Climb a mountain and experience the landscape. Try to grasp its holistic nature. Do not climb alone, but with others and share your experience. Be sure the ways of seeing the landscape will be very different. We experience the landscape with all senses as a complex, dynamic and hierarchically structured whole. The landscape is tangible out there and simultaneously a mental reality. Several perspectives are obvious because of language, culture and background. Many disciplines developed to study the landscape focussing on specific interest groups and applications. Gradually the holistic way of seeing became lost. This book explores the different perspectives on the landscape in relation to its holistic nature. We start from its multiple linguistic meanings and a comprehensive overview of the development of landscape research from its geographical origins to the wide variety of today’s specialised disciplines and interest groups. Understanding the different perspectives on the landscapes and bringing them together is essential in transdisciplinary approaches where the landscape is the integrating concept.

This book explores the relationship between the sciences of representation and the strategy of landscape valorisation. The topic is connected to the theme of the image of the city, which is extended to the territory scale and applied to case studies in Italy’s Umbria region, where the goal is to strike a dynamic balance between cultural heritage and nature. The studies demonstrate how landscape represents an interpretive process of finding meaning, a product of the relationships between mankind and the places in which it lives. The work proceeds from the assumption that it is possible to describe these connections between environment, territory and landscape by applying the Vitruvian triad, composed of Firmitas (solidity), Utilitas (utility) and Venustas(beauty). The environment, the sum of the conditions that influence all life, represents the place’s solidity, because it guarantees its survival. In turn, territory is connected to utility, and through its etymological meaning is linked to possession, to a domain; while landscape, as an “area perceived by people”, expresses the search for beauty in a given place, the process of critically interpreting a vision.

The book gives a fundamental representation of landscape ecology, which proves to be a young, but an interesting and very important trans-disciplinary science for the solution of environmental problems. Both the theoretical basis and practical application of landscape ecology are considered. Great value is attached to describe approaches and experiences from Germany and Central Europe, and to discuss them in an international context. The book is addressed to landscape planners, managers, conservationists and architects, to biologists and geographers, to colleges, universities, authorities, and to the general public being interested in ecological issues. Among the themes are e. g. the roots and the position of landscape ecology, problems of scale and dimension, landscape analysis, diagnosis, potentials, evaluation, change, prognosis, tools like remote sensing and information systems, spatial planning and nature conservation.

Announcing the new revised edition of the classic industry reference! Landscape Graphics is the architect’s ultimate guide to all the basic graphics techniques used in landscape design and landscape architecture. Progressing from the basics into more sophisticated techniques, this guide offers clear instruction on graphic language and the design process, the basics of drafting, lettering, freehand drawing and conceptual diagramming, perspective drawing, section elevations, and more. It also features carefully sequenced exercises, a complete file of graphic symbols for sections and perspectives, and a handy appendix of conversions and equivalents.

Urban Landscape Perspectives explores how landscape terminology can be usefully brought into the urban debate. The articles are by scholars who have a particular interest in and experience of the city project at various operative scales. They include theoretical reflections on the landscape as an eminently project-like figure. The book describes new methods and approaches dealing with the contemporary environment, whether it is from the point of view of the city or the landscape.

The aesthetics of clearcut units potentially visible from a distance can be improved by judicious design. Screening clearcuts from view or shaping them to characterize natural openings are current methods used for this purpose. Perspective plots illustrating how proposed clearcut units will look from specific off-site viewing points provide an appropriate means of evaluating how well the units meet desired visual objectives. This procedure has been automated on a desk-top computer system using digitizer, plotting peripherals, and topographic maps. The explanations, listings, and logic are included in this report.

This volume focuses on how landscape is represented in language and thought and what this reveals about the relationships of people to place and to land. -- Back cover.

There has been an increasing archaeological interest in human-animal-nature relations, where archaeology has shifted from a focus on deciphering meaning, or understanding symbols and the social construction of the landscape to an acknowledgment of how things, places, and the environment contribute with their own agencies to the shaping of relations.This means that the environment cannot be regarded as a blank space that landscape meaning is projected onto. Parallel to this, the field of environmental humanities poses the question of how to work with the intermeshing of humans and their surroundings.To allow the environment back in as an active agent of change, means that landscape archaeology can deal better with issues such as global warming, an escalating loss of biodiversity, as well as increasingly toxic environment. However, this does not leave human agency out of the equation. It is humans who reinforce the environmental challenges of today.The scholarly field of the humanities deal with questions like how is meaning attributed, what cultural factors drive human action, what role is played by ethics, how is landscape experienced emotionally, as well as how concepts derived from art, literature, and history function in such processes of meaning attribution and other cultural processes. This humanities approach is of utmost importance when dealing with climate and environmental challenges ahead and we need a new landscape archaeology that meets these challenges, but also that meets well across disciplinary boundaries. Here inspiration can be found in discussions with scholars in the emerging field of Environmental Humanities.

Perspectives on Place provides an inspiring insight into the territory of landscape photography. Using a range of historic and contemporary examples, Alexander explores the rich and diverse history of landscape photography and the many ways in which contemporary photographers engage with the landscape and their surroundings.Bridging theory and practice, this book demonstrates how mastering a variety of different photographic techniques can help you communicate ideas, explore themes, and develop more abstract concepts. With practical guidance on everything from effective composition, to managing challenging lighting conditions and working with different lenses and formats, you’ll be able to build your own varied and creative portfolio.Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and an assignment, encouraging you to explore key concepts and apply different photographic techniques to your own practice. Richly illustrated with images from some of the world’s most influential photographers, Perspectives on Place will help you to explore the visual qualities of your images and represent your surroundings more meaningfully.