Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
addition to the planning agenda. The process of
identifying and designating valued landscapes for
protection has continued throughout the twentieth
century, but the rapid growth of recreation and
tourism in the Western world since the 1960s has
increasingly focused attention on landscape as a
leisure resource, and on the potential conflicts
between landscape protection and its leisure use.
Also, processes of globalisation have both spread and
accelerated landscape change worldwide, and
increased the perceived urgency for action to
conserve on a world scale.
In response, policy-related landscape research
has developed rapidly since 1960. Policy makers
and researchers were confronted with three major
policy areas that not only presented many practical
problems to decision makers but also raised a host
of difficult research questions for the academics.
These policy areas were:
1
The rationale for the designation and
management of protected landscapes.
2
The planning and management of
recreational and tourist use of landscapes.
3
The regulation of man-induced landscape
change.
In the simplest terms, the policy makers and
landscape managers needed to know which
landscapes were the 'best', the 'most preferred' or
'most desired', so that landscapes could be designated
for protection and shielded from undesirable change.
Planners perceived a need to select, improve and
create landscapes suitable for leisure use, and at the
same time to protect landscapes from recreational
impacts. In practice, many landscape designations
were made and implemented under the existing
systems (Box 16.1) before rigorous research on
landscape values was available.
