly changing processes and machinations, of good intentions and careless acts, of pointed interventions and ‘laissezfaire’. Moreover, it forces us to reconsider our definition of landscape. And thus it is also a handbook, a genuine ‘go with me’ that can help designers find inspiration in this dynamic way of looking and understanding for their continuous work on designing and redesigning the landscape.
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Due to a recent law from the Dutch cabinet (Actieplan Ammoniak) it is recently possible for pig farmers to sell their business to the state. In the Province of North Brabant, more than 300 farmers have subscribed for this rule, which means that many of the barns and farms will lose their purpose and will become empty. What to do with all these built elements? But more importantly, what will be the effects on the countryside and what will happen to the identity of the landscape around? From March until June 2020, eight first year Architecture and Landscape Architecture students of the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam have been working on a design proposal for a former pig farm. All design proposals include an integral and sustainable vision for both the farm and farmlands surrounding the farm.
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Understanding how horses interact with landscapes is key to designing environments that support welfare and biodiversity. Yet, little is known about how domestic horses use specific elements within a landscape. This study examined the behavioral interactions of seven Swedish warmblood mares (1–3 years old) with naturally occurring landscape features in the Kumlan Nature Reserve (Sweden) during July and August 2021. HoofStep® sensors continuously recorded equine behaviors, categorized as highly active, active, resting, or eating. Manly Selection Ratios (MSRs) were used to assess landscape feature selection (LFS) relative to availability. A generalized linear model (Gamma distribution, log link) tested the effects of horse, behavior, landscape feature, time of day, temperature, rainfall, and month on LFS. Significant main effects included horse, landscape feature, month, rainfall, and temperature (p < .001). Two-way interactions showed that behavior was linked to LFS and that selection was influenced by weather. For instance, tree rows and hedges were preferred during rainfall (Exp(B) = 1.17, p = 0.01), but avoided as temperatures rose (Exp(B) = -0.51, p < 0.001). Three-way interactions highlighted individual preferences, i.e., Horse A preferred resting on a sandbank (Exp(B) = 42.48, p < 0.05), and Horse B in a blackberry patch (Exp(B) = 25.22, p < 0.05). Horse C was active on a sandbank with vegetation (Exp(B) = 22.57, p = 0.01), while Horse D preferred the pool (Exp(B) = 90.44, p < 0.001). Findings suggest that both landscape and weather shape equine behavior, with notable individual variation. Landscape design should incorporate diverse features to meet the behavioral needs of individual horses and to support welfare and biodiversity goals.
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Urbanization around the world has taken a flight towards rapid, sometimes uncontrolled growth. Megacities expanded, whilst erasing the developable area and adjusting the existing landscape to artificial water and nature systems. This rampant expansion often leads to monotonous new neighborhoods, often dominated by high rise, or extensive urban sprawl. The financial benefits often dominate the quality of the development. These widespread practices of urban development are hard to modify, to the detriment of sustainability. In this chapter the state of the art of urban development in Sydney and its associated problems are described first. An alternative approach, to take the landscape as the starting point of urbanization is then proposed, before conclusions are drawn.
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BackgroundThis research study applied the 'Integrated Energy Landscape Approach and the Ecosystem Services Framework' to formulate a pre-proposal for a Positive Energy District in the Hoogkerk Zuid neighborhood in Groningen, the Netherlands.ResultsThe proposed energy saving and energy generation interventions are sufficient to cover the energy usage of the district, while an energy surplus is generated. The pre-proposal has been developed within a participatory process, organized by the authors in close collaboration with key local stakeholders. The identification of local ecosystem services served as a crucial starting point for this study, while it also served for the basis for analysing the subsequent trade-offs and synergies derived from the proposed energy transition interventions. Then, a sustainable business case model was developed based on this Positive Energy District pre-proposal. The main outcome of the model lies in the value creation through cost savings from not using traditional energy sources and selling electricity to the grid. In addition, the economic value of the preserved ecosystem services and of the synergies generated by the pre-proposal are also included in the model.ConclusionsBeyond the local case, the results lay the groundwork for more systematic studies on merging the methodologies of Positive Energy District development, the Ecosystem Framework and the Integrated Energy Landscape approach. Finally, by adding the benefits of ecosystem services and synergies as a significant contributor in the financial analysis and decision-making process, this study opens the door to a new approach to the evaluation of sustainable projects.
