Memory of a Landscape – A Constituent of Regional Identity and Planning? - Landscape Modelling: Geographical Space, Transformation and Future Scenarios - page 111

elements and in the landscape as a whole. Specific driving forces (proximate and
underlying causes, according to Mather, 2006) may put these aspects of landscape
elements into contradiction, thereby diminishing their mutual harmony. If this con-
tradiction between the landscape elements exists in the landscape to a great extent
(i.e. in terms of intensity or area) or if it affects a significant number of landscape
elements or if it affects the key elements (the dominant landscape features), we can
say that the landscape is beginning to tell another story.
The notion of the loss of landscape memory means the absence of certain type(s)
of landscape element or the loss of their ability to bear some of the original five
components of landscape memory. However, the memory of the landscape as such
is not lost. The narrative capacity of the landscape continues to exist but the story
that the landscape has told about itself so far is beginning to blur or a new story is
emerging. In fact, these landscape elements (or their traces in the landscape) often
remain physically in place and only some of the other four components of landscape
memory perish or are transformed into a contradictory form. Landscape memory is
similar to human memory. If we do not recollect, recall, or re-live our previous
experiences, they are left abandoned in our subconscious mind until another intense
experience brings them back. Landscape memory as a capacity does not perish.
But the stories the landscape tells may be transferred into some kind of “landscape
subconsciousness”. However, they are not lost forever; they can be retrieved and
recalled from there.
The essence of optimum landscape planning (Antrop, 2005) should be in the
reflection of the context of historical development. This is not a call for us to trans-
pose a historical condition of the landscape to the present day. It is an assessment
of the results of interpretations of the landscape of the past in terms of sustainabil-
ity and multifunctionality (Potschin & Haines-Young, 2003). Both the coherence of
individual landscape narratives between each other and the narratives themselves
in time are the co-bearers of landscape identity. Landscape identity is created by
the observer (the reader of landscape stories) with their approach, through the per-
ception of the landscape on the basis of both individual (ontological) and collective
(historical) experience. Disparities in these experiences (e.g. new settlers in a for-
merly depopulated area) weaken regional identity (Bicík et al., 2001; Palang et al.,
2005; Henige, 2007). The co-bearers of this identity were forced out of the land-
scape. A connection between the interpretations of landscape history and regional
identity may be, for instance, a landscape character that can be articulated as a visual
quality or landscape aesthetics (Nohl, 2001; Lothian, 1999).
Acknowledgements The research presented was supported by the research project of the Ministry
of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic (No. 1J 008/04-DP1) and project Czech
Borderland after Schengen: a Distinct, Oscillating and/or Transit Area? (No. IAA311230901)
supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic.
Notes
1. Sudets (Sudetenland) - from now on to be understood as the area with a pre-war prevalence of
German population situated in the border or near-to-border areas of the country.