ABSTRACT

An international multi-disciplinary project entitled ‘Protecting Historical Cultural Landscapes to Strengthen Regional Identities and Local Economies’ (Cultural Landscapes), was developed between 2006 and 2009 within the European Union Interreg IIIB CADSES programme on cultural landscapes. This project involved 11 partners from 5 countries from central and eastern Europe, namely Poland, Austria, Germany, Romania and the Ukraine and aimed at the feasibility of extending its research and educational-training methodology of best practice on cultural landscapes across a much wider area. The primary function was that of developing best examples of the implementation of the European Landscape Convention in practice. In addition, the secondary function was to provide a source of advisory information for future interdisciplinary projects.

In the scope of the project management the original scientific concept ‘before design and designing social approaches’ was used to establish a research framework on the basis of the evaluation of several other projects. One of the main project results was the international catalogue of selected cultural landscape elements with a glossary of key terms. This approach involved a systematic mapping key (see section 3.4) on a register of iconic landscape elements based on a thorough survey of the cultural elements.

Communication inside and outside the project is very important for an efficient and effective running of the international project. The project website and the newsletters were the main form of information dissemination to those outside the project.

KEY WORDS

Cultural landscapes, central/eastern Europe, international catalogue

INTRODUCTION

Cultural landscapes have been shaped through evolving local and regional land use and, in turn, contribute towards shaping regional and local identity since they reflect the history and coexistence of people, the environment and nature. One of the most important factors of all landscapes is the way in which they have constantly evolved, a feature that must be both celebrated yet viewed with caution since, taking into consideration a conscious impact of humankind on the process of creating them, the rate of evolution in current and future times could lead to the elimination of their character, leading to a greater degree of unification and subsequent loss of diversity. In many areas it is evident how humankind has interfered with the environment to create a landscape that is both unique, regionally indicative and something that should be conserved wherever possible.