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This research study applied the Integrated Energy Landscape Approach and the Ecosystem Services Framework in order to formulate a pre-proposal for a Positive Energy District in the Hoogkerk Zuid neighborhood in Groningen, the Netherlands. The proposed interventions are sufficient to cover the energy usage of the district, while an energy surplus is generated. The pre-proposal has been developed within a participatory process, organized by the authors in close collaboration with key local stakeholders. The identification of the local ecosystem services served as a crucial starting point for this study, while it also provided the transparent information base for analyzing the subsequent trade-offs and synergies derived by the proposed energy transition interventions. Then, a sustainable business case model has been developed based on this Positive Energy District pre-proposal. The main outcome of the model lies within the value creation through cost savings from foregoing traditional energy sources and sale of electricity to the grid, but also through including the economic value of ecosystem services and synergies when integrating the Renewable Energy Technologies. Beyond the local case, the findings lay the groundwork for more systematic studies on merging the methodologies of Positive Energy District development, the Ecosystem Framework and the Integrated Energy Landscape approach. Finally, by adding the benefits of ecosystem services and synergies as a significant contributor in the financial analysis and decision making process, this study opens the door for a new approach of valuing sustainable projects.
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This text reflects on the recent Landscape Makers Congress co-organised by Studio Inscape as a design intervention seeking to re-politicise the South-Western Delta region (SWD) of the Netherlands. Like many coastal regions around the world, the Dutch coast (including the SWD) is facing serious challenges from climate change. In the SWD, these challenges are taken up and politicised through the memory of a flood disaster that devastated the region in 1953. On the one hand, the legacy of this flood, which includes the coastal engineering structures of the Delta Works, makes the consequences of climate change salient to the region’s inhabitants. Frequently, inhabitants voice frustration with the impression that their concerns are not taken seriously enough and not translated into concrete political actions. On the other hand, the same legacy also silences debates and considerations on alternative ways of responding to the many challenges of the changing climate, restricting the scope of discussions to narrow anthropocentric narratives of the ‘threat’ of water and the ‘war’ between the Dutch and the sea. Using interactive theatre, the Landscape Makers Congress invited more than 100 regional inhabitants, policymakers, water engineers and representatives of environmental NGOs to consider the future of the landscape in the SWD from a range of different perspectives. During the day, participants represented one out of several more-than-human ‘landscape makers’ in a fictional parliament and engaged in debates on several key dilemmas and different spatial strategies, situated in different periods in the future (2030, 2050 and 2100). As the day progressed, the ‘parliament’ bore witness to some of the consequences of climate change as well as the consequences of the decisions they made themselves. Through plenary discussions, workshops and interventions during the day, the audience was engaged in discussions on some different futures that might be possible in the SWD and on whose values and interests should or should not be part of the process of constructing these futures. Based on our experiences on the day and activities in the region more generally, some reflections are offered on the different concepts and strategies operationalised in the Landscape Makers Congress: its playful use of multifocality, its dramatisation of temporality and its staging of a particular experience of politics. Thus, this text offers some reflections on community engagement using design-based methodologies in the context of politicised (and the politicisation of) environments.
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Festivals are nowadays a cultural, social, and economic force to be reckoned with. This study will offer an overview of the Dutch festival landscape, which has been lacking. There are commercial initiatives that target only a portion of the festival sector, and there are specific branch organisations or cultural funds that only cover the data of their members, for instance the Netherlands Film Fund reports on ten major Dutch film festivals in their annual Film Facts & Figures of the Netherlands. National institutes such as Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) also lack substantial data on Dutch festivals.
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Coastal dunes are challenging to manage due to their dynamic nature, vulnerable ecosystems, and recreational demand. A limited management approach was studied at Jockey's Ridge, the largest active dune on the US Atlantic coast. Visitor experience data, digital elevation models, and informal stories and photos were integrated in a case study approach. Data revealed the value of an integrated management approach that preserved the dune as a unique "living" geomorphological feature with interventions limited to the park borders. The accessibility of the dune to visitors facilitated intense, enjoyable interactions with nature. Elevation data show that the management approach has maintained the dune's unique naturally dynamic character, revealing the benefits of preserving processes rather than features.
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In this paper the Feltscaping-method is described, its characteristics and requirements, and some examples of how it was used and further developed. In doing so this paper aims at embedding feltscaping into the existing discourse of arts-based research. Furthermore, it will reflect on possibilities for further development of the Feltscaping method.The development of the method started seven years ago, as Cora Jongsma as a way of delving into the different layers of the landscape connected with the landscape. The product of this process is a feltscape, a representation of the landscape made up of several layers of wool that tells a story about a specific area. The layering in the feltscape, in the beginning, was purely the result of interaction between the creative process, conversations with land users, landscape research and visual experience, drawing a parallel to the formation process of the landscape. Starting as a personal search of the artist on how to connect the feltscapes to the landscape, after a few years, developed into an instrument to stimulate good conversation with people that in one way or another are connected to the landscape. In this way, feltscapes enable the researcher to test and exchange own sensory perceptions and to extent existing knowledge or questions about the landscape by eliciting social interactions.
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